Bad experience with copper power

[mattb2989]

Hi all. I thought id bring this up to see if anyone else has had the same situation happen to them. I brought some copper power and gotnit shopped from the us to the uk. Started treating my tank with it. Using the hanna checker so i know my readings were spot on verified by 2 different lot numbers and the icp machine at work. After about a week in the copper fish started to stop eating then be dead the next day. Lost several fish in the end by day 17 id had enough and removed the remaining 2 clowns and magnificent foxface to a brand new clean unmedicated tank. Both clowns were on deaths door and sadly 1 clown died the morning of transfer. The other clown actually perked up but wouldnt eat and died 3 days later. Now the foxface has gone from strength to strength and eating like a pig and colours better than ever. The ammonia badge i had was shot as tested in a solution of 1ppm ammonia and didnt change. In the qt tank i was doing a wc every few days. I thought this has to be down to the copper. Took 1 gallon of freshly made salt to work and dosed the copper power as per bottle instructions. Gave me 2.09ppm cu and 0.64ppm ammonia. Dosed again to get to 2.5ppm and gave 0.82ppm ammonia. So now im fairly confident this is the cause. Maybe the bottle froze on the plane over and broke the anim down making ammonia or something???? I know home test kits can be skewed for ammonia by copper but this is big lab grade icp machine and the ability to accuratly test each element without any interference. @Jay Hemdal

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi all. I thought id bring this up to see if anyone else has had the same situation happen to them. I brought some copper power and gotnit shopped from the us to the uk. Started treating my tank with it. Using the hanna checker so i know my readings were spot on verified by 2 different lot numbers and the icp machine at work. After about a week in the copper fish started to stop eating then be dead the next day. Lost several fish in the end by day 17 id had enough and removed the remaining 2 clowns and magnificent foxface to a brand new clean unmedicated tank. Both clowns were on deaths door and sadly 1 clown died the morning of transfer. The other clown actually perked up but wouldnt eat and died 3 days later. Now the foxface has gone from strength to strength and eating like a pig and colours better than ever. The ammonia badge i had was shot as tested in a solution of 1ppm ammonia and didnt change. In the qt tank i was doing a wc every few days. I thought this has to be down to the copper. Took 1 gallon of freshly made salt to work and dosed the copper power as per bottle instructions. Gave me 2.09ppm cu and 0.64ppm ammonia. Dosed again to get to 2.5ppm and gave 0.82ppm ammonia. So now im fairly confident this is the cause. Maybe the bottle froze on the plane over and broke the anim down making ammonia or something???? I know home test kits can be skewed for ammonia by copper but this is big lab grade icp machine and the ability to accuratly test each element without any interference. @Jay Hemdal

Back in 2020, I did the same test as you did, using the Hanna checker and my Hach spectrophotometer. I got a copper reading of 2.09 ppm and ammonia of 0.52 ppm.

Both copper power and coppersafe have ammonia in them that is bound to the copper. This reduces the copper toxicity to the fish and makes it more stable in solution. However, the ammonia test kits break that ammonia / copper bond and will measure that as free ammonia. Supposedly, a properly working ammonia badge reports only unbound ammonia, but I can't confirm that.

My concern is - what if you add reducing agents to a tank dosed with copper power or coppersafe? If the ammonia bond gets broken, does the free copper level rise, killing the fish? This happens with cupramine, but I have not been able to confirm it with the other two copper products. In the end, I don't use reducing agents with any amine bound copper products. These agents include; sodium thiosulfate, formalin and ammonia "removers"....there may be others.

Jay