How long does it take for copper to work?

[miguelp19]

Hello everyone,

I have a hospital/quarantine system composed of 6 20 gallon aquariums. It is ran with a canister filter rated for 200gal and another HOB filter rated for 60gal. I've had this system running for a few weeks and have a cupramine copper concentration of 0.55 according to a new SeaChem Copper test.

The issue is that ive had a few fish in there for 6 days and they still have ich and aren't eating. Shouldn't the copper have taken care of the ich already? Or how long can it take for the copper to kill the ich?

Any questions/opinions are welcome! Thanks in advanced!

 

[Deinonych]

The likely reason they are not eating is that the copper concentration is too high. You should do a partial water change to get the concentration down to around 0.40mg/l. IME, it takes about a week for all spots to drop off depending on how quickly you ramped up the dosage. Remember that the trophonts feed for 3-7 days before dropping off.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Read the initial posts of the ich stickies at the top of the disease section; you need to know the ich life cycle to understand treatment. Not seeing spots is normal, but it doesn't mean the ich is gone. All fish from the DT need 6 weeks of copper and the DT needs 12 weeks of fishless time for the parasite to die off.