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From Fish Only Tank to Reef

K

kados33

Hello all. I am new to the club and have been reading hours and hours of posts over the last couplke of months. I hope my tank can be as good as some of the tanks I have seen here.

I have a question perhaps you all can assist with.

I currently have 90 Gallon RR fish only tank and a 46 gallon bowfront reef tank with lots of live rock and a few soft corals and a Carpet Anemone. The FO tank has been solid since I set it up this past summer. Then my hippo got ich. Before a couple of days my Powder Blue and Sailfin Tang also had ich. After doing lots of research I realized I should treat all of the fish at once. (Hippo, Powder Blue, Sailfin Tang, Pair of Oscellaris.

I didnt want to cramp all of these fish in a 10 Gallon QT tank so I treated the 90 Gallon with Cupramine. This was a couple of days ago. It was bad timing since I planned on moving the live rock and corals to my 90 gallon and just keeping one tank.

My question is will it ever be safe to move the live rock and corals to the 90 Gallon (after water changes and Carbon to remove the copper product)? Any help would be great.
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Copper is a poison to algae, bacteria and inverts. Once the fish have finished their treatment, I’d move them to the 46. Then I’d knock down the 90 and toss anything that was in there….sand and rock. Clean the tank and all components (heater, pumps, etc), with vinegar and rinse well. Refill the tank and go from there. You will probably read some posts that state that once a tank has been treated with copper, it’s now contaminated, but that’s hogwash. Copper does not bind to glass or silicone, so a good cleaning with a mild acid will make it good as new.
 
K

kados33

Great. Thank you for the advice.

I have one more treatment. The bottle states to repeat dosage after 48 hours. I hope to post some pics this weeks.
 
Nickjr000

Nickjr000

redfishbluefish said:
Copper is a poison to algae, bacteria and inverts. Once the fish have finished their treatment, I’d move them to the 46. Then I’d knock down the 90 and toss anything that was in there….sand and rock. Clean the tank and all components (heater, pumps, etc), with vinegar and rinse well. Refill the tank and go from there. You will probably read some posts that state that once a tank has been treated with copper, it’s now contaminated, but that’s hogwash. Copper does not bind to glass or silicone, so a good cleaning with a mild acid will make it good as new.
Click to expand...

I agree. Clean everything with vinegar and start from scratch to be safe. You'll be fine
 
K

kados33

Is it ok to run the proetein skimmer while treating with Cupramine? I had it off but I'm worried the ammonia levels will rise.
 
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