Paranoia? Stupid Question?

ehealy13 · Feb 10, 2021

Good day! I'm preparing for my first water change since treating my DT (no other choice, unfortunately) with cupramine. Fish are all doing well...behaving normally...no flashing...eating like pigs. I'm on day 24 and plan to start removing the treatment on day 31 with a water change of 15g and add Cuprisorb to the overflow in the sump. My question/concern is I use a sump pump to remove/add water to the tank/from my mixing vat. The vat is currently 90% RO/DI; should I be concerned about transferring parasites from the mixing vat back into the tank? Sorry if this seems crazy, I just want to be to over this particular infection and edging toward restocking. Thanks in advance!

Ed

Jay Hemdal · Feb 10, 2021

Sorry - I can’t figure out the issue. If the vat only holds water used for this one tank, there isn’t any concern. If you use the cat to fill other tanks, then yes, wet transfer could possibly move disease.
Jay

Idoc · Feb 10, 2021

If you are not "pulling" dirty tank water from the tank to that pump (which I assume is in your saltwater mixing station) then I don't see any risk. The chances of a parasite working its way through all your pipes and going against the flow to get to that pump seems impossible.

ShepherdReefer · Feb 10, 2021

Just remember, there are no stupid/dumb questions.

ehealy13 · Feb 10, 2021

Jay Hemdal said:
Sorry - I can’t figure out the issue. If the vat only holds water used for this one tank, there isn’t any concern. If you use the cat to fill other tanks, then yes, wet transfer could possibly move disease.
Jay

Sorry for the confusion. I use the same pump/hose to remove the water (into a waste vat) that I use to pump the new/clean water into the tank from the mixing vat.

ehealy13 · Feb 10, 2021

Idoc said:
If you are not "pulling" dirty tank water from the tank to that pump (which I assume is in your saltwater mixing station) then I don't see any risk. The chances of a parasite working its way through all your pipes and going against the flow to get to that pump seems impossible.

In this instance I am using the same pump/hose to remove water as I am to replace the water from the mixing station. The system is only used at the time of the water change and sits dry in my garage until used. The vat currently has about 18g of cold (50F) mostly RO/DI water; I can get a salinity reading tonight. There is a pump and heater (both off currently) in the mixing vat.

ehealy13 · Feb 10, 2021

ShepherdReefer said:
Just remember, there are no stupid/dumb questions.

Thank you! Just trying to be as precautious as possible.

Idoc · Feb 10, 2021

ehealy13 said:
In this instance I am using the same pump/hose to remove water as I am to replace the water from the mixing station. The system is only used at the time of the water change and sits dry in my garage until used. The vat currently has about 18g of cold (50F) mostly RO/DI water; I can get a salinity reading tonight. There is a pump and heater (both off currently) in the mixing vat.

I'd be more concerned about the copper in the pump and hose since using it to remove tank water than a parasite living through it drying out. I use separate hoses for removing water and different pump for adding water to tank.

ehealy13 · Feb 10, 2021

Idoc said:
I'd be more concerned about the copper in the pump and hose since using it to remove tank water than a parasite living through risk drying out. I use separate houses for removing water and different pump for adding water to tank.

Hadn't thought of that! Thank you!! I'll use a dedicated hose for the removal until I see the levels down. Thanks again!