Fish medications leaching into silicone

[Twisted]

Recently, I’ve been watching some Aquarium Co-Op videos on my way to work, and he mentioned that a lot of people unknowingly harm their coral and inverts by using tanks that were previously used for quarantining fish for a display tank. This is because the medications used to treat fish diseases can leach into the silicone of the aquarium and release over time. Have you guys had any experiences with this ?

 

[JVU]

For sure people have had serious problems when they convert a cheap treatment tank that used copper repeatedly to a reef tank. I don’t know about other meds.

High quality aquarium silicone shouldn’t be able to absorb/leach any chemicals/meds, including copper. It is inert and nonporous, like the glass. But any other microscopic organics or crevices in the tank could. And low quality silicone like they use for cheap tanks like Aqueon/PetCo dollar-a-gallon tanks might not be as resistant (I don’t know).

The above is my understanding of the meds and materials and reading what other people say, not based on deep personal experience.

 

[H2OPlayar]

Silicone should be biologically inert and non-porous. That is why it is so common in the medical setting. The only way I could imagine the meds staying in the tank is if there are holes in the silicone, or grooves that do not get cleaned out well. Also possible that the silicone loses some bond between it and the glass and things hide in that groove.

 

[PjFish]

This debate has been going on for over 20 years since alota people don’t want to toss out a perfectly good tank. Ive never seen any ICP tests yet to date or side by side tests that confirm silicone leaching cooper or other chemicals..Unless theirs new data out there!
Do the videos confirm with tests?
I’ve heard not to use small qt tanks like 5-10 gallon for the reasons but just hearsay..
Maybe corals are alot more sensitive but there are trace amounts of copper in salts & additives