Copper

[armthehomeless]

I figured this would go under aquarium chemistry--
Inverts don't like copper . . . so my question is this:

What happens when you accidentally drop a penny in the water and leave it there . . . anything?

I would assume it would take alot of penies in a small amount of water over a long time for there to be any effect, but I don't know.

Thoughts? Anybody want to try an experiment -- or give me some extra RCS for me to conduct an experiment?

[LooksLater]

I've been curious about this, too. You're welcome to some of our RCS if you want to experiment!

[sunkenmetal]

A U.S. Penny is 97.5% Zinc and 2.5% Copper.

So if anything happen to the shrimp it would probably be the zinc...

[TexSun]

I have some pure Cu shot we use as a standard for chemical analysis. I'd be interested in doing some experimenting. What test conditions are you thinking. How would you measure the Cu ppm?

[Totenkampf]

Gee, where did this come from? LOL. I seeded my moms new betta palace with some flourite from my 75 gallon to help with a two week fishless cycle. There are Amano Shrimp in the 75 and they have been doing well. I introduced the betta along with some snowball shrimp and the shrimp were very active for a few days and then they were gone. I doubt the betta could physically eat adult male shrimp. Prefilter on the eclipse filter so they didnt go there. I asked Tim if the CU was the Culprit or was it maybe a still too immature tank? I do know that there is enough Cu on a penny to provide anti-fungal properties in a vase of water when used for fresh flowers.

[eklikewhoa]

I read an article about this a really long time ago but it was geared towards reef tanks. (more volatile in comparison to fw invert cause of the salt) and the amount of pennies needed to cause problems you would know long before.

As state above out pennies aren't completely copper.

[sunkenmetal]

get some solid copper wire.

If you want to just give away shrimp I am right here LOL

[Totenkampf]

Update - After three 50% WC since the removal of a very corroded penny (the copper plating was bubbling off in many places), dwarf shrimp are still not able to survive longer than 24 hrs. Who makes a good Cu test?

[sunkenmetal]

http://www.petco.com/product/112543/API-Copper-Aquarium-Test-Kit.aspx?CoreCat=LN_FishSupplies_TestingEquipment

[sunkenmetal]

Was the penny turning green?

[Totenkampf]

no the copper part is actually bubbling and turning black, it was possibly in my 75 gallon for 10 years since my son used to like to throw things into the tank for fun when he was a baby

[sunkenmetal]

I like to throw things into my tanks lol Algae wafers lol

[Totenkampf]

he did that too, about 40$ worth. my ancistrus looked like blowfish but lived

[sunkenmetal]

LOL sometimes I miss.. Dachshunds love algae wafers...