CU contaimination!! Can I save my LR?

As the title says, I have had my tank up for 2 months. I heard that once a tank is contaminated with CU that LR is pretty much no good. Can I reuse LR if I nuke it?

Thanks

 

No. No amount of cleaning will remove heavy metal contamination. You have three options: 1. Run heavy ozone to break down the copper. 2. Let it leach out and remove it over time with water changes and no stock. 3. Toss set up.

 

Or use it in a FOWLR type tank with no inverts/corals. It can still act as good filtration in such a tank, and will not harm the fish.

 

How did the copper get into the tank?

 

Run Cuprisorb

Seachem. CupriSorb

 

I just got 25lbs of coppered rock and put it in a QT tank and used cuprisorb pouches and poly-filters (brand name) along with water changes to remove the copper from my rocks. Now the rocks are in my display tank without issues. I know for a fact it is possible to remove the copper. The poly-filters will change to a blue color if they are absorbing copper. So run the rocks in a tank with a canister filter with carbon, cuprisorb and poly-filters. Once the poly filters stop turning blue, you should be ok. Test with a snail because they are said to be the most intolerant to copper.

 

I beg to differ Packleader... Just about ever # of rock in my 180 reef along with most of the sand has seen copper treatments TWICE!! It is now a full fledged reef... If you don't believe me ask Horkn, he just saw it the other day!

Copper is still misunderstood, just like T5... T5 can't penetrate deep tanks...Copper stays in rock/sand/silicone forever...

When I treated my old 125 I took out the inverts I had and the few corals that were in there. I treated the tank. I then did a couple 30-40 gal water changes in a couple days. I then ran cuprisorb in the tank.

After a week of 0 readings on my copper test I put the inverts back in and viola! No copper poisoning!!
The rock will be fine....

 

My rocks are fine now after I used coppersafe in my tank. Cuprisorb and ozone made my rocks good. They are showing new growth of coralline now too.

 

coppersafe is a medicine to fight infections not a Cu remover. Look into polyfilter pads. Poly Filter
I used this and in about 4 days my Cu went from .5 to 0.0. This also filters at 40 parts per billion. Excellent filtration pad.

 

Coppersafe isn't really effective in marine envirns as it is chelated copper, you need to use IONIC in salt water to be effective.. Ionic copper breaks down quickly which is a good thing... Esp when we want to remove it...

Just FYI