Newbie, recent Velvet, need some help.

[sdavis2]

I just got my first saltwater tank up and cycled, got two clowns who were doing great the first 2-3 weeks and then Velvet hit and took them out despite my best efforts. It’s a 12 gallon AIO. I didn’t have a QT tank (lesson learned) and treated with copper. I have read now the tank needs to sit fallow and have also read my sand and rock is no good anymore if I ever want to have invertebrates or coral…is this correct? Or can I do a part bleach dip/soak on the rock and salvage at least that? Since it was basically only inhabiting the clowns my other question is would it make more sense to just tear it all down and start back from square one and sanitize everything? If I let it sit fallow do I need to be doing anything or checking anything while I do that? And after that fallow period should be good to try again? As you all can see I’m just lost as to what to do next to get back to a place where I can try again. Thanks for any input or advice you can offer.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I just got my first saltwater tank up and cycled, got two clowns who were doing great the first 2-3 weeks and then Velvet hit and took them out despite my best efforts. It’s a 12 gallon AIO. I didn’t have a QT tank (lesson learned) and treated with copper. I have read now the tank needs to sit fallow and have also read my sand and rock is no good anymore if I ever want to have invertebrates or coral…is this correct? Or can I do a part bleach dip/soak on the rock and salvage at least that? Since it was basically only inhabiting the clowns my other question is would it make more sense to just tear it all down and start back from square one and sanitize everything? If I let it sit fallow do I need to be doing anything or checking anything while I do that? And after that fallow period should be good to try again? As you all can see I’m just lost as to what to do next to get back to a place where I can try again. Thanks for any input or advice you can offer.

With fallow. You need to do nothing. Leave fishless for 60 days and at day 30 siphon the bottom to remove dead tromonts.
I recommend quarantine with new arrivals or at least a 60-90 minute bath in ruby rally pro

 

[threebuoys]

EDIT: Welcome to R2R! Sorry you've encountered a problem so early in your introduction to the hobby, but most of us have had problems along the way too. Part of the challenge.


If you treated the DT with copper, you will need to remove the copper before coral or invertebrates can be added.

Typically, live rock and substrate in marine tanks are calcareous (calcium based) meaning they absorb copper. If the live rock and substrate are left in the tank, they will continually leach copper back into the tank until the concentration is equalized. Unless you help the process, this natural balancing act will recur with each water change until the copper levels become inconsequential. That can be a very long time.

The fastest way to remove the copper is to permanently remove the calcareous substances from the tank. A second way is to use copper absorbing media such as seachem's cuprisorb to speed up the process. This will need constant monitoring until the copper has fully leached from the rock and been absorbed by the media. Carbon (GAC) in the filtration system is also often suggested as a way to remove copper from the water column. My experience has been that carbon works much more slowly than cuprisorb and other similar zeolites.

 

[LeftyReefer]

personally, with no fish left, and no corals yet.... I'd just restart the tank rather than doing a 2-3 month fallow.

 

[MnFish1]

personally, with no fish left, and no corals yet.... I'd just restart the tank rather than doing a 2-3 month fallow.

I think part of his problem - is that he treated the display with copper - since he wants to keep inverts. BTW @sdavis2 - if I'm incorrect - that you didnt use copper in your display for the full treatment.