Never losing a fish to ich again

[cilyjr]

After 20 years in this hobby I am finally joining the ranks of those who will have an ich free system! I moved across the country and set up a new tank about 6 months ago. I lost a couple of fish ich and I've decided it's the responsible thing to do is have my fish go through quarantine. I've never done it. Hope I'm doing this right. All fish will live in quarantine for 2 months with copper before going into my display tank which is sitting fallow right now. What is my quarantine tank missing?

20 gallon

It's Auto top off so salt will remain consistent.

Bio wheel filter and live rock. What does copper do to bacteria living in live rock?

Small protein skimmer.

Heated to 79.

I have this tank running consistently even if there's no fish in it.

I welcome any comments and criticisms! Thanks in advance

 

[cilyjr]

The mesh is so I can stretch over the top of the tank if I have any potential Jumpers in there

 

[cilyjr]

What do we consider an acceptable amount of copper?

 

[Reefahholic]

Depends on which product you use. I recommend Copper Power because of this stability and effectiveness.

It’s therapeutic at 2.5ppm. I’d also run an air stone for better oxygenation.

 

[cilyjr]

Depends on which product you use. I recommend Copper Power because of this stability and effectiveness.

It’s therapeutic at 2.5ppm. I’d also run an air stone for better oxygenation.

Good idea. I already have an air pump pushing outside air into the sump of my Dt. I can split the line

 

[Reefahholic]

Good idea. I already have an air pump pushing outside air into the sump of my Dt. I can split the line

Perfect!

 

[Reefahholic]

There’s also a Copper Power Calculator if you need to calculate a dose.

 

[Reefahholic]

Or…


Copper Power Dose



5 gallon tank

5gal x 1.475ml = 7.37ml

2.5ppm / 7.37ml = 0.33ppm

1.75ppm / 0.33ppm = (5.30ml total)



10 gallon tank

10gal x 1.475ml = 14.75ml

2.5ppm / 14.75ml = 0.16ppm

1.75ppm / 0.16ppm = (10.93ml total)



15 gallon tank

15gal x 1.475ml = 22.12ml

2.5ppm / 22.12ml = 0.11ppm

1.75ppm / 0.11ppm = (15.90ml total)



20 gallon tank

20gal x 1.475ml = 29.5ml

2.5ppm / 29.5ml = 0.08ppm

1.75ppm / 0.08ppm = (21.87ml total)

 

[haitian_reefer]

Are you also going to quarantine corals and inverts too?

 

[Miami Reef]

I’m pretty new to this quarantine club and it’s awesome!

I haven’t had a fish loss in DT since my QT. Before I would always lose fish and would always buy extra to accommodate for that. Now I treat them like my pets.

 

[Tamberav]

The rock will absorb copper and may mess up your levels. This may let a parasite though. If you decide to try and use it, test frequently and adjust for copper absorbed. If it drops below therapeutic, ideally you are back to day

It is best to not use rock and use fake hides instead and a sponge or other type of non absorbing media for biological filtration.

Use a high range Hannah copper test kit as the dosing instructions on the bottles are often wrong.

Copper dose depends on which copper you use. I suggest copper power or copper safe. 2.5ppm seems to be the popular dose these days for those.

 

[Reefahholic]

I’m pretty new to this quarantine club and it’s awesome!

I haven’t had a fish loss in DT since my QT. Before I would always lose fish and would always buy extra to accommodate for that. Now I treat them like my pets.

If you don’t QT….

Remember that mysterious fish death? You know…the one that disappeared behind the rocks. The one that you forgot you had until
like a month later.

Yep!

 

[Reefahholic]

The rock will absorb copper and may mess up your levels. This may let a parasite though. If you decide to try and use it, test frequently and adjust for copper absorbed. If it drops below therapeutic, ideally you are back to day

It is best to not use rock and use fake hides instead and a sponge or other type of non absorbing media for biological filtration.

Use a high range Hannah copper test kit as the dosing instructions on the bottles are often wrong.

Copper dose depends on which copper you use. I suggest copper power or copper safe. 2.5ppm seems to be the popular dose these days for those.

There has been some confusion with the therapeutic range of Coppersafe. I believe it should be 1.5-2.0 ppm. I don’t recommend it either. Copper Power is much more stable.

See below from @Brew12 :


I want to put some info out which will hopefully clarify the large amount of confusion when using Mardel's Coppersafe.

If you look at the Fritz website they indicate that Coppersafe maintains a total copper of 0.15ppm to 0.2ppm. This is not correct. Not only is this not the recommended dosage for chelated copper but it isn't what their recommended dosing achieves.
They recommend dosing at 5ml per 4 gallons. This works out to 1.16ppm of copper. The problem? Chelated copper needs to be maintained between 1.5ppm and 2ppm to be therapeutic.
To make this even more challenging, the API test kit tends to read on the high side, making the problem even worse.

Have I confused you enough yet? Sorry. Can't help it.

So here is my best recommendation.

Actual dosing should be 1.6mL/gallon to 2.1mL/gallon. I recommend adding 1.6mL of coppersafe to 1 gallon of salt water and taking a test with your API kit. Compare this to your chart and try to think of this color as 1.5ppm, or the minimum recommended level. Then dose another 0.5mL Coppersafe into that gallon and take another test. Try to remember this shade as proper for 2ppm, or the highest level you want.

For slowly raising copper levels as is appropriate for Ich on all but the most sensitive fish, I recommend dosing 0.3mL/gallon every morning and evening for 3 days. This should get you to 1.8mL/gallon at the end for a concentration of 1.7ppm. Another 0.3mL/gallon dose will put you right at the top end if you want to add it.


Hope that helps!

 

[cilyjr]

The rock will absorb copper and may mess up your levels. This may let a parasite though. If you decide to try and use it, test frequently and adjust for copper absorbed. If it drops below therapeutic, ideally you are back to day

It is best to not use rock and use fake hides instead and a sponge or other type of non absorbing media for biological filtration.

Use a high range Hannah copper test kit as the dosing instructions on the bottles are often wrong.

Copper dose depends on which copper you use. I suggest copper power or copper safe. 2.5ppm seems to be the popular dose these days for th

The rock will absorb copper and may mess up your levels. This may let a parasite though. If you decide to try and use it, test frequently and adjust for copper absorbed. If it drops below therapeutic, ideally you are back to day

It is best to not use rock and use fake hides instead and a sponge or other type of non absorbing media for biological filtration.

Use a high range Hannah copper test kit as the dosing instructions on the bottles are often wrong.

Copper dose depends on which copper you use. I suggest copper power or copper safe. 2.5ppm seems to be the popular dose these days for those.

Rock absorbing copper will give a falsely high reading?

 

[Tamberav]

Rock absorbing copper will give a falsely high reading?

the rock will absorb the copper causing the concentration to drop and it may not kill all parasites.

 

[Tamberav]

There has been some confusion with the therapeutic range of Coppersafe. I believe it should be 1.5-2.0 ppm. I don’t recommend it either. Copper Power is much more stable.

See below from @Brew12 :


I want to put some info out which will hopefully clarify the large amount of confusion when using Mardel's Coppersafe.

If you look at the Fritz website they indicate that Coppersafe maintains a total copper of 0.15ppm to 0.2ppm. This is not correct. Not only is this not the recommended dosage for chelated copper but it isn't what their recommended dosing achieves.
They recommend dosing at 5ml per 4 gallons. This works out to 1.16ppm of copper. The problem? Chelated copper needs to be maintained between 1.5ppm and 2ppm to be therapeutic.
To make this even more challenging, the API test kit tends to read on the high side, making the problem even worse.

Have I confused you enough yet? Sorry. Can't help it.

So here is my best recommendation.

Actual dosing should be 1.6mL/gallon to 2.1mL/gallon. I recommend adding 1.6mL of coppersafe to 1 gallon of salt water and taking a test with your API kit. Compare this to your chart and try to think of this color as 1.5ppm, or the minimum recommended level. Then dose another 0.5mL Coppersafe into that gallon and take another test. Try to remember this shade as proper for 2ppm, or the highest level you want.

For slowly raising copper levels as is appropriate for Ich on all but the most sensitive fish, I recommend dosing 0.3mL/gallon every morning and evening for 3 days. This should get you to 1.8mL/gallon at the end for a concentration of 1.7ppm. Another 0.3mL/gallon dose will put you right at the top end if you want to add it.


Hope that helps!

Thanks. I found the ranges.

Coppersafe 2.0 and copper power 2.5 as well as what others should be.

Copper treatment

EDIT: Taking the Hanna copper checker's margin of error into consideration, we are now recommending 2.2-2.3 ppm for Copper Power. This ensures that the copper level is "just right" i.e. not too high, not too low. (y) Copper treatment (updated 5-16-2023) What It Treats: Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon...

humble.fish

 

[Reefahholic]

Thanks. I found the ranges.

Coppersafe 2.0 and copper power 2.5 as well as what others should be.

Copper treatment

EDIT: Taking the Hanna copper checker's margin of error into consideration, we are now recommending 2.2-2.3 ppm for Copper Power. This ensures that the copper level is "just right" i.e. not too high, not too low. (y) Copper treatment (updated 5-16-2023) What It Treats: Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon...

humble.fish

Excellent. I just bought some Cooper Power myself. About to run a batch through prophylactic treatment and QT.