Hi @Randy Holmes-Farley and other folks,
Here's my disaster story.. After a lot of research on the benefits and drawbacks of dosing my FOWLR display tank with copper power, I ended up dosing the entire tank according to the label.
Tank size: 230G
Dosing amount 11 Ounce (325ml)
I added the above amount in two doses (A few hours apart) and checked with Hanna Checker about one hour after dosing each time and the final reading came to 2.49ppm which is exactly the suggested concentration. Within a couple hours, I noticed signs of stress on the fish and cloudy eyes on angels. The next morning every single fish was dead. Lost 13 fish including my beloved and pretty chubby Harlequin Tusk. Unbelievable scene to wake up to..
I tested everything including Ammonia and other Nutrients but everything seemed to be pretty normal. After clearing the tank of all the lost lives, I decided to test the copper again and to my surprise, it read flashing 5ppm (Maxed out) on the Hanna (The sample turned dark purple - almost black). I am really baffled as how could the copper raise on its own after being stable at 2.5ppm according to the dosing instructions.
I am not a chemist so really don't know how this is possible. Only thing came to my mind is that I had dosed Prime right before adding the CP. The question is would it be possible for the reducer agent in Prime to break down the chelated copper causing the concentration to go double/triple in its toxic form?
I have read many places suggesting the Prime and CP are safe to use together so not sure if the theory above make any sense.
The only other thing on this tank that might be the cause is using Sulfur Denitrator but that I doubt would be the culprit.
Any thoughts?
Here's my disaster story.. After a lot of research on the benefits and drawbacks of dosing my FOWLR display tank with copper power, I ended up dosing the entire tank according to the label.
Tank size: 230G
Dosing amount 11 Ounce (325ml)
I added the above amount in two doses (A few hours apart) and checked with Hanna Checker about one hour after dosing each time and the final reading came to 2.49ppm which is exactly the suggested concentration. Within a couple hours, I noticed signs of stress on the fish and cloudy eyes on angels. The next morning every single fish was dead. Lost 13 fish including my beloved and pretty chubby Harlequin Tusk. Unbelievable scene to wake up to..
I tested everything including Ammonia and other Nutrients but everything seemed to be pretty normal. After clearing the tank of all the lost lives, I decided to test the copper again and to my surprise, it read flashing 5ppm (Maxed out) on the Hanna (The sample turned dark purple - almost black). I am really baffled as how could the copper raise on its own after being stable at 2.5ppm according to the dosing instructions.
I am not a chemist so really don't know how this is possible. Only thing came to my mind is that I had dosed Prime right before adding the CP. The question is would it be possible for the reducer agent in Prime to break down the chelated copper causing the concentration to go double/triple in its toxic form?
I have read many places suggesting the Prime and CP are safe to use together so not sure if the theory above make any sense.
The only other thing on this tank that might be the cause is using Sulfur Denitrator but that I doubt would be the culprit.
Any thoughts?