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Can you get copper out of a marine pure block? (1 Viewer)

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csb123

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After my Ich outbreak I'm getting a quarantine tank up and running.
I was thinking a marine pure block sitting in my sump would make a good ready to go filter. But, if I use copper in my QT can I put it back in my sump after disinfecting it with bleach? Would it have too much residual copper that could harm my DT?
 
i wouldn't use the marine pure block in the DT sump once it was used in QT, whether with copper or other medicines, even if there was some way to neutralize the meds/copper. I'm pretty sure that bleach will do nothing to remove the copper from the block. I could be wrong and completely paranoid though.

One alternative would be an air-driven sponge filter. put a new sponge in the DT sump for a couple of months to seed, then use it in QT. after that QT cycle is over, ditch the sponge and buy a new one (cheaper than a $65 block of ceramic)

I have also read that having live rock (or analogs like marine pure) in the QT can also screw up dosing recommendations because the rock absorbs the medicine and the therapeutic concentration is harder to achieve and balance.
 
marty runs his QT 24/7, wait for him to chime in on what he uses for biological filtration and how he manages it. I think since he doesn't ever take his QT down, he doesn't have to worry about removing bio media.

I would like to hear his thoughts too on the whole "rock in a QT absorbs medicine/copper and makes it harder to balance therapeutic levels" hear-say that I mentioned.
 
A better option would be to buy a bag of ceramic rings and seed those in your sump. Set up your quarantine tank, then use that bag of biomedia you seeded. When you are done with quarantine, throw the media away and seed a new bag for the next round. That biomedia is cheap and then you won't risk of any contamination.
 
While it may be technically possible, like others have said just not worth the risk. Use cheap replaceable sponges or ceramic media.
 
I like to cycle bioballs between DT and QT (only that way) if I need to seed the QT tank. Throw some bioballs in the sump of the DT for a week (3 days min) and your good to go - add them to a hang on filter or anyplace with waterflow. Really any physical media will work, I just happen to have lots of bioballs (and a wet dry filter on my QT). I setup QT tanks on the fly so to speak (to not mix meds which are bad together or unique issues) and do this approach for all new QT tanks. I won't hesitate to bleach out a tank, I'm paranoid too!

Regarding OP original question, yea I'm sure it's possible but not worth the effort. Pickup a cheap sponge filter and run it in the DT for 3-7 days, it will go active biologically. Remember bacteria divide so from none to some takes awhile but form some to many is way quicker.
 
One thing that I didn't see - bleach won't remove copper from anything. At best, you're looking at running everything through polyfilter for heavy metals, assuming you can be sure of getting all the copper to come out of the media, which you can't. Go the sponge route, buy them six or more at a time from DrsFosterSmith (they are like 2 bucks each that way) and then LABEL the sponges in a plastic bag so if you need to treat copper in a QT, you can just reuse the sponge that was in copper before.
 
If it's damp, it "should" keep bacteria semi alive. On paper anyway. If you have the room, just an airstone in a 5G bucket with a lid will keep the bacteria growing (with water of course).
 
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