# Anyone have any experience with Coppersafe?



## blackghostbetta (Mar 16, 2011)

I am treating ich in an aquarium, and was just wondering if this was a good medication to use? I know I'll have to remove my two mystery snails first. I have a black ghost knife fish, angelfish, blue ram, and gourami in this tank, will it hurt any of those fish? Do I need to use it half strength for the black ghost??


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## tinman (Nov 3, 2009)

i tried treating ich both ways 

1. with some ich cure medication. result : fish are fine but my plants re dead

2. raising the temperature to 86 slowly over a couple of days and leaving it there over a week. result : everything is fine. 

i would suggest treating ich wihtout medication. but also see what temp your fish are tolarable till.


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## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

Coppersafe is my choice anti-parasitic remedy in freshwater. If you do have live plants, you can easily sustain them in a closed system inside a bucket with clean water and good light for the duration of your treatment. Your tank will not have the aquascaping you used to, but you can easily remove the chance of your plants being killed. Moreso, without a host ich wont fare well in the bucket, and its procreation will be hindered.

I've had great success with copper safe, and have had horrible experiences with jungle tablets (the fizzy thingies), and although methylene blue, a gram dye is a great combatant for ich, its messy and can often stain objects in your system.

The carbon in your filter will remove excess copper II once its returned to your filter after the treatment rather quickly. You will have low levels of copper in your system forever though, but not enough to ever harm your plants, and or snails. I've kept many mystery and apple snails in systems previously treated with coppersafe with no ill effects (after the treatment has been completed and carbon ran for a few days)

I wouldnt place bettas in an environment exceeding 80 F, they will become very violent as the water temperature rises also. The copper with a small rise in temperature should be enough.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

A word of warning though, with meds containing copper you will never be able to inverts alive in it. That includes snails.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

The problem with copper meds, do one thing wrong and you kill everything. It is one of the only type of meds you HAVE to get all out of your tank after treatment has been completed. That should tell you something. It is not any faster or better than some other meds out there. Ich is too easy to cure to take such a chance, IMO.

Every time I have had ich in my tanks Quick Cure has gotten rid of in 3 days - if I medicated. You can also treat with temp. Slowly crank the temp to 89-90 and it will kill ich also. What ever treatment you decide to go with, keep treating until at least 3 days has passed since the last visible sign.


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## verdifer (Sep 8, 2010)

Ich can take a while to kill your fish so if you have spotted it early on then you could crank the heat up a bit to go that way, If my memory serves me correct in Freshwater Ich at 86 it can't multiply anymore and at 89 it kills it, so you have 2 options there.

1:Heat at 86 and ride it out as when the Ich starts to die you will not have more

OR

2:89 and go for full Nuke.

Quick Cure seems to get good reviews, I would give that a blast, you could set up a small QT tank, if you don't have a small tank at hand just get a big container from your local ASDA or Walmart if you live in the US.

Quick Cure can't be used with Snails or Crabs so it will rule out putting it in your Main Tank.

I spoke to 1 of the experts over at Wet Web Media a while ago and his answer to Meds for Ich was if it doesn't contain Copper it won't kill it.


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## BETTABOUTIQUE (Jan 16, 2011)

blackghostbetta said:


> I am treating ich in an aquarium, and was just wondering if this was a good medication to use? I know I'll have to remove my two mystery snails first. I have a black ghost knife fish, angelfish, blue ram, and gourami in this tank, will it hurt any of those fish? Do I need to use it half strength for the black ghost??


I've used this at my store and never had a problem. I also use a UV sterilizer and it helps a lot. I treat all my new shipments after they arrive. I've used this on a tank that had ghost shrimp and my shrimp didn't die. I started with a half a dose first and waited a couple days, then added a second half dose. Good luck, Melissa


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