Hey all, just wanted to share a personal experience.
I have a 220, 150# live rock, 2 inch sand bed, mixed reef tank. Fish, Inverts, Macros. (I have coral frags in Qt but not in yet). Anyway Its my first tank I started about 18 months ago and I started so big because I had a free tank and because everyone said to go as big as possible because you will want bigger.
(Mistake 1- Not a great idea for your first tank. lol Your mistakes are much bigger too!)
Several months ago I got ich (Mistake 2- shorted the QT on a fish) and, after days of trying I couldnt catch all the fish. I removed the inverts, got some advice from some LFS, and (being only a year into the hobby), didnt know you werent supposed to mix Cupramine and live rock. (Mistake 3)
The tank was kept at a medicinal level of cupramine for 4 weeks (because once the damage was done, might as well make sure not to short the treatment).
At the end of treatment I was told to get rid of the rock and the sand and the tank if I ever wanted anything other than fish, that the copper would be in the sand, rock, silicone, etc. That it would leech out unexpectedly and I would not be able to reintroduce inverts to the tank.
But I wanted to see what I could do with it before giving my inverts away.
I ran cuprisorb and carbon for a month and did a couple 20-30% water changes. At the end of the month my copper levels were reading 0 on both Sailfert and Seachem tests consistently. Removed cuprisorb and just let the tank be "normal" for a couple weeks, still 0, did another water change. Still 0. Started seeing amphipods in the overflows again. Reintroduced some of my inverts (a turbo snail and a few hermits). Everyone was fine. After a week of them continuing to be fine, I added back my big fighting conch, my nassarious snails, and my other turbos. All fine. Added back my peppermint shrimp, the rest of the crabs, and whatever other bristle worms and creepy crawlies that were in the sand in the seperate invert holding tank were dumped back in. 3 months later the copper level has never been identifiable on any test, i have not lost a single invert, the macros are fine, tons of amphipods hiding in the corners and all over my fuge, and my water parameters are fine so the live rock and sand are functioning well.
So total its been about 4 1/2 months since the end of the copper treatment, 1 month of "removal" time and 3 1/2-4 months of just normal tank care with my inverts crawling around doing invert things.
Im not saying everyone should go and dump cupramine in their tanks with Live Rock at the first sign of Ich! But, salvaging the tank if it is necessary (or if you are a newbie) is not impossible and may not require starting from scratch. Obviously, I will not be doing it again but just wanted to share my story!
I have a 220, 150# live rock, 2 inch sand bed, mixed reef tank. Fish, Inverts, Macros. (I have coral frags in Qt but not in yet). Anyway Its my first tank I started about 18 months ago and I started so big because I had a free tank and because everyone said to go as big as possible because you will want bigger.
(Mistake 1- Not a great idea for your first tank. lol Your mistakes are much bigger too!)
Several months ago I got ich (Mistake 2- shorted the QT on a fish) and, after days of trying I couldnt catch all the fish. I removed the inverts, got some advice from some LFS, and (being only a year into the hobby), didnt know you werent supposed to mix Cupramine and live rock. (Mistake 3)
The tank was kept at a medicinal level of cupramine for 4 weeks (because once the damage was done, might as well make sure not to short the treatment).
At the end of treatment I was told to get rid of the rock and the sand and the tank if I ever wanted anything other than fish, that the copper would be in the sand, rock, silicone, etc. That it would leech out unexpectedly and I would not be able to reintroduce inverts to the tank.
But I wanted to see what I could do with it before giving my inverts away.
I ran cuprisorb and carbon for a month and did a couple 20-30% water changes. At the end of the month my copper levels were reading 0 on both Sailfert and Seachem tests consistently. Removed cuprisorb and just let the tank be "normal" for a couple weeks, still 0, did another water change. Still 0. Started seeing amphipods in the overflows again. Reintroduced some of my inverts (a turbo snail and a few hermits). Everyone was fine. After a week of them continuing to be fine, I added back my big fighting conch, my nassarious snails, and my other turbos. All fine. Added back my peppermint shrimp, the rest of the crabs, and whatever other bristle worms and creepy crawlies that were in the sand in the seperate invert holding tank were dumped back in. 3 months later the copper level has never been identifiable on any test, i have not lost a single invert, the macros are fine, tons of amphipods hiding in the corners and all over my fuge, and my water parameters are fine so the live rock and sand are functioning well.
So total its been about 4 1/2 months since the end of the copper treatment, 1 month of "removal" time and 3 1/2-4 months of just normal tank care with my inverts crawling around doing invert things.
Im not saying everyone should go and dump cupramine in their tanks with Live Rock at the first sign of Ich! But, salvaging the tank if it is necessary (or if you are a newbie) is not impossible and may not require starting from scratch. Obviously, I will not be doing it again but just wanted to share my story!
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