Copper Meds Question

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clinto

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Oct 10, 2006
Messages
7
I have a 60 gal FOWLR that has been running for about 6 months and i had a serious parasite infestation that in turn killed all of my fish. I have been administering the meds like specified on the instructions and now have 1 new fish so far. Will the copper kill my live rock or the hermit crabs?
 
WELCOME TO AA!!

What is the product you are using? If it is copper based, your LR and inverts might not make it.
 
IT is definately copper based and I have been running it for a month now with no deaths thus far. Im just paranoid about loosing more fish to parasites.
 
Hmmm, copper will soak into anything it can and will leech out later. Any chance you can get a QT? What is the product? What type of parasite was it?
 
It was a small white spot on some fish, and my jawfish had a white haze over its eye. I cant remember right now what brand it is but it was recommended by a lfs that specializes in saltwater only. I am setting up a QT tank today and am going to use it for all future purchases. Will it be sufficient enough just putting the new arrivals in a qt tank for the first three weeks, or will there be a chance of returning parasites. I am also running a 9 watt UV which I have been told is not enough for 60 gal.
 
The jaw fish sounds like it could have had a bacterial infection.
clinto said:
It was a small white spot on some fish
One spot, did they fall off and come back with more?
If it was ich, you will have to leave the main tank fallow for 8 weeks to break the cycle.
 
I dont know about falling off but my trigger had several of the salt sized spots on it and then lost its color and then died. This was pretty much the same for all of my fish. Most of them wouldnt eat either. they would just pull the food into their mouths and spit it out like it hurt to eat or something. Is that ich or someting else?
 
If it was salt grain sized, yes that is ick. You should never add copper to your main as it will have problems in the future with copper leaking in your tank. It most assuredly will never get to be a reef tank.
 
Do you have a test kit? Fish losing color could also be ammonia poisioning. The white salt like specks sounds like ich. Not sure about the copper and how long you would need to leave the tank fishless, if at all. I have never had ich.
How often do you do PWCs? Any chance you can update "my info" with your tank/equipment/critters, so we can help you better?
 
I checked nitrates, ph, nitrites, and ammonia and all were fine. I do PWC about once a month changing 20% each time. I also updated my profile for further assistance. Today at my LFS i got this stuff called CupriSorb which is supposed to get rid of all Copper and Metals. Does anyone know if im most likely ich free if i had my tank fish free for 3 weeks and was unfortunately running copper meds the entire time? Thanks for all the advice I can get.
 
From what I have read here, you should let your tank lay fallow (i.e. fishless) for 8 weeks to get rid of all the ich parasites. They need fish to host and without fish they die.

Don't know much about the Cuprisorb, but IMO you are SOL on the reef thing or even shrimp, snails, and anemones. Even a minute amount of copper will kill them, and copper can leech into the rockwork and other surfaces, leeching out slowly over time.

But hey, you can still have a pretty awesome Fish Only Tank. There are some beautiful aggresive fish that would eliminate your ability to have inverts or corals anyway, so just make the best of it.

Just make sure you don't take any rock or sand (just to be safe, pumps, tubing, etc) from this tank and put it into a tank meant to be a reef or have inverts.

Good Luck.
 
Finatic said:
From what I have read here, you should let your tank lay fallow (i.e. fishless) for 8 weeks to get rid of all the ich parasites. They need fish to host and without fish they die.
(y) This will break the life cycle of the parasite.
 
If the fish I have in there now seems to have no signs of disease should it be ok to go into my 29 gallon tank (it is in my 60 gal now). or should I put it in a qt tank for a few weeks first. hes been in there for about 9 days now. Also is there a chance for any more corraline grown after my copper poisoning? Thanks again
 
I would go with the faloow (fishless), just to be on the safe side. Run carbon and change it out every week or so, get a copper test kit and see what your seeing. I think inverts can tolerate no more than .25 of copper....(some one please correct me if my number is off!!)
 
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