Testing Cupramine with a UV-Spectrophotometer

alg · Aug 6, 2015

I managed to get my hands on a used Hach DR 4000 U spectrophotometer for an awesome deal. I've had a little experience using these machines in the past, but am definitely no expert! I thought it would be great to be able to more accurately test the copper levels in my QT tanks. I'm a fan of Cupramine so I've been digging around online trying to figure out what the correct test would be for measuring Cupramine levels, or if it's possible.

It seems like the Bicinchoninate would be the best fit in terms of range? (Porphyrin seems too low range and Colorimetric seems too high?) But I'm also wondering about the reagents -- I know the Salifert / SeaChem test kits are preferable to API test kits for measuring Cupramine, and I'm not sure if that's because they use different reagents (Salifert / SeaChem color charts are blue versus API color chart is more yellow...). Any input would be greatly appreciated!!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 6, 2015

Unfortunately, Seachem doesn't reveal what the amine part of Cupramine is (I asked a few years back in the context of a test kit question, and they declined to answer it clearly), so I can't be sure what methods or reagents would work best, except perhaps using reagents in a kit that Seachem says are OK for Cupramine.