Scared, possible overdose?

Alisha · May 4, 2016

Had a quarantine tank up with cupramine in it, we did a 30% water change and put a bag of carbon in. This weekend we brought home our purple tang and Desjardini tang. We put them in the qt and a couple of days ago I added half of the dosage of cupramine then yesterday I added the rest.... but I forgot we previously had cupramine in the tank!!! I tested the cupramine level and it looks to be in between 0.5 and 1.0! I am really nervous for my tangs this was such a stupid mistake, they are both eating and acting normal I put some carbon back in to hopefully pull out some of the cupramine. Is this fatal?

Any suggestions?

Alisha · May 4, 2016

I have read that overdosing can cause damage to the gills, will this kill the fish? Should I stop the quarantine process?

46gReef · May 4, 2016

My understanding is that most fish can tolerate a copper level of 0.8mg/ml but 0.5mg/ml is the target concentration. I would just do a water change and get your level back to 0.5mg/ml.

Alisha · May 4, 2016

Thanks

Alisha · May 4, 2016

Has anyone out there ever accidentally overdosed?

Alisha · May 4, 2016

Sorry to jump in but I think I overdosed cupramine. I previously was running it in my qt and we did a 30% water change and ran carbon. I added half of the cupramine dosage a couple off days ago then added the rest yesterday. I tested the cupramine level and it looks to be in between 0.5 and 1.0! I'm really scared for my tangs

I put the carbon back in to hopefully help take some of the cupramine out... the tangs both look good swimming fine and eating but I heard overdosing can damage their gills. Any suggestions/comments, is this fatal?

Humblefish · May 4, 2016

Alisha said:
Has anyone out there ever accidentally overdosed?

I believe @4FordFamily has run Cupramine at levels exceeding 0.5 mg/L; but as suggested above I would do water changes to get it back down to 0.5 ASAP.

Alisha · May 4, 2016

Will do! Thank you!

Humblefish · May 4, 2016

Alisha said:
Will do! Thank you!

I moved your other post into this thread, so everything is focused in one place. I believe your tangs will be fine, but its best to get the copper level back within therapeutic range (0.35 - 0.5 mg/L for Cupramine) to ensure no further damage is done. Fish are individuals, and like people have different tolerances to the same medication.

I'll also call in the [HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG] so we can get everyone's input on this.

eatbreakfast · May 4, 2016

A water change is the single fastest way to dilute the copper.

If you haven't seen any issues yet, then I wouldn't worry too much.

4FordFamily · May 4, 2016

Humblefish said:
I believe @4FordFamily has run Cupramine at levels exceeding 0.5 mg/L; but as suggested above I would do water changes to get it back down to 0.5 ASAP.

I have safely run cupramine at .7+ levels I think even close to .8 for a week before I caught it.

I have also mixed .5 cupramine with full dose of coppersafe with only one fish loss, a yellow tang that stopped eating. My other 9 tangs, two wrasse, gobies, blenny, and flame angel were seemingly unaffected.

This high copper level concentration occurred for months in both cases, I had my doubts of cupramine effectiveness hence my increase in the amount used.