Coppersafe question

[amike5]

Has anyone used coppersafe? I used this product according to the instrustions of 5ml per 4 gallons of water, but 24 hours after dosing the fish were really stressed out. Upon testing the water with seachem test kit, the copper read at about .9. I immediately did a 40% water change w/o adding anymore copper and the level is now .6, but the fish aren't stressing anymore.

What should the copper level be at? Is my test kit wrong? Why do the directions tell me to dose so much?

 

[Neptune777]

Coppersafe is very harsh on fish (especially is overdosed). IMO switch to Cupramine by SeaChem. It is much safer and proven to be very effective and mild on fish. It is in a different form than other copper products.

 

[amike5]

But I am looking for answers to my specific questions. I am looking for others experience with this product and why my levels aren't what they should be.

All copper is harsh on fish; what makes coppersafe harsher than any other product? Why is this form of copper worse than another?

 

[Thunk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11765648#post11765648 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by amike5
But I am looking for answers to my specific questions. I am looking for others experience with this product and why my levels aren't what they should be.

All copper is harsh on fish; what makes coppersafe harsher than any other product? Why is this form of copper worse than another?

There are different kinds of copper. Alos copper can change from Cu+2 to Cu+ witch will ussually kill your fish. I know cupramine says to never dose above .6

 

[REEF_MAKER_JR]

Did you allow for the sand and rock in your tank? If you dosed based on the gallons based on the dimensions of your tank, without reducing based on the displaced volume, that could well account for the overdosing.

 

[amike5]

It's a QT, there is only small hiding places. Dosage was based on the actual ammount of water in the QT.

 

[George Gouveia]

I've used coppersafe on my QT tank and never had any problems at all with it. Sorry i can't be much more help but i don't really know what to tell you.

 

[pescadero]

In toxicological terms, copper has a low therapeutic index. In plain english, that means that its very easy to overdose and cause problems.

I would measure content of the copper in the tankwater with a copper test kit before putting the fish in the tank. that way you won't run into problems if you've made a measurement error.

 

[HAROLDL]

Same issue that I have with Coppersafe. I started dosing on Sunday. Follwed directions exactly. Did a copper test today with seachem test kit. Range tested in the high blue area. My fish arent stressed at all though. They are still eating and acting normal. I havent verified the kit yet though. The second bottle that looks like water, is to test your kit to see if the readings are false. I will do that tomorrow.

 

[LargeAngels]

Doesn't Coppersafe recommend a level of 1.5-2.0 ppm?

Personally I used Coppersafe for a while with not so good results. Switched to Cupramine and will never go back to Coppersafe. IME Cupramine is much more affective, does not stress fish out and can be tolerated by copper sensitive fish.

 

[amike5]

The bottle states no recommended ppm.

 

[HAROLDL]

I will probably do the same (switch to cupramine) after I'm done with this treatment.

 

[chesapeake]

I am curently using it now and The way I was told to use it was to slowly add it alittle at a time untill it get to 1.0 I was using in a qt tank and it worked great but soon a s I returned himn to the main tank it came back but no other fish are getting it so I am now treating it in my main tank I think it is risky but so far AT1.0 PPM its been 3 days ich is almost gone and the fish seem to be fine so far was told that you should test everyday to make sure the copper stays stable and it should last for 1 month .