coppersafe in reef tank!! please helppp

[egybels]

its just pretty discouraging being new to this hobby and the amounts of money i keep having to waste.

[viperfish]

Problem is copper bonds with calcium carbonate, so unless some chemist can chime in and tell you a way of separating the two I would be very hesitant to use to with corals or inverts.

[MikeInToronto]

Originally Posted by egybels

its just pretty discouraging being new to this hobby and the amounts of money i keep having to waste.

To put things into perspective, you will likely buy a number of coral pieces at say, $40 a piece, and you will likely lose a few of them over the course of a year; maybe some fishes. This loss is probably equivalent to the cost of replacing the LR. This hobby is expensive and although it sucks to waste any money, you will find redoing your LR isn't a big deal in the grand scheme. You might even find deals in the classifieds.

For me, I'd also replace the tank after adding copper but there is debate about whether copper really does stick to glass and silicone sealant.

Edit: I speaking about coral loses in an untreated tank, i.e.: losses you'd have regardless of whether there was copper in the tank.

[intarsiabox]

If you don't want to replace everything you can just leave it as a FOWLR set up (I thought that was your plan as this post is in the FOWL section). There are many beautiful fish out there that can make a nice display by themselves without corals (and it won't cost you an arm and a leg for coral, suppliments, reactors, etc.) Some of those fish can't be kept with corals anyway. I personally would love to set a FOWLR tank with some sort of trigger fish but don't have the space right now.

[Zoaelite]

... Ouch, well if it makes you feel any better when I first started I wiped my biocube and all the inhabitants by adding to much sugar trying to dose a carbon source.

Live and learn, its an expensive hobby and you are taking care of living organisms so always do your research. Mind you that is kind of misleading "Copper safe" . I would chuck the rock if I were you, it might be more expensive but its just not worth the worry.
Levi

[MikeInToronto]

Originally Posted by intarsiabox

If you don't want to replace everything you can just leave it as a FOWLR set up (I thought that was your plan as this post is in the FOWL section).

Unfortunately, I think the tank would be FOWR (fish only with rock) because the copper will not let anything really live on it to keep it "live".

[egybels]

thanks for the input from everyone. sorry i posted in the wrong section. i was in a rush to get some input.

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by MikeInToronto

Unfortunately, I think the tank would be FOWR (fish only with rock) because the copper will not let anything really live on it to keep it "live".

True, but all I was getting at is that one can still have a nice display with only fish and rock. The rock will leach copper forever now though so the choice is to either throw it out or set up a "FOWR" tank. Tough choice! I looked on wetwebmedia and it sounds like the tank should still be okay to use as a reef tank if you choose. Bob Fenner even mentions several times that copper is used a preservative in a lot of marine foods with no ill effects just as a point of interest.

[mark]

how much coppersafe was added?

[egybels]

around 18 caps as recommended.