pennies?

**Scrup** · 02-08-2010, 06:16 PM

So I recently got another 30G tank, and was cleaning out the gravel, and found 6 pennies, been in there a while from the looks of them, some of them actually had holes in them from corrosion. Any idea why someone would put pennies in the tank?

Only two reasons i could think of-

Trying to kill snails...obviously didn't work, still had snails

Or...children.

Anyway, anyone ever seen this before?

**Fishguy2727** · 02-08-2010, 06:20 PM

Old pennies had enough copper to kill algae, some old schoolers may still try this.

**Wild Turkey** · 02-08-2010, 06:22 PM

personally never heard of it, I agree the two reasons you stated are the most likely. To kill something off or just kids messing around..

My first thought would be it would leech copper into the water column which you really do not want, but if you have living snails than perhaps not, or perhaps not the degree I expected.

If the maintenance schedule is good i'm sure that was helping in removing some of the copper as it was leeched

I would definitely remove them of course

**xasuma** · 02-08-2010, 06:55 PM

copper could absorb algae , making it stick to it.
thts what i know , maybe, or maybe just cuz they fell in there , lol!

**Bristley** · 02-08-2010, 07:01 PM

I can easily see children as a cause for that. I have a 6 yr old and when we first got our tank I had to make it very clear that nothing goes in the tank without daddy's permission.

If I hadn't done that I'm sure I would've found a bologna sandwich in there one day. lol.

**cichlids209** · 02-08-2010, 07:46 PM

Originally Posted by Bristley

I can easily see children as a cause for that. I have a 6 yr old and when we first got our tank I had to make it very clear that nothing goes in the tank without daddy's permission.

If I hadn't done that I'm sure I would've found a bologna sandwich in there one day. lol.

lmao that's the funniest thing ive heard all day .. but seriously prob not far from the truth if you hadn't said anything .. kids are funny

**Aeonflame** · 02-08-2010, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by dane

kids are funny

Yeah.. until they squeeze a tube of toothpaste into your tank

**cichlids209** · 02-08-2010, 08:30 PM

Originally Posted by Aeonflame

Yeah.. until they squeeze a tube of toothpaste into your tank

oh man yikes!! , yea they can be pains too haha

**korith** · 02-08-2010, 10:15 PM

Heard from someone that ages ago some people would add pennies (the ones with more copper in them) into the tanks, to take care of any snail problems. No idea if this was effective but sounds plausible.