Tlc smart start live bacteria in a qt with Cupramine?

[dendrodude]

I have a 30g qt on the 6th week with fish in it doing 5-10g water changes weekly with a heater set to 78*, powerhead, airstone, and a medium size and a small size piece of live rock 2 years old, Some PVC and started the tank with tank water.

I just started the Cupramine treatment a few days ago and yesterday my coral beauty died and my hippo tang is not looking good. I did a 5g water change and took a water sample to the LFS to test. They told me my ammonia was too high and that's why my fish died. Also sold me a bottle of tlc smart start live bacteria and told me to do another water change and add the smart start. I also added a hob filter with only the sponge filter.

I looked online and read that Cupramine gives false readings on ammonia tests, I also read not to add any ammonia binding chems. Did the LFS doom my fish? Is there ammonia binding chem in the live bacteria? I have no clue

How much ammonia will the test show when using Cupramine? If it was a false reading what killed my angle and now is killing my tang?

The copper levels are only about .4 I tested and retested and had the LFS test just to be sure.

 

[jhentr]

If it's not too late, I would but the seachem Ammonia Alert to help monitor the ammonia in a tank dosed with Cupramine. That's what I did to help monitor ammonia and make sure the reading aren't false positive.

If the fishes look fine before the dosing of Cupramine and then looked worst afterwards, it could have been a spike in ammonia since Cupramine might affect the bacteria, but it should not have effect the bacteria too much to cause the spike???

Next time I would suggest dosing Cupramine over a 4-6 days period to reach therapuetic stage. HTH

 

[dendrodude]

I just picked one up and it reads between the 0.02 and<0.02 colors. I just followed the instructions on the bottle half the dose and then 48 hours and the other half. I knew I should have split that up. I even mentioned it to the guy whom sold it to me and he said it was unnecessary. Dang I should have listened to my gut.

The hippo is still breathing and moves well when I disturb him(Only to check and see if he is still alive once in the morning and evening) but he's cowering under the pvc pipes laying on his side against the glass on the bottom. Could he be trying to hide from the damage done by the ich fighting back? does the ich fight back? the two other fish in there seem to be fine and swim and eat just not him.

 

[dendrodude]

sorry between the 0.05 and <0.02