Ick in Reef Tank - 1st time dosing copper

[Bethany Yates]

Hey guys,

I have never ever had an outbreak of ich in over 10 years of reef tank keeping, but I had converted my quarantine tank to hold spawning cichlids and added an unquarantined powder blue to my tank like a TOTAL NEWB. Ugh. So I have pulled all my fish from the tank and am preparing to dose my 35 gal quarantine with copper and let my main tank fallow with just the corals and inverts for 60 days. I'm running two macgyver style sponge filters and a hang-on filter on quarantine. That is where my expertise ends. I need tips!!!! Let me know what you have done in the past that has worked and what hasn't. My fish thank you!!

Bethany

 

[zapbap99]

uv steralizer, and to be honest i like dr. g's parasitic caviar its nice

 

[35ppt]

If you're going 60 days you might as well go the full 76 that's recommended. Other than that keep a close eye on ammonia and keep the tank devoid of any waste and leftover food. Ramp up the copper over 4 days not all at once.

 

[dwest]

Hey guys,

I have never ever had an outbreak of ich in over 10 years of reef tank keeping, but I had converted my quarantine tank to hold spawning cichlids and added an unquarantined powder blue to my tank like a TOTAL NEWB. Ugh. So I have pulled all my fish from the tank and am preparing to dose my 35 gal quarantine with copper and let my main tank fallow with just the corals and inverts for 60 days. I'm running two macgyver style sponge filters and a hang-on filter on quarantine. That is where my expertise ends. I need tips!!!! Let me know what you have done in the past that has worked and what hasn't. My fish thank you!!

Bethany

I would measure the copper level with a Hanna checker. I don’t trust anything else. Put in some biospira for nitrifying bacteria and an ammonia badge. Read this:

Copper treatment

Copper treatment What It Treats – Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) and Marine Velvet Disease (Amyloodinium ocellatum). There is some anecdotal evidence that copper will suppress symptoms of Brooklynella hostilis and Uronema marinum; however it is unlikely to completely eradicate either. How...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Cwentz758]

Lower the salinity in the QT to .022 or .023. Be careful with copper as you need an accurate test kit to keep it at therapeutic level which is 2 ppm (let me find that before you quote me). Tangs are notorious for ick with a thinner slime coat and get it rather easy when stressed.

 

[Cwentz758]

Ya listen to that thread^

 

[Bethany Yates]

Lower the salinity in the QT to .022 or .023. Be careful with copper as you need an accurate test kit to keep it at therapeutic level which is 2 ppm (let me find that before you quote me). Tangs are notorious for ick with a thinner slime coat and get it rather easy when stressed.

Is that enough of a salinity difference to kill a protist? I normally run my display tank between 31 and 33 ppt.

 

[35ppt]

Is that enough of a salinity difference to kill a protist? I normally run my display tank between 31 and 33 ppt.

Run normal salinity, 35ppt. There is no benefit from going less and can be deadly when combined with copper if you go too far.

 

[CindyKz]

Run normal salinity, 35ppt. There is no benefit from going less and can be deadly when combined with copper if you go too far.

Agree. Hyposalinity is useful but you have to be all in with it, meaning down to 14 ppt (depending on the source of information, this is mine https://reefs.com/magazine/aquarium...its-of-salinity-manipulation-for-marine-fish/ ) , which you can't safely do with copper.

If you can get your hands on cycled biomedia it works well. For uncycled media go with Biospira or similar. +1 on the ammonia badge as well. Keep plenty of water made for changes in case of an ammonia spike.

Good luck!

 

[Bethany Yates]

Agree. Hyposalinity is useful but you have to be all in with it, meaning down to 14 ppt (depending on the source of information, this is mine https://reefs.com/magazine/aquarium...its-of-salinity-manipulation-for-marine-fish/ ) , which you can't safely do with copper.

If you can get your hands on cycled biomedia it works well. For uncycled media go with Biospira or similar. +1 on the ammonia badge as well. Keep plenty of water made for changes in case of an ammonia spike.

Good luck!

Great article, thanks.

 

[35ppt]

Agree. Hyposalinity is useful but you have to be all in with it, meaning down to 14 ppt (depending on the source of information, this is mine https://reefs.com/magazine/aquarium...its-of-salinity-manipulation-for-marine-fish/ ) , which you can't safely do with copper.

If you can get your hands on cycled biomedia it works well. For uncycled media go with Biospira or similar. +1 on the ammonia badge as well. Keep plenty of water made for changes in case of an ammonia spike.

Good luck!

My only issue with hypo is that it only treats for cryptocaryon and there are hypo resistant strains of cryptocaryon. It can also suppress the symptoms of velvet and brook just for them to return once salinity it returned to normal.

 

[ryshark]

Hey guys,

I have never ever had an outbreak of ich in over 10 years of reef tank keeping, but I had converted my quarantine tank to hold spawning cichlids and added an unquarantined powder blue to my tank like a TOTAL NEWB. Ugh. So I have pulled all my fish from the tank and am preparing to dose my 35 gal quarantine with copper and let my main tank fallow with just the corals and inverts for 60 days. I'm running two macgyver style sponge filters and a hang-on filter on quarantine. That is where my expertise ends. I need tips!!!! Let me know what you have done in the past that has worked and what hasn't. My fish thank you!!

Bethany

So you're going to have all your fish in a new 35-gallon tank? You may kill all your fish trying to kill ich, which in my opinion, ich isnt that big of a deal. If your PBT is the only fish with ich and it is still eating, what I would do is keep it in the main tank and feed it a lot of healthy food and feed it often. The ich will go away once the fish is healthy and not stressed.

 

[35ppt]

So you're going to have all your fish in a new 35-gallon tank? You may kill all your fish trying to kill ich, which in my opinion, ich isnt that big of a deal. If your PBT is the only fish with ich and it is still eating, what I would do is keep it in the main tank and feed it a lot of healthy food and feed it often. The ich will go away once the fish is healthy and not stressed.

The symptoms may not longer be visible but it wont go away. You'll always have the chance of it coming up again.

 

[ryshark]

The symptoms may not longer be visible but it wont go away. You'll always have the chance of it coming up again.

Ich is always going to be in the tank. As long as the immune system is strong they wont show signs of it. Even after all the stress of hypo / copper etc, there's a chance the PBT will still get ich again somehow. They are prone to ich, but can fight it off when healthy and not stressed.

 

[35ppt]

Ich is always going to be in the tank. As long as the immune system is strong they wont show signs of it. Even after all the stress of hypo / copper etc, there's a chance the PBT will still get ich again somehow. They are prone to ich, but can fight it off when healthy and not stressed.

The fish will not have crypto unless you let crypto into the tank. They can't be prone to something that does not exist in it's environment.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

You did pick the worst possible fish to add.

 

[Bethany Yates]

So you're going to have all your fish in a new 35-gallon tank? You may kill all your fish trying to kill ich, which in my opinion, ich isnt that big of a deal. If your PBT is the only fish with ich and it is still eating, what I would do is keep it in the main tank and feed it a lot of healthy food and feed it often. The ich will go away once the fish is healthy and not stressed.

Ha ha, how do you know 35 gallons is too small when I didn't tell you how many fish I have? I have only 4 small fish.

The powder blue was eating fine for two weeks after I first noticed spots and scratching. The spots seemed to be going away but I came down one morning to feed and it had just died (eyes were still clear). In the process of removing the fish for quarantine, I noticed I also lost 2 clown gobies.

I want to eradicate the ich from the entire tank now instead of worrying about managing it forever.

 

[Bethany Yates]

You did pick the worst possible fish to add.

I totally know it, they are ich factories. I don't know what I was thinking. ::face palm::

 

[4FordFamily]

If you're going 60 days you might as well go the full 76 that's recommended. Other than that keep a close eye on ammonia and keep the tank devoid of any waste and leftover food. Ramp up the copper over 4 days not all at once.

I would measure the copper level with a Hanna checker. I don’t trust anything else. Put in some biospira for nitrifying bacteria and an ammonia badge. Read this:

Copper treatment

Copper treatment What It Treats – Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) and Marine Velvet Disease (Amyloodinium ocellatum). There is some anecdotal evidence that copper will suppress symptoms of Brooklynella hostilis and Uronema marinum; however it is unlikely to completely eradicate either. How...

www.reef2reef.com

Both of these are my thoughts exactly.

It’s more likely that you’re actually dealing with velvet, and if that’s true I’d ramp it up over 24-48 hours but do so in several small doses spread out.

 

[ryshark]

The fish will not have crypto unless you let crypto into the tank. They can't be prone to something that does not exist in it's environment.

In that case, you need to quarantine everything wet from another tank. Even snails.