Copper and Live Plants

I made the mistake a while ago of using copper to treat a parasite problem I was having (or thought I was having) it ended up being something else entirely, which I figured out with the help of many people on this site. Thanks again.
The issue now is, I would really like to plant my tank again but I still have copper in my tank. Is there any way to get rid of the copper? Or am I stuck just waiting and doing water changes until enough of the copper is removed that I can grow live plants?

hm,now do the complete water change..also wait for 7 days for cycling tha tank.then after using medicines we can plant it in the aquarium. but do the 100 % water change now.

I think plants can tolerate some copper in the tank but to be safe, just do the water change and keep the gravel wet to preserve the bacteria.

hm,that's why cycling is important..just do it for a few days for establishing bacteria...

I didn't mention I have a 5" bass in the aquarium. I can't do a 100% water change with the fish in the tank. I have a 10 gallon tank set up for my feeder fish but don't want to move the bass in with the feeder fish. I would very quickly have no feeder fish left and don't want to stress the bass.

What you can do is take the bass in a bucket full of clean water since you will only be doing it for a few hours. Make sure you provide an airstone just incase. I hope you have a lot of gravel because you have to keep it wet to complete the cycle because lots of bacteria reside on it. Also if you have lots of plants, you can put in the fish from day one since plants act like bacteria in that they feed on ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. If I didn't answer your question, please feel free to ask more questions.

The easy option would be a 30 percent water change every other day for a few days. The copper may not bother plants, but it could mess with water chemistry. I believe some aquarium medications contain copper, but their labels also have warnings.

I have been doing 25% water changes once or twice a week for 6 weeks since adding the copper. I was told by my LFS that copper can take a long time to get rid of and any amount will kill plants. If this info is not correct, what else could be killing my plants? My water chem seems ok for everything I usually test for (PH, nitrite, nitrate, alkalinity, hardness). I have a brand new 36" flourescent light in 38 gallon aquarium. Is there something else I need to consider. I have tried anacharis and hornwort with same results, dead in a few days.

i don't know about hornwort but anacharis can live well the light you provide...you may also provide co2 diffuser which is very important for plants frowth.

Hornwort will grow almost anywhere so long as the water surface is not very turbulent. It also does better floating in large bunches. I'm not so sure about the effect of copper on plants, but it seems like all those water changes should have removed it by now. Is the aquarium temperature 65 or above?

I have been trying one plant at a time in case the copper was killing them. I will try hornwort again but this time I will try a larger bunch. I have been leery of putting too much hormwort in at once because it makes one one heck of a mess when it starts to die.

At least it's cheap, and if you live near Phoenix I'll give you a bunch of it.

Thanks John, Unfortunatley I live about 2000 miles away in MD.

z...hi hi

News Flash: I just saw something about copper on the Science Channel. Apparently, the stuff kills microbes, which could include the good aquarium cooties. They use it on the hulls of large ships to keep them from growing little critters. More research is in order.

Science channel pays off I guess.