Using copper in quarentine

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FlopNewsom

Aquarium Advice Freak
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Apr 10, 2011
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After a round of marine velvet wiped out $400 of fish, I have become a believer in quarantine. My hospital tank for the survivors is a 32 gallon roughneck trash can. I intend to use this as a quarantine. My question is this- can I acclimate my new fish to water with copper in it just like I would with regular water?
 
Sorry to hear the loses. Whatever you have on QT you can acclimate the fish with it. If you plan to quaratine with 1.019 salinity you don't need a copper on QT or acclimation. The effectiveness of copper is with a prolonged exposure (3 weeks at least). After acclimation just perform the "fresh water bath" before putting the fish to QT.
 
I never heard of trash can used for QT. You need light, filtration just like a regular tank. You also need to put PVC couplings for fish to hide and you need to see how they are doing. How would you do that with a trash can for about a month?
 
if you treat with copper why would you need to keep them in there for a month. the parasites should be dead with copper treatment in a few days in which they can be sent to their permanat home where they don't have to worry about the stresses anymore.

the main reason for a QT is for peopel to monitor their fish to make sure they do not introduce any sort of parasite or illness to the system which could untimatly effect all its inahitabts, if you see an issue you can treat it without killing off the rest of your system or the fish could die and not spread its illness. if your goign to treat it and kill off whatever its carrying i don't really see a point to keepign a fish locked up for a month
 
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yeah inverts and corals, don't but inverts don't really get parasites and corals you can see the worms on them so they are easy enough to monitor and treat.
 
I have a light, canister filter, PVC tubes for hiding, power head, thermometer. I change 5 gal every other day. I also sacrificed a couple of pieces of LR to put in there. The only problem has been not being able to view them well but they have been in there for 6 weeks, eat good and seem fine. By the time I realized I was dealing with velvet, I was just trying to get them out of the display as soon as possible because my fish were dying 2 or 3 a day. I saved a watchman gobie, sailfin tang, long nosed hawk, and a panther grouper. My scooter blenny didn't make it but I was prepared for that because of the bare environment. As you know, salinity will not affect velvet so I will quarantine with copper. It was 3 weeks after the addition of a kole tang that the symptoms started but it took me a couple days to diagnose it.
 
That's a lesson learned from a big mistake. Sounds like you are over stocking and that's when the stress started. I don't think LR is necessary in QT.
 
My display is 210 gallons with a 75 gallon sump. Not overstocked, just a fish that brought parasites to my tank. That's why I will quarantine.
 
I now dip my corals in coral rx to remove any hitch hikers there. I don't know the exact dimensions but its 6 ft long.
 
Sorry to hear the loses. Whatever you have on QT you can acclimate the fish with it. If you plan to quaratine with 1.019 salinity you don't need a copper on QT or acclimation. The effectiveness of copper is with a prolonged exposure (3 weeks at least). After acclimation just perform the "fresh water bath" before putting the fish to QT.
Jeff can I ask what the significance of the 1.019 in a qt tank is
 
True hypo is 1.008 - 1.009. Anything above 1.010 ich can survive . I treat all my fish with hypo at 1.008 and I have done this many times. The beneficial bacteria doesn't die but goes into a dormant state. Doing a pwc with fresh mixed sw will kick it back into action .
 
My sources says 1.019 and at present I have one fish in QT and doing good. The 1.009 salinity is almost fresh water. Do you think your salt water fish will survive in a month with it and have you ever tried it?
I suggest you get new sources because that is totally wrong
 
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