Copper Treatment

[Kchighrider]

I am treating a hippo for ich. In a 20L it has been about a week and a half and he is doing much better eating frozen, pellets and nori. When I first put him in there he was just laying on his side I never though he would pull through after about 4 days he started to eat. Anyways here is my question I followed the directions on the bottle and it said to keep at the same concentration for 14 day s but what should I do about keeping the water quality good and keeping the right concentration of meds? I feel like I should do a water change with the amount of waste he is producing and I am just runnning a HOB filter with a sponge. What to do?

 

[b0bab0ey]

I am treating a hippo for ich. In a 20L it has been about a week and a half and he is doing much better eating frozen, pellets and nori. When I first put him in there he was just laying on his side I never though he would pull through after about 4 days he started to eat. Anyways here is my question I followed the directions on the bottle and it said to keep at the same concentration for 14 day s but what should I do about keeping the water quality good and keeping the right concentration of meds? I feel like I should do a water change with the amount of waste he is producing and I am just runnning a HOB filter with a sponge. What to do?

Bunch of questions: Are you using Cupramine, Coppersafe or something else? Did you seed the sponge in the DT (or sump) beforehand? Do you have a copper test kit and if so, which brand? Do you have an ammonia test kit and/or a Seachem Ammonia Alert badge to detect free ammonia? Most ammonia test kits will give you a false positive in the presence of copper, but supposedly the Seachem Ammonia Alert badge works accurately even in copper.

 

[Kchighrider]

I am using Cupramine. I did not seed the sponge but I used all water from DT. I do not have copper test kit. I have an Ammonia badge and it reads good.

 

[snorvich]

You need a copper test kit, ideally by Seachem. And you need to test the level every night before lights off. Total time should be 4 weeks.

 

[Kchighrider]

Ok so I need to do a water change test for copper then add more meds?

 

[snorvich]

If there is ammonia, yes, a water change is necessary. Then readjust the level back up to recommendation (which for cupramine, I believe is 0.5)

 

[geaux xman]

I would make up SW mix for a 50% WC(10gal) and dose that 10gal SW mix with .5ppm cupramine. Then perform the WC. So even if your levels are off right now, that would help keep the entire tank at fairly close to that .5ppm level. That would also help keep water quality up also. Make sure you use RO water if using cupramine. (or wait at least one day after adding Prime/Water conditioner, then add cupramine. if adding cupramine immediately, it would make the SW mix toxic. After the WC, wait maybe a few hrs, then test the QT cupramine level.

if you test then dose, you could easily overdose since sometimes it can be pretty hard to accurately read the copper level. ie... you think you are at .30ppm( when you were really at .50ppm), you add more cupramine and overdose the fish.

it can sometimes be hard to differentiate between .3ppm and .5ppm.

 

[b0bab0ey]

Salifert copper test kit also works well with Cupramine. I wouldn't add any more copper until you get a copper test kit. You have no way of knowing what your copper level is and risk OD'ing the fish.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Salifert copper test kit also works well with Cupramine. I wouldn't add any more copper until you get a copper test kit. You have no way of knowing what your copper level is and risk OD'ing the fish.

Yes, and on the other end, if Cu has fallen below .35ppm----you need to start treatment time from day one.