Help. Never treated for ICH before

[Sobo's Reef]

I usually soak frozen mysis in Garlic Xtreme and he used to eat a little bit of it and at some times he’d eat it and then spit it back out... doesn’t really go after the seaweed I offer. In fact none of the fish do

 

[Big G]

Blackworms or Whiteworms are irresistible to most fish.

 

[Sobo's Reef]

I’ll try and go out tomorrow and get some of them.

Other than having them in the QT tank with coppersafe, is there anything else I should be doing right now?

 

[Big G]

Try to divide up each day's copper dose into smaller amounts instead of just one big daily dosing. Brew12 turned me on to this idea of spreading out the dosage into AM, lunch, PM if possible.
Turn the lights off. Use the room's ambient light. You can use a small flashlight to check on the fish's condition. There may be a link with Velvet and bright reef lighting. Velvet is partially photosynthetic.
Keep a close eye on ammonia levels.
Keep buckets of 5 gal premixed saltwater ready for changes. I make it up the day before using. Newly mixed saltwater can be harsh on fish.
Really important: Consider a fish "smoothie" to get the fish eating. @jsker inspired me to do this. I'll post a link to his thread. Really important to get the fish eating hungrily. I get a variety of frozen fish food cubes (7 different kinds: fish eggs, seaweed, marine cuisine, cyclops, mysis, brine shrimp, vege cuisine, etc.) one of each cube into a small tupperware with 5-7 drops of Selcon, mix it a bit. It stores well in the fridge for the 3-4 days it lasts. Feed them 3 times a day, just enough so there's no waste floating in the tank. Avoid all dry foods: flake, pellets, etc. makes a mess of a QT and QT filter.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/preparing-frozen-foods-for-my-fish-and-corals.300448/#post-3677350

 

[Big G]

I’ll try and go out tomorrow and get some of them.

Other than having them in the QT tank with coppersafe, is there anything else I should be doing right now?

VERY IMPORTANT : When doing water changes, make sure to dose the new saltwater with copper, matching your tank's current copper level, before adding the saltwater into the QT. You don't want to give the parasites a chance by adding "untreated" saltwater into the tank.

Test your tank's copper level each day as you add copper to the tank. Do not trust the instructions on the bottle. There has been some cases of varying copper strength in the bottle. So test, test, test.

 

[Sobo's Reef]

Try to divide up each day's copper dose into smaller amounts instead of just one big daily dosing. Brew12 turned me on to this idea of spreading out the dosage into AM, lunch, PM if possible.
Turn the lights off. Use the room's ambient light. You can use a small flashlight to check on the fish's condition. There may be a link with Velvet and bright reef lighting. Velvet is partially photosynthetic.
Keep a close eye on ammonia levels.
Keep buckets of 5 gal premixed saltwater ready for changes. I make it up the day before using. Newly mixed saltwater can be harsh on fish.
Really important: Consider a fish "smoothie" to get the fish eating. @jsker inspired me to do this. I'll post a link to his thread. Really important to get the fish eating hungrily. I get a variety of frozen fish food cubes (7 different kinds: fish eggs, seaweed, marine cuisine, cyclops, mysis, brine shrimp, vege cuisine, etc.) one of each cube into a small tupperware with 5-7 drops of Selcon, mix it a bit. It stores well in the fridge for the 3-4 days it lasts. Feed them 3 times a day, just enough so there's no waste floating in the tank. Avoid all dry foods: flake, pellets, etc. makes a mess of a QT and QT filter.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/preparing-frozen-foods-for-my-fish-and-corals.300448/#post-3677350

I tested my copper earlier and it’s hard to read the result as it looks like it’s between 1-2ppm already but I’ve only dosed maybe a total of 30mL over the past few days.

Lights off.

3 5g buckets of saltwater made up for WC.

Keeping an eye on ammonia.

Should I just keep trying with the mysis and garlic for now since that’s all I really have at the moment?

 

[Big G]

Are you using an API Copper Test kit?

 

[Sobo's Reef]

just tested again and this is what I got.. maybe I’m reading it wrong?

 

[Big G]

Hold the test tube just a bit above the white card. You are to read the color by looking vertically into the top of the test tube. If you look while it's on the surface of the card it will look darker. Let a bit of light between the card and the test tube.

 

[Big G]

My wife, who's an artist, says to squint your eyes just a bit when comparing colors. I have found this actually works pretty good for comparing colors.
Just want to make sure. TEST, TEST, TEST before adding more copper.

 

[Sobo's Reef]

Doing it that way looks like it says 2.0ppm but like I said I’ve only dosed about 30mL all together

 

[Big G]

Whew! Just last night members of the Reef Squad have reported greatly increased amounts of copper in some bottles of Coppersafe. You may well be at therapeutic level already if their reports are correct. Whew! Glad we talked today. One of them lost a whole tank of fish in QT because of overdosing.

 

[Big G]

Doing it that way looks like it says 2.0ppm but like I said I’ve only dosed about 30mL all together

Trust the test. And remember to dose your water changes with the same level as best you can calculate.

 

[Sobo's Reef]

Whew! Just last night members of the Reef Squad have reported greatly increased amounts of copper in some bottles of Coppersafe. You may well be at therapeutic level already if their reports are correct. Whew! Glad we talked today. One of them lost a whole tank of fish in QT because of overdosing.

Oh wow that’s crazy!! Okay so if that’s the case for me then I guess I’m done dosing copper other then when I have to do top offs?

 

[Big G]

Oh wow that’s crazy!! Okay so if that’s the case for me then I guess I’m done dosing copper other then when I have to do top offs?

Top off evaporation as normal with RODI. Only add copper to actual "water changes" so if you take out 5 gallons of tank water that already has copper in it; you replace it with fresh saltwater with the same level of copper in it.

 

[Sobo's Reef]

Okay so just a few more questions which prob have obvious answers but here goes

1. When I dose new saltwater with copper in the bucket, my guess is I can’t use this bucket for mixing salt for my DT right?

2. Since fallow is 76 days and copper treatment is 30, do the fish just chill in copper til fallow is done or do I do water changes in the QT to bring down the copper?

 

[Big G]

Yeah, there's been this ongoing discussion about dosing copper. If you want I'll give you the link, but be warned its very confusing. The bottom line is to TEST, TEST, TEST.

 

[Sobo's Reef]

Yeah, there's been this ongoing discussion about dosing copper. If you want I'll give you the link, but be warned its very confusing. The bottom line is to TEST, TEST, TEST.

I’ll take your word for it and test... what’s considered to be TOO much copper for treatment? Anything above 2ppm?

 

[Big G]

Okay so just a few more questions which prob have obvious answers but here goes

1. When I dose new saltwater with copper in the bucket, my guess is I can’t use this bucket for mixing salt for my DT right?

2. Since fallow is 76 days and copper treatment is 30, do the fish just chill in copper til fallow is done or do I do water changes in the QT to bring down the copper?

1. You can clean the bucket, tools and the tank this way to get rid of copper traces: First wash with bleach, rinse, rinse, rinse, dry. That will get rid of bio-film deposits. Next wash with plain old vinegar, rinse, rinse, rinse, dry. The vinegar precipitates copper into a harmless forms. And if you are really paranoid (like me) Wash with hydrogen peroxide, rinse, rinse, rinse, dry. Hydrogen peroxide destroys all traces of carbon based materials i.e.. bacterial, meds, etc. Good to go. This is my normal cleanup of a QT, Qt equipment, qt tools.
2. So the 30 day clock starts day one on the day that you achieved therapeutic levels. After the 30 days of therapeutic treatment are done, here's what I do. Water changes and carbon and a Cuprisorb pad in your HOB are used to reduce the copper in the tank. Cuprisorb pads are reusable by cleaning them with plain old muriatic acid you can purchase at your local hardware store. Takes a few days for the copper to go. Observe your fish during this period. Then . . . .
3. Then I treat with API General Cure. GC contains praziquantel and metro. Praziquantel kills external flukes and some internal parasites; metro kills all internal parasites. 2 doses 5-7 days apart with a 25% water change before the second dose. Observe for 7-10 days and you are done. That's my standard prophylactic treatment of all new incoming fish. A disease free DT is very cool and relaxing.

 

[Big G]

I’ll take your word for it and test... what’s considered to be TOO much copper for treatment? Anything above 2ppm?

Therapeutic range for Coppersafe is 1.5ppm -2.0ppm. Anything over is unnecessary and can be harmful to your fish. Remember, copper is a poison. And at some point, organ damage will occur.