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I know Rick that owns that shop....but I got my information from the Canadian Mint.

The whole idea of using pennies seems crazy to me. Why not just buy the product and then you will absolutely know how much you are adding?
The stuff is cheap, like under $5.00

Its like saying I'm not going to buy a cannister of flake and just feed leftovers from supper to my fish. This way it is cheaper and crazier. Or saying my friend is changing his carpet in his house and I'm going to use the underlay as foam in my filter.

to me, it's not a matter of the cost (although 8 cents is MUCH cheaper than $5 ), but the side effects caused by it. a lot of those snail "remedies" are harmful to plants. putting copper pennies in the filter to get rid of snails is only harmful to the invertebrates in your tank.

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

That's my two cents. two cents

Makes you wonder, doesn't it...we have a $2 coin in Canada...should we not also have a tuppence piece?

The whole idea of using pennies seems crazy to me. Why not just buy the product and then you will absolutely know how much you are adding?
The stuff is cheap, like under $5.00

Its like saying I'm not going to buy a cannister of flake and just feed leftovers from supper to my fish. This way it is cheaper and crazier. Or saying my friend is changing his carpet in his house and I'm going to use the underlay as foam in my filter.

That's my two cents. two cents

Last edited by openwater at 17-Feb-2005 23:14

if you're scared, you can soak the pennies in a 20:1 bleach solution (that's 20 parts water ) overnight and then rinse the hell out of them before putting them in your filter.

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

Yea well pennies not so much but still those have been in contact with something that could have been...

Yuk
Angel Eel

I think throwing pennies at a strip club would likely get you bounced, so no worries there.

There are tons of sick things on money and I personally would never put money in my tank
........and just FYI in canada we have ghetto strip joints where there is coin tosssed at the strippers rather then bills ( bills are still thrown but they prefer coins) and there is such a thing here as putting the coin in you know what for a poster....
I WOULD NOT put that nasty coin in your tank!!
Angel Eel

jsut use a tiny lil bit of copper sulphate itll kill the snails
n everything else in the tank to of course cept catfish n carp
its amazing what they can survive through
but i dont recommend this practise in tanks

oh sure, like you can believe the people at the canadian mint

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

When did Canada stop using copper penies? Or do we still use fully copper pennies?
The States switch from copper to ?copper plated nickel? in 1982 right?

[link=http://www.calgarycoin.com/modern/cdcent.htm]http://www.calgarycoin.com/modern/cdcent.htm" style="COLOR: #ff0044[/link]

actually, it looks like the recipe changed in 1997. copper plated is not nearly as good as solid copper (98% until 1997), so you should use canadian pennies minted before 1997 and you will be fine. and if you use this method to kill your snails, make sure you have excellent filtration and step up your water change schedule by a couple days once the snails start dying

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

Of course they do, Moondog...you missed my post:

"Today's one-cent Canadian penny, modified in 2001, is made of copper-plated steel (94% steel, 1.5% nickel, 4.5% copper)."

canada still uses copper in their pennies, according to a website i looked up the other day, but which i don't have bookmarked

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

I learn something new every day

Troy, I can picture the guy off the simpsons saying what you said

The thing with pennies is you don't really know how much copper is being leached into the aquarium. If you want to go the copper way, just by the commercial stuff and that way you will know precisely how much copper you are adding. It just isn't that expensive to buy.
IMO copper is not the best way, especially for the other inhabitants, to rid of snails.

Also killing snails off in one big batch using copper CAN lead to a mini-cycle due to a large amount of rotting organic material from the dead snails

Hey maybe you don't have a snail problem and just wanted ask anyways, that's great too.

I'm willing to bet that the person asking has a snail problem and wants to use the penny trick to get rid of them, am I right? Heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

I'll step in and show my ignorance here and ask: What does Canadian pennies have to do with fishkeeping?

In 1982, US pennies ceased to be 95% copper and 5% tin & zinc, and became 5% copper and 95% tin & zinc....Canadian pennies prior to 1997 were approximately 98% copper and 1.75 % zinc. From 1997 to 2001, Canadian pennies were modified and were minted as copper-coated zinc wafers... approximately 96 % zinc. Today's one-cent Canadian penny, modified in 2001, is made of copper-plated steel (94% steel, 1.5% nickel, 4.5% copper).