Copper has made this hobby possible. AT least the fish part of it anyways.
I have been in and out of this hobby since 1984 and if there is one persistent problem for everyone it has been marine ich. Countless times I have heard, "ya I tried a saltwater tank but I could never keep the fish alive so I gave up on it". My guess is 80 percent of these give ups were due to marine ich.
With today's chelated and better yet organically bonded coppers there is simply no reason for this to still be happening; but it is.
Back in the day when free coppers were used most of the things you still here today about the use of copper were true. It would absorb easily into substrate and rock and stick to pretty much everything in the tank, making the system unsuitable for future invert placement. It would kill bio filters. It would kill copper sensitive species. It would act as a herbicide killing off algea and making a mess.
Today with the use of chelated copper most of these things are not true and with the use of organically bonded copper none of them are true.
The attitude persist due to the misuse of the product. In the case of organically bonded coppers there are a few misconceptions.
Examples;
"I used it and it killed my bio filter and now I have ammonia".
Fact is organically bonded copper will give a false reading on most liquid test kits, which leads to the next problem.
'I used it and all my fish died or they are not eating and look close to death'. "Copper is just to harsh to use".
The false ammonia reading has lead to the use of ammonia detoxfiers which has freed the copper and now is overdosed. UV sterilizers and other additives the hobbyist may be prone to use while treating ick will do the same thing.
The next common problem is accidental overdose. Lets face it guys who the hell can really read those color charts that come with copper test kits they sell with any degree of accuracy. Not me. Some of the charts I have from the same manufacture don't even match color from chart to chart.
The answer to this is simple. For example the organically bonded copper I use gives the recommended dosage of .5 when four drops are added to one gal of water. I simply take a quarter gal of ro/di and add one drop and test it. I then take water from the system I am treating and test that. These colors need to match and you can forget about the useless color chart.
The next thing and one I often here is "Well I used copper in this system I guess it can never be a reef".
This is also untrue of today's organic coppers. Provided the system was not overdosed or the copper was not freed with the use of the things I stated above it can be removed with a combination of water changes carbon and polyfiter. The low levels of copper that may be released from substrait or rock can be copped with with the continued use of polyfilter or carbon. After 3 months you could most likely do without the use of either if so desired. Truth of the matter is you probably add copper every time you feed. It is a ingredient in most fish food. However I never here anyone say, "never feed your fish; its just to hard on them".
Of course do not copper treat systems with live rock or inverts in them but for FO tanks with just base rock, coral inserts etc. treating the whole system is probably the best way to go. Down the road it can be successfully turned into a reef if so desired and I have done this on more than a few tanks.
Most likely this hobby would not exist if it were not for the use of copper. Most every whole seller uses it. So that copper sensitive species you are being told not to cure with copper has most likely already been copper treated and parasites reinfected in the LFS system that the LFS is to lazy or cheap to maintain proper copper levels in.
IMO telling people not to save the lives of these fish with copper is like telling a new mother not to get the child a polio vaccination. But for some reason it is the trend in this hobby these days.
I have been in and out of this hobby since 1984 and if there is one persistent problem for everyone it has been marine ich. Countless times I have heard, "ya I tried a saltwater tank but I could never keep the fish alive so I gave up on it". My guess is 80 percent of these give ups were due to marine ich.
With today's chelated and better yet organically bonded coppers there is simply no reason for this to still be happening; but it is.
Back in the day when free coppers were used most of the things you still here today about the use of copper were true. It would absorb easily into substrate and rock and stick to pretty much everything in the tank, making the system unsuitable for future invert placement. It would kill bio filters. It would kill copper sensitive species. It would act as a herbicide killing off algea and making a mess.
Today with the use of chelated copper most of these things are not true and with the use of organically bonded copper none of them are true.
The attitude persist due to the misuse of the product. In the case of organically bonded coppers there are a few misconceptions.
Examples;
"I used it and it killed my bio filter and now I have ammonia".
Fact is organically bonded copper will give a false reading on most liquid test kits, which leads to the next problem.
'I used it and all my fish died or they are not eating and look close to death'. "Copper is just to harsh to use".
The false ammonia reading has lead to the use of ammonia detoxfiers which has freed the copper and now is overdosed. UV sterilizers and other additives the hobbyist may be prone to use while treating ick will do the same thing.
The next common problem is accidental overdose. Lets face it guys who the hell can really read those color charts that come with copper test kits they sell with any degree of accuracy. Not me. Some of the charts I have from the same manufacture don't even match color from chart to chart.
The answer to this is simple. For example the organically bonded copper I use gives the recommended dosage of .5 when four drops are added to one gal of water. I simply take a quarter gal of ro/di and add one drop and test it. I then take water from the system I am treating and test that. These colors need to match and you can forget about the useless color chart.
The next thing and one I often here is "Well I used copper in this system I guess it can never be a reef".
This is also untrue of today's organic coppers. Provided the system was not overdosed or the copper was not freed with the use of the things I stated above it can be removed with a combination of water changes carbon and polyfiter. The low levels of copper that may be released from substrait or rock can be copped with with the continued use of polyfilter or carbon. After 3 months you could most likely do without the use of either if so desired. Truth of the matter is you probably add copper every time you feed. It is a ingredient in most fish food. However I never here anyone say, "never feed your fish; its just to hard on them".
Of course do not copper treat systems with live rock or inverts in them but for FO tanks with just base rock, coral inserts etc. treating the whole system is probably the best way to go. Down the road it can be successfully turned into a reef if so desired and I have done this on more than a few tanks.
Most likely this hobby would not exist if it were not for the use of copper. Most every whole seller uses it. So that copper sensitive species you are being told not to cure with copper has most likely already been copper treated and parasites reinfected in the LFS system that the LFS is to lazy or cheap to maintain proper copper levels in.
IMO telling people not to save the lives of these fish with copper is like telling a new mother not to get the child a polio vaccination. But for some reason it is the trend in this hobby these days.
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