Question about copper

[SeaCilla1212]

In my ten gallon my clowns have ich I'm new to this hobby and accidentally spread it to my ten gallon. But in my ten gallon there is no coral so I was wondering can I leave the live rock in there with the copper? Or can I only have the fish in there and have to take out the live rock? I just didn't know if the copper would kill my live rock and all the beneficial bacteria on it?

 

[wdebenedettojr]

In the short answer yes you can put copper in the tank with the live rock. Copper will kill invertebrates and coral though. Live rock will act like a sponge and absorb the copper you put in the tank making it nearly impossible to ever use it in a reef tank again. Live rock can leech all the copper that it held but it will take a while for it to happen, using carbon or poly filters help absorb the copper though. My suggestion if your going to run copper as a qt situation to run bare bottom (no sand or crushed coral) and no live rock as it is kind of pointless to put live rock in copper since copper kills a lot of the good stuff. Put some PVC pieces in the tank though so the fish do have hiding spots.