Cupramine, level and duration beyond the instructions???

J

jimmyj7090

aka John K
Cupramine - The instructions say 14 days @ .5 mg/l

I've seen differing reccomendations in this forum in the past. IIRC the suggestion that a sligltly lower level for longer would be preferable. (something along the lines of 28 days @ .35-.40 mg/l)

Could anyone share more on this or help to articulate the pluses and minuses of diverging from the instructions?

TIA
 
Seachem recommends 21 days and will be changing labels on their bottles .....previously spoke with their techs......trust me this was frustrating learning the label was being changed and they feel it takes 21 days and not 14 without telling anyone publicly........ I also asked them for a recommendation on a test kit as their kit wasn't available locally...... they had me pick up a test kit (we wont mention names) but it only went up to .4mg what a load of you know what I thought about that....... they recommend a kit that doesnt even go up to the recommended level they want of .5 ........VERY FRUSTRATING they sent me one of their kits as a complementary and good luck on reading that from one blue to another.....very frustrating
 
Like mrx66699 above, I've talked to SeaChem many times and deviate a lot from bottle instructions. You shouldn't have to go through all of this; but at least SeaChem has good tech support people to talk to.
I've used Cupramine at .35-.40 for years. Also: I make sure fish are eating in the HT before treating and increase Cu very slowly to the .35-.40 level. If fish react badly, I remove much of the copper, let the fish start eating again, and increase slowly again. This assumes there is time to do this; badly parasite infested fish can't wait. If fish stop eating, that's almost always an indication that they are reacting to the Cu; but slowly introducing the Cu almost always solves this. I've used this method on a great many fish with good success. Both as a preventative measure and a cure for parasites
 
Cupramine, while not ionic, tests like ionic copper. Buying a test kit with enough resolution to determine the difference between .3 and .4 means you're stuck with a kit that only reads to 0.4 or 0.5. This is because ionic copper should never be dosed that high, so they don't design the test to read that high, doing so would ensure you couldn't tell the difference at lower levels...ie...0.2 - 0.3 ppm.

When treating with the good stuff (copper sulfate) 14 days is more then sufficient provided the concentration is maintained around 0.3 ppm.....Cupramine is easier on the fish and easier on the parasite, which is why you want to go closer to a month with it just in case, and at a higher concentration.
 
FYI - the cheapo' old Red Sea copper kit is probably one of the easiest kit's to read, there is a color scale that actually changes.....I've found the rest of the kits very difficult, as the colors are entirely too close to one another.
 
Thanks for the responses.

Currently I have fish in the QT, they are eating well and looking good. I had been bringing the cupramine level up over several days. Right now it's at .35-.4 as best I can tell using the seachem test kit (which is darn hard to read, though the reference solution helps a lot).

I'm happy to go the 3 weeks, but I'm left wondering if I should up the dose a bit since I'm not 100% confident that I'm able to read the test accurately. Maybe it's time to try calling that support line and see what they tell me :)
 
I prefer to use the Salifer copper test kits. Much easier than the seachem! that said , not sure what fish you're qt but not all fish can take a .40/.50 CU dose especially butterflies. The Seachem instruction to apply full doasage within three days is way to fast IMO! good luck
 
how big is your QT tank? I'm guessing it is <= 20g.

If you dosed according to the directions and your QT tank has no rock/sand, your copper level should be fairly close to the dose.

If I'm ever doubtful of my levels, I just do a big WC(25-50%) with either newly made or water from my DT. Dose that water to .5 and that should balance out your QT water close to .5ppm.

I like to do 3 weeks of Cupramine at .5ppm for tangs and angels. I prefer the Salifert test kit too. As far as determining .3 and .4 from any hobbyist test kit is near impossible.
 
geaux xman said:
how big is your QT tank? I'm guessing it is <= 20g.

If you dosed according to the directions and your QT tank has no rock/sand, your copper level should be fairly close to the dose.

If I'm ever doubtful of my levels, I just do a big WC(25-50%) with either newly made or water from my DT. Dose that water to .5 and that should balance out your QT water close to .5ppm.

I like to do 3 weeks of Cupramine at .5ppm for tangs and angels. I prefer the Salifert test kit too. As far as determining .3 and .4 from any hobbyist test kit is near impossible.
Click to expand...

This is a small set up, @10 gallon DIY tank. The fish are just a handful of chromis and a 6 line wrasse.

I don't really trust the directions on anything so I didn't really follow them specifically. Basically 16 drops on day 1, and then another 8 per day until the test looked blue but not quite as blue as the .5 reference solution that comes with the seachem kit.

I'll see about picking up a salifert kit, sounds like they are preferable.

Obviously this isn't a giant investment in fish, but my display system is clean and I don't want to take any chances with these new fish. (I've always used hypo in the past, almost no exp with copper. If anyone remembers that old thread "the quest for an ick free tank", I'm the guy who hasn't seen a spot since 2005 :) )
 
i hear ya in that regard.
let me know how your handful of chromis work out, i believe the norm with them are the group will slowly dwindle to one or two.
 
Ok. I'm using it also,.. I tank the qt is at .4. But I put in an aptasia to see if copper butterflie would be interested. If copper level is ,4 or .5. How can the aptasia be doing fine?
 
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