Copper in Rock

[MitchellB]

I have had some rock sitting in a Q tank that has had copper in it.

What can I do to place that rock in my show tank? Is it now a peice of "NON REEF" live rock now?

Will the copper ever disapear?

 

[Anonymous]

the answer is that any copper in the rock will probably leach into the water column as copper in the water column goes below the copper concentration that originally got the copper in the rock.

With active plant life growth and the harvesting of that plant life, the copper in the rock will be exported from the system.

If you have algae growing on that rock and snails eating the algae from the rock you should get a good indication of how dangerous the rocks is. If the snails are healthy and growing, there is probably no dangerous levels of copper in the algae they are eating. And therefore no dangerous levels of copper in the rock.

 

[Anonymous]

I have had some rock sitting in a Q tank that has had copper in it.

What can I do to place that rock in my show tank? Is it now a peice of "NON REEF" live rock now?

Will the copper ever disapear?

Considering the corals that you may purchase could be extremely expensive, I would refrain from putting a copper based "live rock" anywhere near my tank.

You can put all the live plants you want in the tank, but knowing that you have a source of copper in your water is far better than trying to suck it out with plant life. :roll:

If you follow beaslbob's posts, you will see that this is NOT the norm, and is extremely dangerous, and costly way of reefkeeping.

~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

Suffice it to say that knowingly placing copper into your reef tank is never a good idea.

 

[ricky1414]

the answer is that any copper in the rock will probably leach into the water column as copper in the water column goes below the copper concentration that originally got the copper in the rock.

With active plant life growth and the harvesting of that plant life, the copper in the rock will be exported from the system.

If you have algae growing on that rock and snails eating the algae from the rock you should get a good indication of how dangerous the rocks is. If the snails are healthy and growing, there is probably no dangerous levels of copper in the algae they are eating. And therefore no dangerous levels of copper in the rock.

Was it Borneman who said that copper levels are toxic even below what can be seen on the test kits? If so, I would say no to the rock. Too risky