Salifert Copper Test kit vs. Cupramine?

[Thumbster]

Just got a Salifert Copper Test Kit today and dosed my 20 gal barebottom QT tank with 29 drops of Cupramine. Approximately 30 minutes later tried to take a reading with the test kit and it showed no color change at all.

I plan (per instructions) to add another 29 drops in 48 hours. But I am surprised to see no reading from the test kit. The filtration I have is a black plastic sponge filter around the intake tube of my HOB filter and a filter floss cartridge with no carbon in it inside of the HOB filter. No live rock, only a fake plastic root thing as decoration.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[geaux xman]

I use a volumetric pipette, but cupramine says 20 of their drops equals 1ml. For a 20g, you would then need 40 drops to make .25ppm cupramine.

29/40 x .25 = 0.18ppm cupramine

at .18ppm what you had dosed, you should see some hint of blue.

Check the expiration date on your test kit.

You can make a standard control to check the validity of your test kit.
Get a 5gal bucket of water, add 20 drops of cupramine. Run your powerhead in there for about 30mins then test it. You can use DT water here and use the water on a later date for a water change in your QT.

That blue coloration should be .5ppm.

Make sure you are holding the tube against the card near a bright lit light.

Also be careful not to use water conditioner with cupramine. That makes the copper 10x as toxic.

 

[Thumbster]

Hey thanks,

The expiration date is July 2013, I have not used any water conditioner and I thought that I should be seeing some color change also. The tank is cycled and I have had it running for about 8 weeks or so with 2 Bangaii Cardinals. I just put a small Yellow Tang in it 7 days ago to do the quarantine. I treated for 5 days with Prazipro then did a 25% water change. I checked the sample color against the card under room lights and sunlight.

I will try the 5 gallon bucket idea, thanks! It never crossed my mind to do that but I can kill 2 birds with one stone, a water change with DT water and a Cupramine dose. I can also check to see if the test kit is working without killing anything.

How many drops do I add for 4 gallons of water (easier to carry than a full 5 gallon bucket) to get it at .5ppm? I am guessing 4 drops per gallon but I will bounce that off of you to be sure.

 

[geaux xman]

It is

20 drops 10gal = 0.25ppm
40 drops 10gal = 0.50ppm

2 drops / 1 gal = 0.25ppm
8 drops / 4 gal = 0.25ppm <=====

16 drops / 4 gal =0.5ppm <=====

If you try it again and get a hint of blue, I think you are okay. Sometimes you need to wait almost 20minutes. Especially on the low dose.

You could also hold off on adding anymore cupramine for now. Make sure the fish is still eating well.

I like to dose slowly, taking about 4 days to get to .5ppm.

 

[Thumbster]

Thanks again,

I just restested with 2 drops of Cupramine in 1 cup of tank water to make sure that it was turning colors. Long story short.......I was not reading it right, I put the test cup on top of the sample color paper and was looking down through the top of the cup expecting to see a color change.

I figured out to hold the cup up and look through the side to compare it against the sample chart. Needless to say, it turned a pretty deep blue.

I restested my QT water and I could see a difference after looking through the side of the cup. Hard to tell definitively but I'm guessing it's somewhere between .1ppm and .25ppm.

I plan on getting up to .5ppm slowly and watching to make sure that they are still eating. They seem to be doing okay at this doseage. I think I still need to do the 5 gallon bucket idea to make sure that I know what .5ppm looks like.