Ich/ gill flukes? and cupramine

[Carranneh]

I cycled my 50 gallon and it was great, 0ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5 nitrates. but then I added 6 new platies and 6 guppies to it. 1 of them died the first night, so I didn't get much opportunity to see what was wrong, and I couldn't see anything. Few days later, and 2 start flashing. 2 of them have very red, puffy looking gills. I can't see any spots.
At my lfs they recommended cupramine because that could deal with ich or flukes. Ok, so I'm on day 2 of cupramine. I've noticed my ammonia is up to .25, nitrite 0 and nitrates less than 5. Apparently ammonia can be a false positive when using cupramine.
Has anyone used cupramine? Did it work? Any advice? Am I doing the right thing?



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[Delapool]

Hi, I did come across this which seems to support the ammonia reading. Sorry, can't help on the test.



Q: Will the Cupramine kill nitrifying bacteria in the filter? I used it to treat the parasite problem in a 20g quarantine tank. Three days later, I tested the ammonia level, and it was about 0.5 ppm. The copper level was about 0.25 ppm, and the nitrite level was about 0ppm.

A: Cupramine may slightly retard the bacteria but overall it is safe to use and won't adversely affect the nitrifying bacteria. The reading of ammonia you're getting is most likely a false reading because Cupramine contains an organic amine which is very similar to ammonia in structure and the test kit is likely not able to distinguish between the two. You could try our MultiTest: Free and Total Ammonia test which does not have this issue and will not give a false positive... or you can use our Ammonia Alert which works on the same principal and will show only free ammonia.

http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Cupramine.html#faq4