recovering from copper poisoning - what's next?

[Decz]

My tank is just starting to recover from copper poisoning... Apparently the tap water at my house is lethal and just about everything was killed off in my tank with just 2 gallons of tap water being added for a evaporation top up... Don't worry - I won't be doing that again! (btw, normally I use bottled RO water that I have delivered).

When I realized what was happing in my tank, I did a 50% water change daily for 3 days. Then I switched to a 25% water changes every other day for a week now. The copper levels are very low (still present tho), so I will continue to do 25% water changes every 2-3 days for another week.

Here's my question, are there any other steps that I need to take before I can slowly start rebuilding my critter population? When is it ok to start adding more snails and hermit crab, and then fish?

I plan on taking my time with my additions (over a few months span at least), but I'd like to start with the snails/crabs as soon as it is ok.

Thanks!

_Decz.

 

[Cearbhaill]

If your tank has experienced any sort of die off or loss of biological filtration bacteria, you will probably see another cycle. Have you been testing for ammonia?
What sort of life is there left living in the tank?

At any rate wait until you are seeing no copper on your test, and are sure you have recycled the tank completely. Then I would test things with your crabs/snails approach- something inexpensive before investing heavily in fish.

 

[Decz]

I have been testing for ammonia, and there hasn't been any. It's been about 10 days since I initially realized the problem.

About 6 hermit crabs, and 3 turbo snails survived. As well, at night, a number of critters can be seen on the rocks.