My copper experience and question

Cub21rak

New member
Hey all
So my tanks been set up close to two months. 75 gal reef, or attempting to do a reef.
When I set it up I went to home depot to find the right fittings to connec the return pump to the tank. Found what I needed and went home and hooked her up. Last month my corals and bta was starting to not look so good. I couldn't figure it out. Was thinking some weren't happy with lighting maybe it was flow. So I moved around several of the pieces with no luck. Worst of them was the zoas. They were shrinking and shriveling away. I was very upset with that. Lunacris had come over and seen on my return fitting I used a metal piece. Suggested I take it out of the link. I didn't do it right away and then as the corals weren't looking good he point out that my metal brass fitting contains copper! Crud! So I quickly pulled it and found the correct plastic fitting at menards. Then exotic aquatics in highland had so gravel substance he called metal out. Said that I days the stuff will take the metal out of the tank. He tested and confirmed copper before adding metal out then with using it and doing a 40 gal water change he said the test showed no copper. Yay! So for the past 2-3 weeks my corals are finally coming back to life and Im super happy. The zoas are starting to open again and show some color.

Now question- I wonder if months or year down the line if my corals really come to life and Size would it be safe if I were to want to sel/trade/give away any of these corals? Is it now a non issue? Of I were to do anything with these corals would it be best to tell the person that at one time the tank had some copper in it but now is test with non showing? Would this also be a bad mark on this tank if I were to ever want to sell it?

Thank you for taking the time to read through this LONG posting
 
Honesty is best policy alot of people have some really beautiful tanks and we all know how much work it is like i said before theres always a chance if it bleed in ypur rock subtrate to later come out and just cause it doesnt show in a test doesnt meen its not present. with that said continue to monitor you stuff and one day at a time alot of views on this and hopefully the real experts here will chime in wish much lick to you bud
 
It should be fine. After Kent Marine's carbon leached copper into my tank, all it took was a water change and some poly filters to get it out. I don't know if we had relatively similar amounts of copper or not, but your corals and whatnot, rock, sand, everything will be copper free. Copper isn't ionic in brass or willing to bond easily with other substances, hence why it takes gobs of heat and energy to get copper into brass, etc. It also won't stick to glass, acrylic, or silicone.
 
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