Ammonia levels during 30days copper treatment

[StPatrick89]

I’m a newbie, treating copper to my tank. Doing a 30 day situation, but the directions say don’t change the water. Um, should I be concerned about ammonia levels spiking considering my fish a making a waste factory in these 30 days?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I’m a newbie, treating copper to my tank. Doing a 30 day situation, but the directions say don’t change the water. Um, should I be concerned about ammonia levels spiking considering my fish a making a waste factory in these 30 days?

You need to have an operational biofilter during a 30 day copper treatment, that will manage the ammonia issue. Controlling ammonia by water changes is very inefficient - I've seen tanks with no biofilters with uncontrolled ammonia despite getting 50% daily water changes. Using ammonia removing chemicals can cause issues with some copper treatments.

If you DO need to do a water change during a copper treatment, you just redose the copper to your replacement water's exact volume.

Jay

 

[StPatrick89]

You need to have an operational biofilter during a 30 day copper treatment, that will manage the ammonia issue. Controlling ammonia by water changes is very inefficient - I've seen tanks with no biofilters with uncontrolled ammonia despite getting 50% daily water changes. Using ammonia removing chemicals can cause issues with some copper treatments.

If you DO need to do a water change during a copper treatment, you just redose the copper to your replacement water's exact volume.

Jay

Thanks!!!