testing cupramine

[rbarb1111]

I have a clown fish in quarantine and he came down with ich i used cupramine about four days ago and followed the directions of 1 ml per 10 gallons two days apart . The fish looked dead at times but now seems to be doing well and eating great. i tested the water with a sea chem copper test kit today and i get almost no reading of copper.. Is this possible i have done no water changes yet only top off. I followed the directions on the test kit to the letter.

Thanks
Richard

 

[steve-s]

The test should give you a reading of 0.5 mg/l if the copper addition was done correctly. Could be the test kit is faulty as well. You can check that easily enough by adding an appropriate amount of Cupramine to RO water and try to verify the reading.

Is there any carbon, resin products, substrate or anything else that may sorb the Cupramine. Have you been using any kind of dechlorinator (if tap water)?

Cheers
Steve

 

[rbarb1111]

No , the tank is a barebotton 10 galon tank using ro water no carbon only a sponge in the hob filter. Does adding top off water lower the copper. The blue color on the test kit is very difficult to read. I used the refrence test and it did show a blue color. Should i add more cupramine to the water i don't want to od the fish.

Thanks
richard

 

[steve-s]

Does adding top off water lower the copper.

Only if you where to add more water than had originally evaporated.

The blue color on the test kit is very difficult to read. I used the refrence test and it did show a blue color. Should i add more cupramine to the water i don't want to od the fish.

Be sure you know what the current level of Cupramine in the system is or you will not know what amount to add to get the correct dosage in the QT.

If the sample regent supplied with the kit registers correctly the test should really be okay. Try repeating both tests (with sample regent and QT water) to see if you had an error in your steps somewhere while testing. For a 10 gal QT the dosage should have been 1 ml the first day and another ml in 48 hrs. If I remember correctly that's the equivalent of 20 drops each dose.

Cheers
Steve