Copper? What copper? (Where did it go?!)

[Maritimer]

Hi All!

So I've got a QT set up, took all the rock out of Zoey's Reef, collected all the fish and moved them over last Sunday (a week ago). Dosed the only copper medication I could find locally, Kordon's "Safe Copper-Aid" (active ingredient, Chelated Copper Sulfate), according to directions on the bottle on ... Sunday or Monday. (5ml / 4 gallons) The label says that should keep the appropriate level of copper for the full month of treatment. Just to put my mind at rest, I picked up a Salifert test kit yesterday, and ran the test this morning. Twice. Not a trace of blue in the vial! What? There's no copper in my QT?!

The tank is filtered by an Aqua-Clear 110, sponge and ceramic noodles (which were innoculated in the sump of the reef) only. Decor and security for the fish is PVC connectors, so there's not much to absorb the medication.

Any thoughts on why my test might be coming up a blank?

I have a bottle of Brightwell Aquatics' "Cuprion" that I could use (after a full water change?), but was nervous about using that one without the copper test in hand.

Thanks in advance . . .

~Bruce

 

[Humblefish]

Salifert is meant for low range, ionic copper (like Cupramine or Cuprion). For chelated copper you need a test kit like API that can measure in the high range.

So, I would either do a large WC/run carbon and switch over to Cuprion. Or pickup an API copper test kit.

 

[Maritimer]

<sigh>

Thanks, Humblefish!

At least I know it's the test and not the tank (or at least I think I do!) I've grown to feel complete revulsion at the idea that there might be a single theront in any water in this household, swimming free and wild ... and not being poisoned to death.

~Bruce

 

[Maritimer]

Not my choice to make, after all . . .

There are fresh white sprinkles on one of my fish. (A coral beauty, as luck would have it... At least they're easy to see on a coral beauty . . . ) Have done a 20-gallon water change (just over 50%, as the tank isn't quite full). Have a bag of carbon in the filter, which I'll soon have to remove. I have Cuprion. I have a test that should read Cuprion. "One drop per gallon to raise CU to 0.2ppm" is the sum total of the instructions. 4.0ppm is a therapeutic dose, from what I've been able to uncover. (Brightwell doesn't go out of their way to make this easy . . . ) I'm thinking one drop per two gallons tonight, and again in the morning, watching the fishes' behavior as we go. Same thing tomorrow evening, and depending on what I think the fish are telling me, the following evening - and then test, watch, and wait... With dartfish, wrasses and a blenny in addition to the angelfish, I'm not confident that I can carry them all through the next week, never mind out to the middle of May - but darn it, I'll try.

~Bruce, with determination - and trepidation

 

[Humblefish]

Cuprion is rather uncommon (because of its cost) and there's not a lot of info out there about it.

Everything I know about it comes from here: http://brightwellaquatics.com/products/cupriont.php

And here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2351122

If it is indeed straight copper sulfate (which is what wholesalers use), you don't want to exceed 0.2 ppm with it.

 

[Maritimer]

Thank you (again!) Humblefish!

(Have you ever tried to work out how many fishy lives you've saved? Bet it's a lot!)

0.2ppm.

I'll try to come up slowly over the next couple of days on that number as a goal.

~Bruce