copper med ?

[shemp22]

I just recently bought an orange shouder tang and put him in my 55gal qt and after a day or two I noticed he had ich. I went to the lfs and picked up some Mardel coppersafe. So, heres my two questions....I dosed the tank w/coppersafe and bio-coat marine, then I realized the bio-coat says it detoxifies heavy metals. Did I just ruin the treatment? Also, I just read in a book that you should not use chelated copper because it is ineffctive against parasites and that is what the coppersafe is. Is this true? TIA

 

[macman7010]

Coppersafe has seemed to work for me. Although I recommend hypo salinity for ich. If you wanna do hypo clean the water, about 50% and run some carbon to remove the meds. Then drop your specific gravity to 1.010 for about 2 weeks.

 

[steve-s]

Please extend that to 4 weeks once the last spot is seen on the fish.

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

Cheers
Steve

 

[i have crabs]

hypo worked for my ich problem but took a long time to lower and raise the salinity and the price of salt wasnt good
also had some bad sides to it too

 

[shemp22]

What about the bio coat? Do you think it messed up the treatment?

 

[steve-s]

Yes, it renders the treatment much less effective. One of the drawback of copper is you cannot use any resin/media/additives that would allieviate nitrogens as they will also affect the copper itself.

If you still want to use the chelated copper that's fine, you just need to start from square one. Do the water changes and carbon use suggested by macman7010 above. Test to be sure no copper registeres and then dose according to the instructions. Be sure you have the appropriate test kit for chelated forms of copper and test at least twice daily to ensure the concentration is being properly maintained.

As for the ammonia, the only way to deal with that is via water changes. The easiest way is to have your change water in a pail you are willing to part with later. Dose the copper in the pail to the appropriate concentration (5ml/4gal water volume), that way you do not have to guess what's been removed and what to add that will bring it back in line.

Remember, no carbon use, resins or anything else that will sorb copper. Inluding sand, rock or any other CaCO3 items.

Cheers
Steve

 

[shemp22]

Thanks for the feed back guys!