Therapeutic Copper Hiding Disease?

[Zenchi]

Nearly every fish shop around here runs therapeutic copper in their tanks. Also Liveaquaria's divers den runs .15ppm in their system. After getting a fish and have it break out in velvet several days later despite copper in their tanks, I was curious, can running therapeutic levels of copper suppress a disease while the fish is still a carrier?

Any lapse in copper concentration during treatment can result in a failed round of medication. Is it possible running lower levels does just enough to keep the fish looking healthy when purchased just for the disease to rear its ugly head later on?

 

[HairyGary]

Yes. I run copper power over 2.0 and monitor with hanna checker. It has worked well but I suggest reading this thread:

BAD NEWS - Velvet Strain Survives 1.75 PPM Copper!

Breaking News: We believe we have discovered at least one strain of velvet that survives 1.75 PPM copper, we recommend increasing to 2.0PPM to eradicate it. @HotRocks and I have quarantined hundreds of fish over the past year and we've unfortunately learned a lot of hard lessons we can pass to...

www.reef2reef.com

Further, as much as I love my LFS, I do not trust what their idea of " therapeutic" entails. There are too many variables at a LFS and too many cooks in the kitchen if you will. I always personally monitor and treat at home regardless.