hospital tank safe for reef?

[skimmerman100]

i have a hospital system for fish which is a 30 long devided for multiple fish treating, i do dose it with copper and the system has a sump, and a skimmer. i was wondering if it would be safe to wash the tank out and skimmer and use it for a reef tank? im not sure, if it is possible what can i use to wash it? can i use bleach to wash? i use bleach to wash the filter socks and havent had a problem so i figured i would be able to use it to wash the tank, and let it air dry

 

[prattreef]

The common wisdom is that the silicone in the tank seals absorbs and then leeches out the copper thus making it unusable for a reef. Personally, this has never made any sense to me whatsoever and there is no real evidence other than anecdotal to support this concern. How much copper can possibly be absorbed by the silicone and if it does and can then release it, how can this happen at levels of concern to us for long periods of time? It is not like the copper is in an unlimited supply. At worst, you should be able to fill the tank with salt water, wait a few weeks and let the copper leech out, remove the water and then there should be no issue. I have no proof either way, but this always struck me as Myth-information.

 

[dubs]

skimmerman clean it let dry and fill it throw 2or3 hermith and snail in it if they make it then ur safe to try coral if they die than ur best bet is to get new tank some times people on here give away tanks that size for free or dirt cheap

 

[armani4o3]

you should have no problem i had a 20l that i used for a qt tank all the seals are blue from ick meds and i have now set it up and its full of lr and coral lps soft and sps and 2 fish and nothing is dead i think thats a old wives tale that the seal will hold the copper

 

[Bob 1000]

Some of my live rocks that are in my 300 were used with copper I don't know how much copper was actually used but when getting the rocks and my rocks ready for the new setup the poly pad turned blue.. As for silicone I took it all out maybe some small lines are still there but 99.9% of it is gone, the bottom of the tank is plastic so draw your own conclusion from this story... Oh yeah I have delicate sps and a very expensive collection of inverts that are doing well. Poly pads is all I have to say......

 

[skimmerman100]

i dont care about the taank really, what i care about is using the skimmer. i can get a new tank but the skimmer is a 200 euroreef skimmer

 

[bad coffee]

Just run a polly pad for the first few months. If there's copper, the pad will turn a certain color. It's been a while since I used the polypads, but they worked great when I did.

B

 

[Bob 1000]

i dont care about the taank really, what i care about is using the skimmer. i can get a new tank but the skimmer is a 200 euroreef skimmer

POLY PAD,,,lol..

 

[skimmerman100]

so run a poly pad? where do i get it from?