Cupramine dosing with Hanna Checker

[RichardL]

Hi R2R,

It is my first time to use copper to quarantine.

I just purchased a new hanna copper checker and a new SeaChem Cupramine. I went through a lot of threads here and decided to dose and improve the concentration slowly (instead of the 48 hours as the official instruction, I add half every 24 hours in the first 4 days).

To be more specific, I have 5 gallon water, with the official instruction I should add 10 drops at day 1, and another 10 drops at day 3, 20 drops in total. Instead, I added 5 drops everyday for 4 days, it should achieve 0.5ppm but I test twice and only get 0.15ppm. Then I add 10 more drops, but it is just 0.18. This excludes the probability of time reduction.

The only media I put in the HOB is floss.

Any thoughts will help, I am worried the problem is the checker, so I don't know whether keep on dosing or not.

 

[RichardL]

@Humblefish @Jay Hemdal

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi R2R,

It is my first time to use copper to quarantine.

I just purchased a new hanna copper checker and a new SeaChem Cupramine. I went through a lot of threads here and decided to dose and improve the concentration slowly (instead of the 48 hours as the official instruction, I add half every 24 hours in the first 4 days).

To be more specific, I have 5 gallon water, with the official instruction I should add 10 drops at day 1, and another 10 drops at day 3, 20 drops in total. Instead, I added 5 drops everyday for 4 days, it should achieve 0.5ppm but I test twice and only get 0.15ppm. Then I add 10 more drops, but it is just 0.18. This excludes the probability of time reduction.

The only media I put in the HOB is floss.

Any thoughts will help, I am worried the problem is the checker, so I don't know whether keep on dosing or not.

Dose at max level .5 for full 30 days and monitor ammonia level

 

[RichardL]

Dose at max level .5 for full 30 days and monitor ammonia level

I know it should be .5 as therapeutic level, my question is why the concentration is so low w.r.t. the correct dosing

 

[vetteguy53081]

I know it should be .5 as therapeutic level, my question is why the concentration is so low w.r.t. the correct dosing

It’s ionic and more potent than chelated form

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi R2R,

It is my first time to use copper to quarantine.

I just purchased a new hanna copper checker and a new SeaChem Cupramine. I went through a lot of threads here and decided to dose and improve the concentration slowly (instead of the 48 hours as the official instruction, I add half every 24 hours in the first 4 days).

To be more specific, I have 5 gallon water, with the official instruction I should add 10 drops at day 1, and another 10 drops at day 3, 20 drops in total. Instead, I added 5 drops everyday for 4 days, it should achieve 0.5ppm but I test twice and only get 0.15ppm. Then I add 10 more drops, but it is just 0.18. This excludes the probability of time reduction.

The only media I put in the HOB is floss.

Any thoughts will help, I am worried the problem is the checker, so I don't know whether keep on dosing or not.

Do you have the HR Hanna HI702 or the the low range, HI747? The low range is better for the range that ionic copper like cupramine is used at, while the high range is best for amine-chelated copper like Coppersafe. If you use the high range to test for ionic copper at lower levels, the accuracy of the device can muddle the readings. On the other hand, the low range unit does not specifically say that it can be used in marine aquariums, it only mentions freshwater. As far as I know, both tests use the same reagent, so the low range should work, Hanna just doesn't actually say that it does.

Either way - your readings are off by a lot more than can be accounted for by testing error with the readers themselves.

What you should do is mix up exactly one gallon of seawater. Run the Hanna tester on that, it should read zero (not blinking showing less than zero). Then add exactly two drops of the cupramine, and stir well and test that. You should get a reading of slightly more than 0.50 ppm. If you don't, then it is most likely an issue with the cupramine.

Just for future reference, don't take four days to get to full copper, 48 hours is best for ionic copper, while amine chelated copper can get to full dose in a few hours.

Jay

 

[RichardL]

Do you have the HR Hanna HI702 or the the low range, HI747? The low range is better for the range that ionic copper like cupramine is used at, while the high range is best for amine-chelated copper like Coppersafe. If you use the high range to test for ionic copper at lower levels, the accuracy of the device can muddle the readings. On the other hand, the low range unit does not specifically say that it can be used in marine aquariums, it only mentions freshwater. As far as I know, both tests use the same reagent, so the low range should work, Hanna just doesn't actually say that it does.

Either way - your readings are off by a lot more than can be accounted for by testing error with the readers themselves.

What you should do is mix up exactly one gallon of seawater. Run the Hanna tester on that, it should read zero (not blinking showing less than zero). Then add exactly two drops of the cupramine, and stir well and test that. You should get a reading of slightly more than 0.50 ppm. If you don't, then it is most likely an issue with the cupramine.

Just for future reference, don't take four days to get to full copper, 48 hours is best for ionic copper, while amine chelated copper can get to full dose in a few hours.

Jay

Thank you Jay! I use 702 HR. I didn't know there are 2 types. By the way, for cupramine, whether Hanna is the most accurate? Or the SeaChem checker?

I take 4 days choice after reading some related threads and some other say this is more beneficial for the fish. I will not do this in the future, thanks.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thank you Jay! I use 702 HR. I didn't know there are 2 types. By the way, for cupramine, whether Hanna is the most accurate? Or the SeaChem checker?

I take 4 days choice after reading some related threads and some other say this is more beneficial for the fish. I will not do this in the future, thanks.

I’d say the Hanna HR is going to give more accurate results than the Seachem, mainly due to removing the ambiguity of trying to match color changes.
The danger in taking longer to get to full copper is that until you reach a full dose, the fish aren’t protected. You don’t want to dose ionic copper faster than 48 hours though.