How did my cupramine levels drop so much

kesh · Nov 13, 2017

Hi. I had a cupramine reading at 0.45 ish @25 gallons using salifert test kit. I wanted to increase my water volume to 26 gallon. So i top off with 1 gallon freshwater. Then i added the remaining dose to get it up to 0.5 based on my my new water volume.
However, 48 hours later when i tested the level twice, it seems to be below 0.25.
How did it drop so much only by adding 1 gallon of water.
No substrate or live rock in the water. Using Fluval C3 filter with fluval bio media.

This was the dosed administered - 86 drops initially. After the top off, i added another 13 drops. Should be 0.5@ 26 g following this dose. Gosh, im freaking out cz im scared to add more cupramine.

Here was the pre-top off pics
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/cupramine-pics-help-me-read.336207/#post-4180570

Brew12 · Nov 13, 2017

Do you have any sand or rock in your system? What are you using for filtration?

JaimeAdams · Nov 13, 2017

What is that fluval bio media made of?

kesh · Nov 13, 2017

Brew12 said:
Do you have any sand or rock in your system? What are you using for filtration?

No sand or rock, a bare bottom tank. It did had live rock. However, i have removed all live rock prior to dosing. There is very little residue from the live rock that is left on the bottom. Here's a pic. I dont think it should affect

kesh · Nov 13, 2017

JaimeAdams said:
What is that fluval bio media made of?

https://my.miscota.com/fish/fluval/...MIn5fMsY281wIVGB4rCh1NtgOPEAQYASABEgIntPD_BwE
Here's the link of the product.

Brew12 · Nov 13, 2017

kesh said:
https://my.miscota.com/fish/fluval/...MIn5fMsY281wIVGB4rCh1NtgOPEAQYASABEgIntPD_BwE
Here's the link of the product.

I need to learn how to read

The Fluval Biomax will absorb copper. I didn't expect it to absorb this much though. This does show why daily testing is so important and yes, I would recommend you dosing back up by adding more copper.

JaimeAdams · Nov 13, 2017

Obviously my mind wants to jump to the ceramic bio media absorbing the copper, but I do not know if it can do that or not. I would continue to look for a definitive answer but would also increase the copper levels to .5

kesh · Nov 13, 2017

I've shoot Seachem a link of this question. Hope to hear from them soon

kesh · Nov 13, 2017

Omitted earlier. The levels were testing consistent before the top off. Im also puzzled being only 1 gallon

Bouncingsoul39 · Nov 13, 2017

You should only run a sponge in the HOB for filtration. Cupramine is a headache, there's really no reason to use it over Coppersafe unless you are treating sharks and rays.

kesh · Nov 13, 2017

Bouncingsoul39 said:
You should only run a sponge in the HOB for filtration. Cupramine is a headache, there's really no reason to use it over Coppersafe unless you are treating sharks and rays.

It was my first time using copper based treatment. Didn't know what to expect. Will try coppersafe next time (hope i dont need to

)

kesh · Nov 13, 2017

Also, does anyone have picture of what cupramine 0.5 should look like using salifert just for my reference? Please do share

kesh · Nov 15, 2017

Just an update

Using dosing guidelines, my QT will require 100 [email protected]. I've now dosed almost 200 drops and it's only reading approx @0.35 is.
I will continue dosing until it hits 0.5 again. If it drops again, I'm gonna remove half of the bio-media or just leave the sponge alone. It's so frustrating.

Any thoughts on this guys.
@4FordFamily @Humblefish , @Randy Holmes-Farley @Maritimer Love to hear your thoughts on this too.

kesh · Nov 15, 2017

Here's the test pic after the last dose (200 drops). Does this look like 0.5.

Brew12 · Nov 15, 2017

Unfortunately, I've never used that test kit so I can't offer any advice on how to read it.

kesh said:
I've shoot Seachem a link of this question. Hope to hear from them soon

Did they ever respond?

4FordFamily · Nov 15, 2017

kesh said:
Just an update

Using dosing guidelines, my QT will require 100 [email protected]. I've now dosed almost 200 drops and it's only reading approx @0.35 is.

I will continue dosing until it hits 0.5 again. If it drops again, I'm gonna remove half of the bio-media or just leave the sponge alone. It's so frustrating.

Any thoughts on this guys.
@4FordFamily @Humblefish , @Randy Holmes-Farley @Maritimer Love to hear your thoughts on this too.

I’m sorry if this has been addressed — any rock, sand, media like copper phosban or cuprisorb, or polyfiber pads in tank?

The dosage on the bottle says to repeat dosage, that trips up some people. 20 drops per 10.5 gallons, then repeat 48 hours later, is how the bottle reads in essence.

kesh · Nov 15, 2017

4FordFamily said:
I’m sorry if this has been addressed — any rock, sand, media like copper phosban or cuprisorb, or polyfiber pads in tank?

The dosage on the bottle says to repeat dosage, that trips up some people. 20 drops per 10.5 gallons, then repeat 48 hours later, is how the bottle reads in essence.

No sand. No copper phosban. No cuprisorb. No carbon.
There was live rock in the water. However, the live rock was removed prior to dosing. There is a little residue left behind from the LR. I've attached pic above. I dont think it would have affect it by throwing the reading off almost 0.4.
Im using Fluval C3 Filter and the filter media that comes with it. What is in the filter media is PolyFoam Pad, Fluval Bio-Pad, Fluval C-Nodes, Fluval Bio-Max
The following is the extract from Fluvat site - Fluval Rigorous 2-stage mechanical filtration is performed by a thick layer of poly/foam that effectively traps large and fine debris. The foam slides out easily for quick cleaning. In the final two stages, a Bio-Screen pad provides massive biological surface area for friendly bacteria to colonize, plus it blocks debris from entering a trickle chamber filled with C-Nodes that are super-charged for fast and efficient nitrification.
What is a polyfiber pad? I've searched images but I'm uncertain if the sponge is also a polypad. The fluval sponge is two sided. One side looks like polyfiber, the other a sponge.
Below are the pics and a video link on what the filter media looks like

kesh · Nov 15, 2017

Brew12 said:
Unfortunately, I've never used that test kit so I can't offer any advice on how to read it.

Did they ever respond?

Seachem Support 10256 (Seachem Laboratories)
Mysterious. I would suspect that this is a situation where the substrate or filter media is retaining some of the copper temporarily (don't worry, it will come out with carbon once you remove the medication from the tank). This can result in lower-than-expected copper readings in your system. If you trust your test kit (and we have no reason to believe that Salifert test kits would read our medication improperly) then it should be fine to continue the treatment from this point.

Thank you,
Seachem Support

Im guessing it's related to one of the filter media.

kesh · Nov 15, 2017

JaimeAdams said:
Obviously my mind wants to jump to the ceramic bio media absorbing the copper, but I do not know if it can do that or not. I would continue to look for a definitive answer but would also increase the copper levels to .5

Hi, do checkout my new reply to 4fordfamily on all the filter media. Could any of those be known to be absorbing in particular? Cheers