How Much Copper Is Safe? (Trying to choose fertilizer to buy)

Hello,

I am running out of the fertilizer I usually use for my tanks and can’t seem to find it again.
I have a few cherry shrimp and some Amano shrimp in one tank but am planning on starting a colony and transplanting cherry shrimp from it into all of my tanks so I’m concerned about copper toxicity. I also have some nerite snails.
I’m looking at possibly buying NilocG brand fertilizer. They have one specifically designed for shrimp tanks that has no copper however, it’s also less concentrated so more expensive to buy than their original fertilizer.
The original fertilizer contains 0.0002%Cu. Its also much cheaper and I think has more useful nutrients for the plants.
Would that amount of copper be of any concern? I usually dose up to about 15ppm nitrates after a weekly 50 % water change.


Advice much appreciated

 

no copper whatsoever. Even a little is lethal!

 

some ferts are safe for shrimp even if they have copper, they use a certain type or potency of a coper ingredient that isnt toxic to shrimp. but they must state on the label that they are invertebrate safe.

I can't prove this, but I did hear it somewhere. it would be safer to not use any copper having said that

 

Thanks for the replies. Flourish has 0.0001% copper and people use that fertilizer in tanks with shrimp so is it just elemental copper that’s dangerous? The manufacturer says both of the thrive fertilizers I’m looking at are safe for shrimp but if using the original fertilizer to no slack on maintenance so copper doesn’t build up. If the fertilizer has 0.0002%Cu per volume and I’m dosing 1ml per gallon would that be enough to hurt cherry and Amano shrimp?

 

you can use that, what I said above might play into that, but if other people are doing it then I think its safe.

 

you can use that, what I said above might play into that, but if other people are doing it then I think its safe.

Thanks for the help

 

The leathel amount of copper is
0.03 mg per liter that kill shrimp
Your figures above fall well within the safety margin although you will see problems long before they die , shrimp need a certain amount of trace elements of copper as its copper that carries oxygen around the shrimps body, you'll find trace elements of copper in most shrimp food
You should still test for copper on a regular basis
Nyloc are very specific in regards to water changes when using their product so make sure you stick to it or you could find you have problems.
If copper starts to build up shrimp will become lethargic and huddle together if this happens you'll need to do 80% water change straight away,

 

The leathel amount of copper is
0.03 mg per liter that kill shrimp
Your figures above fall well within the safety margin although you will see problems long before they die , shrimp need a certain amount of trace elements of copper as its copper that carries oxygen around the shrimps body, you'll find trace elements of copper in most shrimp food
You should still test for copper on a regular basis
Nyloc are very specific in regards to water changes when using their product so make sure you stick to it or you could find you have problems.
If copper starts to build up shrimp will become lethargic and huddle together if this happens you'll need to do 80% water change straight away,

That’s very helpful, thank you for the reply!
On my tanks I typically do a 50% water change once a week and only dose about 3/4 the recommended dose of aquarium co ops easy green after the water change. I love their fertilizer and it doesn’t have copper but it’s becoming increasingly hard to find in Canada and duty fees if shipped from US are super high. The analysis of thrive looks pretty similar to easy green so I though I’d give it a try. I’m hoping that between me not dosing very heavily and doing large weekly water chnages the copper won’t be too much for the shrimp. I will buy a copper test kit and monitor carefully. I think I’ll also start with an even smaller dose and build my way up, especially since I also have root tabs and some of my tanks are newly planted and still are pretty sparse. In the 5 gallon that I want to start the main colony I may buy the ThriveS deigned for shrimp, or just not dose very much frets so that I won’t have to do very big water changes on that tank.
Hopefully this is a good plan!

 

You've certainly done your research and reports I've had from people using thrive are good, I don't think you'll have issues with the way you going about things

 

You've certainly done your research and reports I've had from people using thrive are good, I don't think you'll have issues with the way you going about things

Thanks agin for the help