Copper coin found in tank! - Turbos affected

A few days ago y noticed my turbo snails not moving at all. Yesterday I found almost all of them upside down. I didn't now what was happening as all the basic params are fine. Several days ago, I threw a party at my appartment and someone threw a copper coin into my tank (I found it today). Could this be the cause of the snails dying?? If so, what can I do? Obviously I have removed the coin. Thanks for your help!!

 

Cause of death - no doubt.

Do some big, really big water changes quick.

Get some Cuprisorb.

I also had very good luck with BioMed Poly-Pads way back when I had a major Cu emergency.

Won't hurt fish unless in really high concentration, but all your inverts are in deadly peril.

Good Luck!

 

Omard, thanks for your reply. I will be performing a water chang as soon as I get home tonight. My tank setup is fairly new, so I have no other inverts (other than snails). I'm gonna try to get some Cuprisorb, I hope I find it here in Mexico. I'm so not giving parties anymore...

 

That really sucks. What sucks worse is that with all the rock work, you have no way of knowing if there's another in there.

Good luck to you.

 

Thats a very good point, I will start looking again... thanksJustPhish

 

Good luck with your dilema....

 

Get a good copper test kit and keep testing once you put the Culpersorp in. I had a buddy, he is a member here on 3reef that had the same thing done. He threatened all that was there and it hasn't happened again.
If I ever caught someone doing that to my tank I would probably break the hand that threw it in. Anyone that doesn't have any more respect then that doesn't deserve to be in your house in the first place.
Hope you get it under control without any more loss.

 

Well, I performed a 50% water change yesterday. Before that, I noticed my yellow tang acting funny. He was swimming very fast and breathing fast. Do you think the copper coin also affected him?

 

Fish shouldn't be affected by copper. In fact, most fish stores treat their fish tanks with copper to prevent disease and parasitic infection. If your tank is fairly new and not cycled yet, it could be that the tang is being affected by high ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels.

 

Thanks amcarrig, my tank has been running for over a month now. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0. I think he might have just been stressed.