Salifert Copper kit won't read Cupramie

[jfindley7]

Anybody ever have this problem? I have two Butterflies with ich. I was treating with Organi-cure which is a copper/formaltihyde medicine. As there was no info for me to test the level of copper in Organi-cure I ordered Cupramine and a Salifert Copper test kit. After adding 40 drops of Cupramine, at a time, several times (200 drops is the proper doseage for my Fish Only tank) and waiting 20 minutes or so between copper additions with a 20 minute additional copper test; the Salifert test kit is basically the same watered out blue color. My guess is that the test kit is bad or the Cupramine is bad (which I find kind of hard to believe). Has anybody ever had problems like this trying to monitor Copper?? My understanding is, if it is below .4 it won't work at all and if it is above .8 it could damage the fish? Yesterday I did a 10 gallon water change and added carbon to remove the Organi-cure. The fish were noticeably worse without organi-cure in there. Even after all of the Cupramine I added I don't really notice any difference in their behavior, and if I had to guess, I have overdosed slightly, with no visible ill effect.

 

[RBU1]

I actually use cuprmaine with a salifert kit. My guess would be something is removing the copper..OR you got a bad test kit..What is in the tank? are you running, carbon or anything the would remove or obsorb the copper.

Take your time with the dosing.....Add it real slow....the dosage directions are 16 drops or 1ml per 10.5 gallons wait 48 hours then repeat. I always suggest to break it up even more. What size is your tank you are putting the cupramine in?

From the Seachem Website
Cupramine™ eradicates Oodinium and Ich at 0.1–0.2
mg/L, Cryptocaryon at 0.25–0.35 mg/L, Trematodes and other
parasites at 0.4–0.5 mg/L. With a 10–14 day exposure at 0.4 mg/L
most infestations will be eradicated and secondary bacterial and
fungal infections will be controlled.
But if you call they will tell you to treat for 4 weeks......

 

[jfindley7]

Can't distinguish .10, .25, .5, 1.0

Can't distinguish .10, .25, .5, 1.0

Thanks for responding. My tank is 100 gallons and doesn't have any chemical filtration. I only used the carbon to filer out the Omni-cure 2 days ago after dosing with it for 7 days, with only limited / miniscule improvement. The Raccoon (15 days in tank) quit eating several days ago, he ate well before the copper treatment, but continued to get more spots and more scratching. Can you actually see the difference on the Salifert chart between .1, .25, and .5 ?
In the actual water test...light blue, slightly grey, blue grey? as my water stayed pretty much the same light blue from beginning (no Cupramine) to the end of adding drops over a 4 hour period. I have obviously overdosed as I have 2 dead FireFly Gobies this morning and the Raccoon is spinning out of control. The Augria doesn't look much bette. I have put the carbon back in and am doing water changes....I hope it isn't too late.

 

[jrp1588]

is this being done in a bare bottom QT tank? Calcium carbonate based liverock and aragonite sand tend to absorb the copper

 

[RBU1]

Thanks for responding. My tank is 100 gallons and doesn't have any chemical filtration. I only used the carbon to filer out the Omni-cure 2 days ago after dosing with it for 7 days, with only limited / miniscule improvement. The Raccoon (15 days in tank) quit eating several days ago, he ate well before the copper treatment, but continued to get more spots and more scratching. Can you actually see the difference on the Salifert chart between .1, .25, and .5 ?
In the actual water test...light blue, slightly grey, blue grey? as my water stayed pretty much the same light blue from beginning (no Cupramine) to the end of adding drops over a 4 hour period. I have obviously overdosed as I have 2 dead FireFly Gobies this morning and the Raccoon is spinning out of control. The Augria doesn't look much bette. I have put the carbon back in and am doing water changes....I hope it isn't too late.

R

Re-calculate your doasge amount I get a different number should be 150 drips. I think you should use ml not drips. Your total dosage should be 19ml's
Split it up into 4 doses and wait 48 hours between each dose making sure the fish act the same...

As far as the colors on the test kit go. They are a PITA to distinguish the blues apart do the best you can to match the .5 that is what you should read after the full 19ml's is dosed.

 

[jfindley7]

10 X 16.5= 165 drops. 100\10 = 10 X (16.5 drops)

 

[jfindley7]

No, it is a fish only show tank. No live rock, fake fiberglass/plastic corals with a wet/dry sump. It was set up purposely this way to medicate as directed by LFS. Looks like another hard lesson painfully learned. The Raccoon is dead and the Augria isn't far behind.

 

[RBU1]

10 X 16.5= 165 drops. 100\10 = 10 X (16.5 drops)

Its 16 drops or 1ml per 10.5 gallons

take your 100 gallon tank and divide by 10.5 = 9.52 ml 16 drops in an ml so 16x 9.52 = 152 drops...

Like I said use ML's so much easier...Your dosage amount TOTAL will be 19ml's break it into 4 doses and spread each dose out 48 hours apart making sure the fish are eating and acting like normal...

 

[hottuna]

I dont know about you guys - but I allways prefer to use the SEACHEM copper test kit when dosing cupramine...it just makes sense-plus you have the reference solution included in the kit ...which gives you a good visual of what level your test sample should look like...