Question about used tanks.

I purchased my 58 gal. tank off Craigslist. The silicone all looked great and not dyed by Ick meds. However, after browsing through the forums, I realize that I may have overlooked something. I did not ask the former owner if he ever used any copper based medication in the tank.

As my tank has been up for three weeks now, I wonder if I made a mistake. What happens if copper had been used in the tank? I realize that inverts are very sensitive to copper, but once it has been used, is the tank no longer suitable to ever be used for SW again?

 

Do you have any inverts in there yet?

 

No I don't.

 

I take that back. I do have one snail crusin' around. He came in on a piece of lr from my neighbour.

 

You should be fine, But I would test that water that you have in there now and if you have nothing register then In my opinion I would say your OK. Also a little filtrating help with something like bio chem zorb, A pura pad, or pura complete will help out. It matters how your setup is. I use Pura Pads and Pura complete or chemi pure in all my systems and it seems to help out a lot. And they all pull out heavy metals especially the pura products. it is just what works for me.

 

maybe a copper pillow?

HI,
I had a pillow that removed cu or copper from the water it could be re-used after activation by muritic acid.
Maybe as a precaution put one in the water flow behind a filter pad and watch for color change. I think it was made by seachem.about 10bucks.
it removes many heavy metals it may be a good idea with all the poopy pumps floating around that may add free metals to your water. not to mention your lights can corrode pretty quick..
Doug



psps some people say that the act of using Kalkwauseer may help precip out heavy metals into another salt less harmful although i have had some problems with KH useing Kalk.. it really shock a system..