Coppersafe dosage incorrect on bottle?

drawman · Jan 9, 2017

I've heard mixed things and I just want to verify. Coppersafe recommends dosing 1 tsp/4 gallons of water...per their website this only yields a concentration of .15-.2 ppm. Therapeutic range is 1.5-2.0ppm which is 10x the recommended dose. Is this a typo or am I taking crazy pills?

@Humblefish @melypr1985 can you comment?

http://fritzaquatics.com/product/coppersafe/

melypr1985 · Jan 9, 2017

drawman said:
I've heard mixed things and I just want to verify. Coppersafe recommends dosing 1 tsp/4 gallons of water...per their website this only yields a concentration of .15-.2 ppm. Therapeutic range is 1.5-2.0ppm which is 10x the recommended dose. Is this a typo or am I taking crazy pills?

@Humblefish @melypr1985 can you comment?

You are correct. Their dosage seems to be meant for those that keep copper in their displays all the time (such as in a freshwater tank though I dont know anybody who keeps copper in the FW tanks).

drawman · Jan 9, 2017

melypr1985 said:
You are correct. Their dosage seems to be meant for those that keep copper in their displays all the time (such as in a freshwater tank though I dont know anybody who keeps copper in the FW tanks).

Well that's frustrating. I guess I will slowly raise and test to be sure. I may add a small dose tonight maybe 1/2 tsp/4 gallons and test tomorrow just to make sure I don't go nuking anything!

melypr1985 · Jan 9, 2017

drawman said:
Well that's frustrating. I guess I will slowly raise and test to be sure. I may add a small dose tonight maybe 1/2 tsp/4 gallons and test tomorrow just to make sure I don't go nuking anything!

going slow is never a bad thing, unless you are dealing with velvet of course.

drawman · Jan 9, 2017

melypr1985 said:
going slow is never a bad thing, unless you are dealing with velvet of course.

Well I didn't listen to myself and dosed 12.5mL which corresponds to the recommended dose (to bring me to .15-.2ppm). Tested about 10 min later and level is off the chart near 4.0ppm. I'm heating saltwater for an emergency water change. I guess I will contact Fritz Aquatics and let them know their dosing is off. Fish are swimming fine thankfully. I'm an idiot tonight!

rs1831 · Jan 9, 2017

I've used coppersafe in the past and 1 tsp per 4 gallons is correct, or at least it seemed that way with the API Cu+ test kit. I would take it slow and test as you move it up so that you don't blow by the correct dosage. Good luck!

melypr1985 · Jan 9, 2017

drawman said:
Well I didn't listen to myself and dosed 12.5mL which corresponds to the recommended dose (to bring me to .15-.2ppm). Tested about 10 min later and level is off the chart near 4.0ppm. I'm heating saltwater for an emergency water change. I guess I will contact Fritz Aquatics and let them know their dosing is off. Fish are swimming fine thankfully. I'm an idiot tonight!

Maybe try testing it again after it's been in there for 30 minutes. See if it still reads the same before doing a water change.

drawman · Jan 9, 2017

melypr1985 said:
Maybe try testing it again after it's been in there for 30 minutes. See if it still reads the same before doing a water change.

I will and will report back. In the meantime 2 heaters are working overtime for me

drawman · Jan 9, 2017

Still sitting at 4.0ppm. Water is close to heated up enough so I will be doing a large change soon!

Humblefish · Jan 9, 2017

drawman said:
I guess I will contact Fritz Aquatics and let them know their dosing is off.

I've contacted them about this, and while the gentleman I spoke to was very nice, he didn't seem to "get it". Let's just hope they leave the original Mardel formula for making Coppersafe alone.

drawman · Jan 9, 2017

Humblefish said:
I've contacted them about this, and while the gentleman I spoke to was very nice, he didn't seem to "get it".

That's too bad. Drsfostersmith has the same dosage documented on their site too sadly it's likely copied and pasted. Well hopefully others can find this thread in case they run into a similar situation.

Humblefish · Jan 9, 2017

drawman said:
That's too bad. Drsfostersmith has the same dosage documented on their site too sadly it's likely copied and pasted. Well hopefully others can find this thread in case they run into a similar situation.

Well, for anyone reading this: 1 teaspoon (5ml) per 4 gals is the correct dosage to land you somewhere within therapeutic range for Coppersafe (1.5 - 2.0 ppm). However, it is very important to use a total copper test kit (such as API's) for measuring chelated copper as is found in Coppersafe.

drawman · Jan 9, 2017

Just did a 80-90% water change and tested again. On my new API kit it is bright yellow and the closest match for me is about 1.0ppm. It could be less and could be the fluorescent lighting making it a little harder for me to read. Fish are hiding from all of the commotion and I will see how they respond over the next 24hrs. Thankfully they weren't in elevated copper very long.

melypr1985 · Jan 9, 2017

drawman said:
Just did a 80-90% water change and tested again. On my new API kit it is bright yellow and the closest match for me is about 1.0ppm. It could be less and could be the fluorescent lighting making it a little harder for me to read. Fish are hiding from all of the commotion and I will see how they respond over the next 24hrs. Thankfully they weren't in elevated copper very long.

be sure you are reading the test from above and not from the side of the test tube.

Brew12 · Jan 10, 2017

Humblefish said:
Well, for anyone reading this: 1 teaspoon (5ml) per 4 gals is the correct dosage to land you somewhere within therapeutic range for Coppersafe (1.5 - 2.0 ppm). However, it is very important to use a total copper test kit (such as API's) for measuring chelated copper as is found in Coppersafe.

This is interesting. I have used coppersafe and have had to add much more than that to get it to read correctly on an API test kit. I got less than 0.5ppm with the recommended dose.
Makes me wonder if there is a lot of variation in the potency of their product.

Brew12 · Jan 10, 2017

This bothered me enough that I grabbed 1 gallon of saltwater and added 1/4 teaspoon of Coppersafe. Mixed it in the water with a powerhead to get good distribution. Just measured it with my API test kit. While my test kit showed a little more yellow than the color sheet, I would have put it between 0.25 and 0.5

It was no where near dark enough to be close to 2.0.
I may need to run out and get another bottle of coppersafe and another API test kit and run some trials on this. Something isn't right. Especially since I know others on these forums have also needed to add much more than the recommended dose.

drawman · Jan 10, 2017

melypr1985 said:
be sure you are reading the test from above and not from the side of the test tube.

Yup it's from above

drawman · Jan 10, 2017

Brew12 said:
This is interesting. I have used coppersafe and have had to add much more than that to get it to read correctly on an API test kit. I got less than 0.5ppm with the recommended dose.
Makes me wonder if there is a lot of variation in the potency of their product.

Brew12 said:
This bothered me enough that I grabbed 1 gallon of saltwater and added 1/4 teaspoon of Coppersafe. Mixed it in the water with a powerhead to get good distribution. Just measured it with my API test kit. While my test kit showed a little more yellow than the color sheet, I would have put it between 0.25 and 0.5 It was no where near dark enough to be close to 2.0.
I may need to run out and get another bottle of coppersafe and another API test kit and run some trials on this. Something isn't right. Especially since I know others on these forums have also needed to add much more than the recommended dose.

Hey thanks for looking into it and doing a test. Either their quality control is inconsistent and I got a super strong batch or my API test kit is off. Both are essentially brand new and were bought within the last couple of months.

FWIW I dosed 12.5mL using a graduated pipette to a 10 gallon QT so it was a fairly accurate measurement. Also I inverted the bottle a few times before use although I would imagine there is no real settling.

Humblefish · Jan 10, 2017

@drawman Do you know anyone else with an API copper test kit? LFS perhaps? I would double check your reading; it might be your test kit that is off.

Brew12 · Jan 10, 2017

drawman said:
Hey thanks for looking into it and doing a test. Either their quality control is inconsistent and I got a super strong batch or my API test kit is off. Both are essentially brand new and were bought within the last couple of months.

FWIW I dosed 12.5mL using a graduated pipette to a 10 gallon QT so it was a fairly accurate measurement. Also I inverted the bottle a few times before use although I would imagine there is no real settling.

I purchased both of mine in the last few months, also.

I plan on doing more testing on this when I get home. This has my head spinning a bit right now.