Can anyone identify this growth?

Lionfish Lair · Jun 17, 2016

:-( That's a lot of fish to suddenly become 'shy". There's something major going on. Sometimes my fish will avoid me for a day if I caught another fish out of their tank, but that's rare and I don't have the feeling that's what's going on here.

Flybill · Jun 17, 2016

Agreed. Hoping it's nothing but time will tell. They usually get excited for shrimp in the afternoon

Humblefish · Jun 17, 2016

Flybill said:
Started with 9 - 3 died:
Yellow tang I had for years and survived a velvet crash
Blue damsel also a survivor
The subject orange shoulder tang who was a new purchase from a reliable lfs

I know you said you have a 65 gal QT (which is fine size wise for all those fish.)

But what kind of filtration/circulation do you have in the QT? Specifically, biological filtration?

Flybill · Jun 17, 2016

This is a RSM 250 and it has an integrated sump that holds some bio media. There are a few mesh filters and a protein skimmer that I ran with cupramine and have on with prazipro as well. Very little skimmate currently. Also I vacuum the bottom with each WC

Humblefish · Jun 17, 2016

What kind of bio media is it? Bio pellets, ceramic rings??

Flybill · Jun 17, 2016

Ceramic rings. I had them in the main tank sump prior to setting up the Quarrantine so they were seeded with good bacteria and I filled it with water from DT. Didn't have an ammonia spike but I did run prime.
Tonight all fish came out and ate with a good appetite and pretty normal behavior. No signs of any problems.

Lionfish Lair · Jun 17, 2016

Just in case.... did you dose prime at the same time you were using copper?

Flybill · Jun 17, 2016

No just prime at setup. Carbon then Copper about 2 weeks later. Also this happened just after I removed copper after 3 weeks of treatment. I'm pretty cautious about using anything with copper and shut off UV but leave protein skimmer on

Lionfish Lair · Jun 17, 2016

KK, just making sure.

I'm not sure carbon removes something like Prime, but I'm also not sure of the half-life of it. I do believe it's relative short. I'm not saying it's related to what's going on, though...