Copper fittings with aquarium piping.

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ibr3ak

ibr3ak

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Dec 15, 2007
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I'd like to use a copper elbow on the clear plastic hose going in and out of the canister filter, my question is, could I use copper in a fish tank without any water problems? Both pieces will be outside, but the water will be passing through them.

This is a pic of the elbow I'm talking about:

 
Sploke

Sploke

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All the water in my house runs through copper pipes and I've never had a problem.
 
ibr3ak

ibr3ak

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Dec 15, 2007
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sploke said:
All the water in my house runs through copper pipes and I've never had a problem.
Click to expand...
Yea some water piping in my house is copper aside from pvc, but I thought it needed to be filtered of copper to be used in a fish tank.

The only reason I'm thinking of using these is because I have a chitload of copper fittings and no pvc.
 
Sploke

Sploke

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Well, I use straight tap water into my tanks without issue. There isn't a hardware store anywhere nearby? A PVC elbow costs like 30 cents.
 
ibr3ak

ibr3ak

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Dec 15, 2007
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There's HD and Lowes but neither of them have smaller fittings, the smallest is 1 1/4", I could check a few plumping supply shops, but if I could use what I have I'd rather save the money.

Did some googling and found this site:
http://www.aquariumsforcondos.com/DesignEngineering.html

alot of their plumbing is done with copper pipes, so I think I'll just go ahead and use the elbows.

Thanks for the quick replies sploke, really appreciate them. :)

If anyone else has something to say please share.
 
Sploke

Sploke

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It will probably be fine, I just get paranoid about joining non-like materials due to potential leakage issues.
 
O

OldMan47

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It should be OK if you only have fish. If you have snails, shrimp or other inverts, the little bit of copper that will end up in the water should completely eliminate the invert population. The best part is that its very hard to get rid of the copper in the tank once it gets in there so it will go on controlling all the inverts you put in the tank.
I'd avoid copper in the circulation path like the plague. My water comes in the house in copper but its not a long term exposure that gives it a chance to dissolve. I like my ghost shrimp and my mystery snails. Even if I didn't have them I would not want to remove it ever being an option.
 
Rbishop

Rbishop

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Dec 30, 2005
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There is a diffenence between short term exposure to copper and long term.

Having copper fittings/piping in your house isn't a big deal. By the time you flush and bring to temp the water, what minute copper may be there is gone.

However, having it in your filtration lines to a closed system such as your tank, can give issue for later on for inverts.
 
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