Copper in quarantine?
 

Hi I've been battling Marine Ich for over a month and a half and well after losing 4 fish I have definitely learned my lesson.

I have set up a 30 gallon quarantine tank with glass barebottom, PVC pipes and only sponge/ammonia filtration. It has been running for about a month and I'd like to re-stock my display tank with fish at some point in the future, so I'm wondering what do you guys use for copper medications in your quarantine tanks?

Cupramine by Seachem is available to me locally, does anyone use this one and have success with it?

Any tips / pointers would be great this is my first time quarantining marine fish and I want to make sure I do it correct right from the beginning. Thanks.

I use cupramine and it is the only one I would use
Make sure you follow the instructions and test for the levels every day until it levels out and then every week or so after that
Use API or seachem tests kits
If the reading isn't close to what it should be buy another test kit as they can be unreliable especially the seachem
Don't waste your money on the API test it is junk

I'm confused you said use api or seachem then you said seachem is unreliable and not to use api cause it is junk....So what test kit should I pick up for testing copper?...

+1 Neal im confused

hey there
sorry about that..I answered in a hurry and on my Iphone
what I meant to say is....
I personally like the salifert Copper test and I find it to be the most accurate
I have gone through 3 API testkits and I have yet to get any reading that even looks close to what the reference cards shows.
I have used seachem and still do, but have had issues with a couple where they weren't showing what they were supposed to show.
I can't really comment on the others because I haven't used them.
so, salifert would be my first choice
seachem second
however, with any of them, if you do get a reading is not enough close enough to what you think, definitely retest.
I would personally buy 2 tests kits and test with both just to make sure.
copper, although very effective at killing parasites, can be just as effective killing your fish if the dose is too high.
let me know if you have any more questions.

I think the reason API kits are such garbage when testing cupramine is because the copper in them isn't really either 'free' or chelated. The copper is bound up in an organic amine complex, which makes it invisible to some tests, like API. It's also why you need to be really careful about dosing reducing agents like Prime or anything designed to make ammonia non-toxic, because they also reduce the copper in cupramine which can make Seachem's recommended copper level of 0.5ppm lethally toxic. For that reason, I wouldn't use cupramine in a system that wasn't 100% cycled, because it's so dangerous to dose water conditioners with it, and the most commonly available test kits for ammonia are salycilate tests (like APIs), which can break apart the amine complex and give a false reading of ammonia.

Also, I wouldn't necessarily agree that copper is that great at killing the parasite. It's totally ineffective against 2 out of the 4 main stages of the parasites life cycle, and one of those stages, the encysted tomont, is perfectly capable of staying in it's bulletproof little cyst for way longer than any fish could tolerate exposure to copper. In some instances, a two week course of cupramine (as recommended by Seachem) will be enough to clear a QT system of the parasite completely, but there are going to be just as many cases in which a tomont sits patiently in the QT system for 3 or 4 weeks, hatches after the aquarist has halted the copper treatment, and re-infects the whole system, leaving the aquarist to scratch their head and wonder what the hell is going on.

In all my reading and communicating with people who have made careers out of studying marine parasites, the only treatment method that has been shown to be 100% effective in eradicating the parasite from fish completely is the tank transfer method, or a hybrid method that functionally does the same thing, which is remove tomonts from the system and destroy them. The only things that are known to kill C. irritans tomonts in-situ will also kill all your fish.

if you are going to keep this system going after the fact, I would just leave the copper in it for your next purchase
if testing for ammonia, you will get a positive reading because some with bind with the copper - should typically show less some ammonia when tested but I found it to be less than lowest point on the API test - so it will test positve for ammonia but not by much.
as asylum mentions, don't use any other medications because they can bind with the ammonia and kill the fish and use the bare minimum of prime
Neal

If you do that, you'll be adding your new additions straight to full strength copper solution. Seachem recommends a 3 day acclimation process to get to 0.5ppm copper. The last time I used Cupramine I was using a Seachem test kit that was almost out of the powdered reagent so the test was underestimating the amount in solution. I accidentally brought the copper to 0.5-0.6ppm on the first day. 3 of 5 fish were dead the next morning. Even when the instructions are followed regarding acclimation, copper medications (including cupramine) still kill fish all the time, so IMO I would be even more conservative with how quickly you raise the copper levels than the instructions suggest. I can see running the system with copper when there's no fish in it so that the nitrogen cycle is totally adapted to it, but you should still bring the copper concentration down to 0 before you add any new fish, then acclimate those fish to therapeutic levels as recommended.

Hyposalinty
 

If it is just ich you're battling, why not use hyposalinity? Much simpler, and safer for your fish. Plus you won't have everything contaminated with Copper.

I have used hypo a few times now in QT with new fish, with 100% success.

I totally agree with the use of hyposalinity
if you can wait the 6 weeks, that is by far the best and safest treatment of ich.
what I do, empty out just over half the tank and fill it back up with fresh water...this should put you at about 1.010 which is where you want to be.
I have done this numerous times and there is no reason to bring the fish down slowly..just back up slowly over a 2 or 3 day period.

asylumdown
I will respectfully have to disagree.
I plunk fish into copper systems every time I bring fish in with little effect on 200 fish in them..with very little deaths.
it is the bringing the copper level up to the therapeutic level that is the dangerous part which is why I think seachem says do it over 48 hours..that is so you don't poison the fish with too much copper.
I totally agree that copper will kill fish..but as long as you keep it within the guidelines of seachem you should have little problems.
and adding cupramine will not effect the bacteria to where it will affect their ability to do their job..it is any live critters dying off within the live rock that may cause a small ammonia spike.