Cupramine ?

[daddycadi]

I'm in my third week of treating an ich outbreak with cupramine. I've at LEAST tripled the recommended dosage and still can't get the copper level to .5 ppm (stuck at around .2ppm) I refuse to add any more for fear of killing my fish. I havnt seen any evidence of the ich since the first week. Fish all act fine and are eating although I'm sure they're tired of the qt tank. I'm about ready to move them into display tank and say screw it. Just wanted some opinions from some people that know a little something about ich

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Do you have rock or sand in the qt? Cupramine normally stays in solution so if you have tripled the dose from 4 drops per gallon to 12 drops per gallon you should have 1.5 ppm, which is excessive and likely to kill fish.

What test kit are you using and is there anything in the qt that could be soaking up the Cupramine?

I would keep the fish in the qt for at least two more weeks before putting them in the dt. If they were infected in the dt originally, I would wait another 4-5 weeks before returning the fish to the dt so you know it is clear and they won't just. get reinfected in the dt.

 

[daddycadi]

No sand rock or carbon. I'm using a salifert kit. Heard it was the easiest to read. All that's in the tank is a couple coffee mugs for hiding. Could they be absorbing copper? Doubt it but maybe? Thanks for input

 

[sandwi54]

Do you have any commercial decorations in the tank? those can and will absorb copper as well.

also, how old is the test kit? i recommend getting another salifert kit to cross reference. one way to confirm is to take 1 gallon of fresh RODI water, add enough cupramine to bring it to 0.5ppm, and see if the test kit registers it. If it does, then something in your QT is absorbing that copper and you need to find out what it is and repeat the treatment if necessary. If it doesn't, then the test kit is likely to be faulty and you should go grab another one to figure out what copper level you really are at.

 

[geaux xman]

how many gal QT tank?

make up for a 50% water change and dose that WC water at .5ppm. while you are at it, test that WC water prior to putting in your QT tank.

then test again the next day.

doing it this way, theres no way you can overdose your QT tank. if you really were at .20ppm, after the 50% WC with .5ppm, you would be roughly at about .35ppm.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

I would take the coffee mugs out and replace with pvc pieces from Home Depot or plastic flowerpots. Some mugs have an exposed, clay-like bottom that may be absorbing the Cupramine. If I recall correctly, Cupramine interacts with carbonate.

Otherwise, the Cupramine may be bad but I don't think that is likely. I think Seachem says it has a very long shelf life.

I would expect dead fish if your test kit was bad and you had a copper concentration at 1.5 or more.

 

[LargeAngels]

Take a 5 gallon bucket with newly mixed seawater and add 1ml of Cupramine and test it. It should read 0.5, otherwise the test kit is bad. If you read around 0.5 you know the test kit and Cupramine are fine and the copper is being absorbed by the coffee mugs. VERY unlikely that the Cupramine has gone bad, but very likely that the coffee mugs have absorbed the Cupramine.

 

[daddycadi]

Some very good ideas. Gonna take out the mugs and retry. Thanks everyone!

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

I would do a large water change (50%) and then slowly add the Cupramine, testing as you go. You don't want the concentration to shoot up quickly to high levels.

 

[MrTuskfish]

All good advice above. Faulty test kits, from any company, have been known to have bad batches of reagent. SeaChem (mfg of SeaChem) had a batch of bad Cu test kits a few years ago and some are still around. SeaChem Cupramine should last about forever without any problems ( http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Cupramine.html). Tech support is a pet resource of mine, and very underutilized, IMO. SeaChem's is outstanding, I'd call them and compare notes. ...888seachem (I think).

 

[enjetek]

my seachem kit came with a bottle that you could use to check if the kit was working correct. try that and if its good then something is absorbing it.