Copper Power and Dosing

[Diesel48]

Just want to make sure I am doing this right and not putting my fish in danger. I have 2 clowns in a Royal Gramma in QT. Got them from a fellow hobbyist that had them for 6 months, good healthy eating fish. I still wanted to QT them just to make sure.

I have a 20L Breeder with 16 gallons of water in it. It has a single power head and a HOB filter with a normal sponge and 2 pieces of PVC.

I pre-dosed the tank with around 9.4ML of copper power. My Hanna checker read .94ppm, great tank is ready.

I have been slowly adding 2.4ml of copper power a day to raise it to therapeutic levels. I do 1.2 ml in the morning and 1.2ml in the evening. I have done this the past 4/5 days or so and the Hanna only read 1.64PPM this morning.

I just want to make sure I continue to dose copper until it is above 1.75-2.0ppm. At this point my total amount of copper dosed is above the total amount to raise 16 gallons to 1.75ppm.

Do you experience absorption on the ramp up? I really do not want to kill these fish with copper as they were healthy when I put them in.

 

[Crabs McJones]

What type of sponge? Something has to be absorbing the copper, when you check with the hannah checker, are you holding the button to get the 30 second count down every time?

 

[Diesel48]

Just an aquaclear Foam Filter Insert.

https://www.chewy.com/aquaclear-foa...TRW0uzRwlD8HkWN37bqWCN6cEEmQn-ChoChHgQAvD_BwE

When checking I take 10ML of sample water in a vile, clean it with microfiber cloth. Let it read, empty 1 packet of the reagent. Shake it until it is dissolved. Make sure the air bubbles are gone, insert the vile the same direction, hold the button down until I get the 45 second count down.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Just want to make sure I am doing this right and not putting my fish in danger. I have 2 clowns in a Royal Gramma in QT. Got them from a fellow hobbyist that had them for 6 months, good healthy eating fish. I still wanted to QT them just to make sure.

I have a 20L Breeder with 16 gallons of water in it. It has a single power head and a HOB filter with a normal sponge and 2 pieces of PVC.

I pre-dosed the tank with around 9.4ML of copper power. My Hanna checker read .94ppm, great tank is ready.

I have been slowly adding 2.4ml of copper power a day to raise it to therapeutic levels. I do 1.2 ml in the morning and 1.2ml in the evening. I have done this the past 4/5 days or so and the Hanna only read 1.64PPM this morning.

I just want to make sure I continue to dose copper until it is above 1.75-2.0ppm. At this point my total amount of copper dosed is above the total amount to raise 16 gallons to 1.75ppm.

Do you experience absorption on the ramp up? I really do not want to kill these fish with copper as they were healthy when I put them in.

Are you using tank water in both vials for the Hanna then adding reagent to one? Are you using a poly filter? Or a filter with carbon?

 

[HotRocks]

Just want to make sure I am doing this right and not putting my fish in danger. I have 2 clowns in a Royal Gramma in QT. Got them from a fellow hobbyist that had them for 6 months, good healthy eating fish. I still wanted to QT them just to make sure.

I have a 20L Breeder with 16 gallons of water in it. It has a single power head and a HOB filter with a normal sponge and 2 pieces of PVC.

I pre-dosed the tank with around 9.4ML of copper power. My Hanna checker read .94ppm, great tank is ready.

I have been slowly adding 2.4ml of copper power a day to raise it to therapeutic levels. I do 1.2 ml in the morning and 1.2ml in the evening. I have done this the past 4/5 days or so and the Hanna only read 1.64PPM this morning.

I just want to make sure I continue to dose copper until it is above 1.75-2.0ppm. At this point my total amount of copper dosed is above the total amount to raise 16 gallons to 1.75ppm.

Do you experience absorption on the ramp up? I really do not want to kill these fish with copper as they were healthy when I put them in.

The tester doesn't lie. I have been weary too when encountering absorption.

How many ml total have you dosed?

 

[SeaJay]

Before I got my Hanna checker I’m pretty sure I killed at least one fish trying to use the api test kit. When I got the Hanna checker it confirmed that I was way over.

Given the recent info about velvet surviving 1.75, I am now at 2.0 and my fish don’t even seem to notice. I’m not worried about going a little over and can rest easy knowing that i have the Hanna checker to keep my fish safe.

Just FYI, I don’t think my fish really suffered until the dose was around double the recommended therapeutic levels. My first go around with the api kit I found that the level exceeded 4.0. That took a toll on the fish and by the time the Hanna arrived to discover this, it was too late.

 

[Diesel48]

You can see the link to the foam filter I have been using a few posts up. No carbon or anything. I did two tests today, 1.62ppm the first 1.64ppm the second so my testing method should be accurate. So far I have dosed 20.2ML of copper power assuming my syringes are correct.

 

[Diesel48]

Are you using tank water in both vials for the Hanna then adding reagent to one? Are you using a poly filter? Or a filter with carbon?

Only using one vial at a time. I fill a vial with tank water, do the reading and then add the reagent to that same vial. I figured the second vial is a spare.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Only using one vial at a time. I fill a vial with tank water, do the reading and then add the reagent to that same vial. I figured the second vial is a spare.

Ok just as long as the water is from the same source for both readings.

 

[SeaJay]

You can see the link to the foam filter I have been using a few posts up. No carbon or anything. I did two tests today, 1.62ppm the first 1.64ppm the second so my testing method should be accurate. So far I have dosed 20.2ML of copper power assuming my syringes are correct.

I dose 10ml 4 times and that gets my 36 gallon to right around 1.9.

 

[Diesel48]

So it seems the consensus is to keep dosing until therapeutic? My method seems sound?

 

[SeaJay]

So it seems the consensus is to keep dosing until therapeutic? My method seems sound?

Sounds to me like your readings are correct. I would continue until I reached 2.0

Taking longer to get there extends your overall time in qt, but is probably less stressful for the fish.

 

[Diesel48]

Just an update. I kept dosing until therapeutic. Once I got there it has held steady for 3 days in a row now. Hanna Checker has only been .03 different on 3 days of testing. So either my Copper Power is not quite as strong, my syringe is off or something in the tank absorbed some copper. Thanks again!

 

[HotRocks]

Just an update. I kept dosing until therapeutic. Once I got there it has held steady for 3 days in a row now. Hanna Checker has only been .03 different on 3 days of testing. So either my Copper Power is not quite as strong, my syringe is off or something in the tank absorbed some copper. Thanks again!

At any rate, whatever it may be, sounds like you have it holding steady now. Which is what you want!