HELP! Caught my QT tank crashing last night

PoeticInjustice · Oct 9, 2018

So I have a flame angel in my QT for one week without meds and one week (Sunday) in full copper. All is going well, until Sunday I bought three lyretail anthias from my LFS, which has been on his tank and in copper for two weeks already. They look good, so I thought they can go straight on my QT tank with copper, with proper acclimation, no problem.

The 3 anthias went in my QT with copper (1.80 ppm CopperSafe measured with Hanna Checker) last Sunday and didn’t look distressed, they were eating almost immediately.
Fast forward last night, I noticed that my flame angel is not his vibrant self. His gills appears to be red and the anthias are a little bit sluggish. They were eating well, so I just observed them.
Around midnight, the anthias are not swimming around and are on the bottom corner of the tank while my flame angel is frantically swimming around. There appears to be a big large white patch on my flame angel’s belly, not sure if it’s because the lights are off. I checked my seachem alert badge and it is yellow. Half hour later, I saw one of the anthias belly up.
I immediately grabbed a bucket of fresh saltwater, added heater, air pump, cycled small porcelain pebbles and moved my flame angel and two anthias in it. Since I don’t know what I’m dealing with, I guessed that it’s either ammonia poisoning or bacteria infection. I added NFG on the bucket of water.
This morning, one of the anthias didn’t make it and the other one is still not swimming around but alive. My flame angel is still alive and I think it’s behaving better now than last night.

Can somebody please help me diagnose what happened on my QT?

Here are photos of the flame angel as I’m moving it last night from the QT to the bucket and the anthias that died last night. Check the white patches on the flame angel and the red gills on both fish.

Gareth elliott · Oct 9, 2018

This could be an effect from the copper. Anthias are on the list of do not handle copper well and angels in general can be more susceptible to it. I would remove the copper from the qt and see of they improve.

PoeticInjustice · Oct 9, 2018

Gareth elliott said:
This could be an effect from the copper. Anthias are on the list of do not handle copper well and angels in general can be more susceptible to it. I would remove the copper from the qt and see of they improve.

Thanks Gareth.

Is it this quick with copper though?

Big G · Oct 9, 2018

There is a real bad bacterial infection in the supply chain lately. Seems like the symptoms fit with the reports posted lately. The NFG is the smart move. Just keep up with the water changes and keep your copper at therapeutic level. Thank goodness for the Hanna.

PoeticInjustice · Oct 9, 2018

Big G said:
There is a real bad bacterial infection in the supply chain lately. Seems like the symptoms fit with the reports posted lately. The NFG is the smart move. Just keep up with the water changes and keep your copper at therapeutic level. Thank goodness for the Hanna.

Thanks for the response Big G.

Can I do NFG with Copper? Currently both surviving fish are on a bucket with no Copper but with NFG.

Big G · Oct 9, 2018

Because of the oxygen depleting nature of NFG we don't usually recommend it with copper unless dire circumstances are needed ASAP. It is a wonder drug for bacterial infection IMO. Lots of water changes and lots of O2 addition with powerheads, airstones, etc. So if you now have the time, we do recommend Kanaplex + Furan2 to treat bacterial infection with copper. Or some of us are trying Spectrogram. It's an old med that disappeared and is now back on the market. It is a single capsule of Kanamycin + nitrofuracine that has been very promising.
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquatronics.html#cart

Wilsonfeliz · Oct 9, 2018

sorry but, whats NFG means??

PoeticInjustice · Oct 9, 2018

Thank you, I’ll look into this.

It seems like I need to proactively treat with antibiotics going forward. I’ve had a few fish succumb in QT with what seems like bacterial infection before any clear symptoms show up.

Big G · Oct 9, 2018

Nitrofuracine Green powder.

PoeticInjustice · Oct 9, 2018

Wilsonfeliz said:
sorry but, whats NFG means??

Nitrofuracin Green.
Broad spectrum antibiotics.

Big G · Oct 9, 2018

PoeticInjustice said:
Thank you, I’ll look into this.

It seems like I need to proactively treat with antibiotics going forward. I’ve had a few fish succumb in QT with what seems like bacterial infection before any clear symptoms show up.

It's really, really horrible in the supply line right now. It had been getting bad for awhile, but lately there are numerous die offs without the usual visual symptoms . Many of us are proceeding with copper + antibiotics immediately after a brief acclimation of the fish into QT. And the Spectrogram seems to be working well. But we are continuing to test it with a variety of fish.

Wilsonfeliz · Oct 9, 2018

PoeticInjustice said:
Nitrofuracin Green.
Broad spectrum antibiotics.

Thanks!

Wilsonfeliz · Oct 9, 2018

Big G said:
Nitrofuracine Green powder.

PoeticInjustice said:
Nitrofuracin Green.
Broad spectrum antibiotics.

Is it similar to API Furan-2?

PoeticInjustice · Oct 9, 2018

Wilsonfeliz said:
Is it similar to API Furan-2?

I believe it’s different.

Check Humblefish’s post about antibiotics here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/antibiotics.283711/

Here’s the NFG that I bought. I used it successfully on a yellow tang previously.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NFP-Nitrof...061759?hash=item3fab9beabf:g:l5UAAOSw9mpaJk1W

PoeticInjustice · Oct 9, 2018

Big G said:
It's really, really horrible in the supply line right now. It had been getting bad for awhile, but lately there are numerous die offs without the usual visual symptoms . Many of us are proceeding with copper + antibiotics immediately after a brief acclimation of the fish into QT. And the Spectrogram seems to be working well. But we are continuing to test it with a variety of fish.

@Big G , I’m purchasing Spectogram from your link. Here’s the instruction from the site:

• USE: Add 1 capsule to each 10 NET gallons every other day. Minimum of THREE treatments suggested (a 2nd course of treatment MAY be used).
Can be safely over dosed up to double in difficult cases

With NFG, I’m treating for 10 days and changing 25% of the water daily.
So for Spectogram, we can do 6 days of treatment with no required daily water changes?

Also, on a 20 gallon long tank with 16 gallon net water volume, can I add 2 capsules every other day?