• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

Will medicine hurt Corals?

J

Jenn

Whats the deal with the medicine?

I'm loking to get a used tank

so

If there was ever meds added into a tank ,filter , piping , ect
and then the tank , filter , piping , ect was cleaned,
and now you reset everything up.

Will the old remains of the meds still hurt the corals in the new setup ?
 
M

mott768

it's not so much the meds, it's the copper you have to be concerned with, if a med had copper in it and was used in the tank then you don't want to use the tank for a reef.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

lol - I was just about to post something to the effect of no worries unless there is copper.

But tom - what about running the tank with polyfiber for a few weeks?

So you have to weigh the cost of a new tank -vs the cost of an old tank and MAYBE having to buy polyfiber or other items to clean it.
 
J

Jenn

Curious to know , if can be cleaned to ride copper if was ever used

The prior tank owner maynot know or tell truth about using the meds.

or dose copper somehow stick into the glass, silicone , plactic , ect. and can't be removed and then will kill corals
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

i believe polyfiber and carbon can be used. Look - I claim not to a scientist and have never seen or done trial studies timing how long it might take for copper to leach from silicone. Best you can do is keep carbon/polyfiber on hand in a used tank if you suspect prior use of copper.

Or just buy a new tank.
 
C

calaxa

Copper occurs in trace amount in NSW. Silicone is not a great absorbent and would not have that much copper, if any. Running carbon would remove any copper that might exist in the seams. LR is a different story as it can absorb a lot of copper.
 
J

Jenn

This site is Great cause I'd trust people here as a community ;)

I'm in the works of maybe getting this other tank from a friend of a friend
and you never know
so just wanted to be safe and see if I could clean it well so I don't have problems.

I always use poly fiber and carbon in my drip tray, will continue in new set up

calaxa said:
Copper occurs in trace amount in NSW. Silicone is not a great absorbent and would not have that much copper, if any. Running carbon would remove any copper that might exist in the seams. LR is a different story as it can absorb a lot of copper.
Click to expand...
so , If copper was used with live rock , impossible to rid rocks from carbon with treatment?

If there is a mushroom toadstool growing in the tank ,
Do you think that chances are no meds were used for that to be growing ?

What do you think ?
 
C

calaxa

The problem with LR would be, it absorbed whatever amount of copper. But you will not know at what rate it will leech back out at. It could be slow which would be fine or one day it could all come out, etc. You'll never know for sure. Corals can grow fine when that leeching is tiny but one day, your whole tank could crash. You could run the carbon/poly forever but it may not be worth that risk. Also, it may suddenly leech too fast for the carbon/poly to absorb quickly enough. Too many variables when you are talking about rock. On a tank, the only time copper leeching would be a problem is probably if the silicone went entirely and all copper came out, but then, copper wouldn't be your only problem. Probably the water on the floor would be bigger issue at that point.
 
J

Jenn

calaxa ,
So you saying that the copper deteriorates the silicone and would make for a bad risk tank.
water on the floor is a very bad thing

Is it a good idea to re-silicone over existing silicone in the tank before setting it up?

Your also saying that the frog stool could exist if copper leech back slow from rocks.
They said to me no medicines... hopefully there truthful.
I guess I wouldn't put no prise corals in this tank , Just some of my leather frags to start and see what happens


Questions :

Doses Copper only hurt corals ?
or
Would old copper remains in rocks also hurt copods , biological , fish / seahorse also ?
 
C

calaxa

No...copper will not deteriote silicone. Silicone won't absorb it either. What I was saying is if the copper gets trapped between the silicone. That is the only place where there would be a big amount. If that silicone were to deteriote, it would release the copper into system. But like I said, if that happened, copper would not be the problem. The leak would be bigger issue.

Corals can exist even if the tank were medicined as the trace amount is probably negligible. Copper hurts all inverts (crabs, shrimps, pods, corals, nems, etc.) Think seashorses are sensitive too. Most fish can tolerate a lot of copper. Some exceptions like sharks, eels, rays, and a few others. Can't remember offhand but check that one.
 
J

Jenn

Thanks for clearing that up for me
I'll have to check into my friends friend system , cause I really don't need proublems

with any used tank;
Is it a good idea to re-silicone over existing silicone in the tank before setting it up?
 
mikem

mikem

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Jenn said:
Is it a good idea to re-silicone over existing silicone in the tank before setting it up?
Click to expand...

No. Silicone will not bond well to dried silicone.
 
C

calaxa

Check for leaks though. I had a used system start leaking after I had it filled with SW. Leaked in the weirdest spot though...right on top of tank along trim.
 
J

Jenn

Tank i'm thinking about is now filled , so shouldn't be leaking
I really didn't check the silicone out very well so you gave me another good idea

I'll look for salt creep, wet spots , floor water

I seen bottom bulkhead had some salt buildup around it but
I'm thinking that the bulkhead is an easy fix to reseal the bulkhead
Is that true? easy fix ?

( I noticed on my new setup that the bulkhead to my sump gets saltcreep their , but I never see any water )

Is that common occurance ?

Do tanks just go bad of old age? silicone wares out over time?
or
if maintained they will last

Sorry for all the questions ;D

Thanks
 
R

REEFLECTIONS

i'm sure it's cool... tanks last for many years, silicone lasts for a long long time.... there are still tanks functioning with slate bottoms and steel frames, if it's holding water now it's fine. just don't go poking and picking at the silicone when you get it. if you look for a problem long enough you're bound to create one. get the tank, do a test fill... watch wait.... empty and then get some salt water in there.... compared to the number of tanks that are out there.... very very few ever leak.
 
J

Jenn

Hearing that from you makes me feel good about taking the chance with it.
I'll let you know if it works out
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top