Quote:
Originally Posted by howdy20012002
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
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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.