Cupramine super confusion

[mrmole83]

I have 7 fishes and they just got an outbreak of ich since i introduce and aurega butterfly without quarantining (.

I transfered all the fish to a 180l hospital tank and have been dosing cupramine for 3 days already. I dose a total of 20ml already but still have not reached .5 from my salifert cu test kit. It reads somewhere between 0 and .25. I am not super confused and dont wanna overdose the fishes. Could you help me with whats going wrong???

 

[EmdeReef]

What do you have in your hospital tank?

any sand or rocks?

 

[HotRocks]

What do you have in your hospital tank?

any sand or rocks?

This^^^^

Are you allowing the test time to develop?

Carbon filter inserts?

 

[Deiblerj]

Make sure you don’t have any carbon running in the tank

 

[Big G]

Do you have access to Seachem's Copper Test Kit?
Seachem recommends 1 ml per 40 l of tank water dosed twice. So your 180 l tank would be two doses of 4.5 ml. At 2ml (total dosage) per 40 l of tank, you should have been at .5 with 9ml total. So if you have dosed a bare tank that does not have any sand, rock or running carbon or any other copper absorbing materials, your tank is seriously overdosed at 20 ml. of cupramine and your fish are at risk.

 

[mrmole83]

I have 2 piece of small rocks. 2 sponge filter. One overflow filter which i discarded the carbon. The fish are holding well. Even the copperband and the auriga. The sailfin tang is the only one gasping harder from yesterday. I was very confused because the tests are almost not detectable. So I dropped 1 drop of cupramine into the test vial with 2ml tank water with the test solution drops and it did change color but not reaching >2mg/l. I am trying to get a second opinion with another test. Will update!

 

[4FordFamily]

This sounds like velvet if it’s progressing this fast :-/

More importantly, a tank that size with that much going on could be experiencing absorption. The Hanna copper checker is the most reliable, cost-effective way to know how much copper you’re working with.

In large tanks with rock you’d be surprised what can be absorbed!

 

[mrmole83]

This sounds like velvet if it’s progressing this fast :-/

More importantly, a tank that size with that much going on could be experiencing absorption. The Hanna copper checker is the most reliable, cost-effective way to know how much copper you’re working with.

In large tanks with rock you’d be surprised what can be absorbed!

Its really weird because i even put 1 drop of cupramine in like 2ml water to see the color change and it did not go >2...

 

[HotRocks]

Its really weird because i even put 1 drop of cupramine in like 2ml water to see the color change and it did not go >2...

How old is test kit?

Are you doing all of the steps for testing?

 

[mrmole83]

How old is test kit?

Are you doing all of the steps for testing?

Man i just got a sera CU test kit and you know what? The reading is between .6 and 1.1... I had the salifert test kit opened for a year already...

I got some ROwa carbon in and changed 1/4 water... the fish seems okay... just breathing a bit hard, alot less spot but arent eating yet. What else should I do?

 

[HotRocks]

I

Man i just got a sera CU test kit and you know what? The reading is between .6 and 1.1... I had the salifert test kit opened for a year already...

I got some ROwa carbon in and changed 1/4 water... the fish seems okay... just breathing a bit hard, alot less spot but arent eating yet. What else should I do?

Was suspect of your kit.

Glad you figured it out. Reduce copper ASAP by water change.

 

[Big G]

Get the Cupramine level down to the therapeutic range of .5, add a powerhead pointed towards the surface to where it's actively rippling the water surface. This will greatly increase the O2 level in the water column. Pristine water conditions & high quality vitamin rich "frozen or live" foods to help your fish's immune system to recover.