Read about this a while back. I had trouble finding a copper strip. I ended up finding a 2 ft section of 3/8 in soft copper tubing. I was able to make 3 pieces from it. I split it down the length with a Dremel, and then I flattened it out. it looks good, but I am wondering if soft copper has anything in it that would interfere with its use in warming the tank.

It did get red hot in the flame and it did warm the tank some based on one of the laser infrared thermometers. But that was giving weird results so I am not sure how hot it got. I could only touch the strip for a second so that had to be fairly warm.

Any one else use soft copper? I read it is 99% copper.

Does it normally blacken some at flame end, is that just the first time?