# How much copper in your water is safe for freshwater inverts?



## alcimedes (Dec 7, 2014)

I've been looking around online, and I keep finding totally different answers. Does anyone know how much copper can safely be in tank water if you're trying to raise freshwater inverts?

Most of what I'm finding is referring to salt.


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

I can't tell you how much is safe, but in a planted aquarium, copper is dosed via fertilizers. It's in a minute amount, though.


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## alcimedes (Dec 7, 2014)

I'm concerned that our tap water here might be much higher in copper than I'd assumed. Short of going with all RO/Distilled water, I don't think there's any solution to the problem either.

According to what I've read, the copper levels in the tap water here would be totally unsuitable to inverts, but I couldn't find any X ppm levels for freshwater inverts, just vastly different numbers for salt water inverts and corals.


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

You could try mixing RO/DI with tap? That way, you don't have to go full RO/DI and it will reduce levels of minerals that go into the tank. Although, you may need a remineralizer.


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## alcimedes (Dec 7, 2014)

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Zoidburg said:


> You could try mixing RO/DI with tap? That way, you don't have to go full RO/DI and it will reduce levels of minerals that go into the tank. Although, you may need a remineralizer.


I mean, in theory I could, but I've already got almost 400G of fish tanks in the house, and I'm changing out about 100g per week. It would get too pricey for my taste, and too much effort.

If the tap water isn't invert safe, I'll just stop trying to breed inverts in it.


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## Smooch (May 14, 2016)

Have you tested your water?

I understand the concern as we have copper piping. I test it once a year or so just to see if there is any copper to be found and there hasn't been any as of yet.


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## alcimedes (Dec 7, 2014)

Smooch said:


> Have you tested your water?
> 
> I understand the concern as we have copper piping. I test it once a year or so just to see if there is any copper to be found and there hasn't been any as of yet.


I started wondering about it after I contacted our municipality regarding some PFC issues they've had in the area. The response let me know that our watershed was fine, and they then included a water quality report as part of that response. I was reading the water quality report (because it's fascinating stuff, right!) and noted the levels for copper.










If those levels are copper are bad, then I was alternatively wondering if the various copper removal products that exist would do the trick. I've never tried them out myself.

http://www.seachem.com/cuprisorb.php


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## Yukiharu (May 3, 2014)

Aquarium Calculators | Copper Toxicity for invertebrates and fish in a planted aquarium
[Physiological response of Neocaridina denticulate to the toxicity of Cu2+ and chlorpyrifos]. - PubMed - NCBI
Some sources to look into. Looks like around 0.37 ppm is lethal to them.
Shrimp are invertebrates and have copper-based blood but your water seems to have levels way too high to safely keep fish or shrimp. I would look into an RO system or some other sort of filtration.
I have heard good things about cuprisorb but have not tried it myself. Apparently you need muriatic acid in order to recharge it.
Also, do you have softened water? That can do serious damage to your pipes and removes minerals that shrimp need.


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## Smooch (May 14, 2016)

I'm a fan of many Seachem products, but I've never used that one so I don't know.

If I were you, I would contact Rachael O'Leary. Invertebrates by Msjinkzd | Specializing in invertebrates and micro fish from around the world. She is awesome with inverts, knows her stuff and would give you sound advice.


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## Frosty Fisher (May 27, 2016)

Ever considered trying to collect rain? I've never done it, never heard of people doing it, but I'm kinda curious if that would be alright. I don't know how much rain there is where you are either, but it might be worth looking into sometime on a rainy day.


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## Yukiharu (May 3, 2014)

If you do decide to collect rain then make sure it's relatively clean (no funky pollution from say a nearby factory or something) and not from the roof. It would probably be easiest to set up a tarp out in the open that pours into a bucket.


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

If I'm reading the image correctly, copper levels are .183, which is fine for most shrimp.


And that's an interesting calculator as if the "latest" water quality report in my area is correct, then the amanos here should be dead, as per that calculator. They seem even hardier than cherry shrimp.


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## Yukiharu (May 3, 2014)

Zoidburg said:


> If I'm reading the image correctly, copper levels are .183, which is fine for most shrimp.
> 
> 
> And that's an interesting calculator as if the "latest" water quality report in my area is correct, then the amanos here should be dead, as per that calculator. They seem even hardier than cherry shrimp.


You're right I misread the chart. I'm guessing that the caridina shrimp were all lumped together under crystal parameters and really it's the only number I could find.


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## Zoidburg (Mar 8, 2016)

It may be one of the best calculators out there, but I don't think amanos should have been lumped in with the other caridina species.


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## alcimedes (Dec 7, 2014)

I'm reading that as low as 0.03 ppm can be dangerous to inverts, at 0.1 it's dangerous to some fish, shrimp and snails. Time to go back to using Prime for those major water changes. I'm thinking the cheap'o gallon of water conditioner I was using was not addressing the copper in the water.


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## angyles (Oct 1, 2015)

If your tank is small, you can send the water through a britta pitcher. It removes copper and in my own experience, as soon as I started doing that, my daily deaths stopped. I'm still trying to figure shrimp out, but that was a huge step in the right direction for me. However, they're in a nano tank so it's easy. Not sure what I'd do if they were in a community tank.


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