AMMONIA sPIKE

[snowdude]

I put 3 fish into QT for ich... treating with copper. this morning my ammonia read .5. Whats going on? I have a piece of live rock in the tank, my lfs said to put a small piece in it when i cycled it. Could that be why? Is the copper killing the bacteria in the LR?

 

[quarryshark]

Well, the rock will absorb the med and the meds will kill the rock. I would remove it. It will make your copper levels screwy.
As for the ammonia , you will need to do water changes to keep it down. This is to be expected, went through it myself.
Sorry, but you lfs is wrong, the qt tank needs to be bare bottom, you can use some pvc elbows for the fish to hide in.

 

[snowdude]

onym="Local Fish Store"][acronym="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym] is wrong, the qt tank needs to be bare bottom, quote]

i think he intended for me to only leave it in while it was cyceling... I should have had more sense to remove it before treatment. Anyhow its out now. Its a 12 gal tank, should i do a 5 gal water change today?

 

[quarryshark]

Got it, yes I would remove it. No disrespect intended for you lfs.
Even if you cycled the tank, the copper will kill of the bacteria.
5 gallons is a lot, I would do about 2 and retest. Depending on the bioload, you may need to do them daily. I treated 10 fish for velvet using a 40 gallon tank, was running buckets downstairs every day. :|
Good luck.