JohnM
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi Everyone,
As a newbie to this hobby, I just thought I would pass along my experience with using CopperSafe to treat an Ich breakout, and wondered if anyone had similar findings.
About two weeks after setting up my 10g aquarium, I noticed that one of my Platys (and a day later, all three of them) had the dreaded white spots. I started treatment with CopperSafe, along with adding aquarium salt to the water (none previously) and raising the temperature in the tank to about 80 degrees F. In about two days the spots were gone, but given the lifecycle of the parasite, I kept the CopperSafe in for about 2 1/2 weeks. In treating the parasite, CopperSafe certainly was fast and effective.
As the new tank had not cycled yet, during the 2 1/2 weeks of treatment I had to do frequent water changes to keep the ammonia down (but at the same time add new CopperSafe to the exchange water to keep the concentration up). This is where the fun began. I would measure for ammonia and get a reading of 1 ppm, and so decide to do a water change. I would cycle 10g of water into the tank, in two batches of 5g. After this I would have expected the ammonia to read approx. 0.25 ppm. But upon testing, I would still read 1.0 ppm. So the scientist in me decided to do a little experiment to determine where the "extra" ammonia was coming from. I tested my tap water in a bucket and got 1.0 ppm. After adding AquaSafe, the reading went down to 0.25 ppm. Added salt. Reading still 0.25 ppm. Added the appropriate concentration of CopperSafe to the bucket - ammonia shot up to 1.0 ppm.
Has anyone else seen this behaviour? I suspect that the CopperSafe is interfering with the test (Aquarium Phar. Master test kit), so while the meds were in the tank I no longer trusted the tests and just did daily water changes. Also, I certainly believe that the addition of the CopperSafe delayed the cycling of the tank, despite marketing materials indicating that it "will not interfere with the biological filter". With the meds now cycled out of the tank, the water tests are showing signs of Nitrites. The fish seem healthy and active.
As a newbie to this hobby, I just thought I would pass along my experience with using CopperSafe to treat an Ich breakout, and wondered if anyone had similar findings.
About two weeks after setting up my 10g aquarium, I noticed that one of my Platys (and a day later, all three of them) had the dreaded white spots. I started treatment with CopperSafe, along with adding aquarium salt to the water (none previously) and raising the temperature in the tank to about 80 degrees F. In about two days the spots were gone, but given the lifecycle of the parasite, I kept the CopperSafe in for about 2 1/2 weeks. In treating the parasite, CopperSafe certainly was fast and effective.
As the new tank had not cycled yet, during the 2 1/2 weeks of treatment I had to do frequent water changes to keep the ammonia down (but at the same time add new CopperSafe to the exchange water to keep the concentration up). This is where the fun began. I would measure for ammonia and get a reading of 1 ppm, and so decide to do a water change. I would cycle 10g of water into the tank, in two batches of 5g. After this I would have expected the ammonia to read approx. 0.25 ppm. But upon testing, I would still read 1.0 ppm. So the scientist in me decided to do a little experiment to determine where the "extra" ammonia was coming from. I tested my tap water in a bucket and got 1.0 ppm. After adding AquaSafe, the reading went down to 0.25 ppm. Added salt. Reading still 0.25 ppm. Added the appropriate concentration of CopperSafe to the bucket - ammonia shot up to 1.0 ppm.
Has anyone else seen this behaviour? I suspect that the CopperSafe is interfering with the test (Aquarium Phar. Master test kit), so while the meds were in the tank I no longer trusted the tests and just did daily water changes. Also, I certainly believe that the addition of the CopperSafe delayed the cycling of the tank, despite marketing materials indicating that it "will not interfere with the biological filter". With the meds now cycled out of the tank, the water tests are showing signs of Nitrites. The fish seem healthy and active.
