Treating ick in a fowlr tank

[Cabinetman]

So I have been battling ick In my 560 gallon fish only tank for close to a year now. So a few weeks ago I decided to treat the tank with copper. So I’ve been slowly adding Seachems cuprimine daily to bring the levels up slowly to avoid an ammonia outbreak. So my copper level is at .5 now and all fish seem happy and no ammonia whatsoever. So my question is how long should I leave the copper at this level to eradicate all the parasites in the tank? Has anyone ever successfully treated ick In a display tank with live rock and light sand? Now I know I need to test daily to make sure my levels do not drop and I’ve been doing that. So how long will I need to do it?

 

[DLHDesign]

Info on copper treatments here.

Note this specifically:
> One reason your copper level may drop unexpectedly is if you are treating in a tank with rock and substrate; those should not be used in the presence of copper due to absorption.

The answer to your question is "30 days", however.

 

[Oldsalt01]

DLH is correct. 30 days are standard. If ur running carbon you should pull and toss it. The copper will bind with the limestone rock so stay on top of ur therapeutic levels as they will drop. Additionally, once the copper binds to the rock and sand it will remain, so not good for any inverts you may have, if they even survive the initial treatment. The problem is that if u have a pH drop, the copper can come back out into solution. Years ago I lost about $350 worth of livestock from this very issue. Rock and sand should be replaced after tx. This is why QT's advocated.

 

[falconut]

I recently treated in a QT tank that was fully cycled and had a couple inches of sand and a few pieces of LR. It took it a few extra days to get the level to stay at the desired dosage because the sand and or LR was absorbing some. But I left it at fully dosage for 30 days, then lowered and it worked fine for me. I'm guessing the more rock you have the longer it might take to stabilize the level.

I did contact Seachem prior to my treatment and was told that once the levels in the water decreased, the copper in the rock and sand would essentially decrease. This seemed to work, because I tested the water a month later and it tested at 0.

 

[Cabinetman]

Thanks for the reply’s. All carbon is out. So the copper must eventually kill the eggs too. The reason I say this is because when leaving tank fallow they say that it has to be done for at least 75 days to Get it all

 

[falconut]

You're not really killing eggs, just that there's only 1 stage of the life cycle that the parasite can be killed, so you need to have copper it the water at that cycle.

Without copper, fallow period, the report is that it takes 76 days to have the parasite die off without a food source (fish) in the worse case scenario.

 

[Sycoticrealm]

Depending on conditions I've seen research that the eggs can hold off from hatching if the temps are in the lower range.
Once you're done treating I'd use carbon on a regular basis to prevent any future problems with any leeching of the copper.
I hate copper treatment it like chemotherapy for humans.

 

[Cabinetman]

I’ve raised my temperature to 28-29c to get the eggs to hatch. I’m hoping 30 days will do it!

 

[Oldsalt01]

I recently treated in a QT tank that was fully cycled and had a couple inches of sand and a few pieces of LR. It took it a few extra days to get the level to stay at the desired dosage because the sand and or LR was absorbing some. But I left it at fully dosage for 30 days, then lowered and it worked fine for me. I'm guessing the more rock you have the longer it might take to stabilize the level.

I did contact Seachem prior to my treatment and was told that once the levels in the water decreased, the copper in the rock and sand would essentially decrease. This seemed to work, because I tested the water a month later and it tested at 0.

.

Yes. You will test "0". That's because the copper has bonded to the limestone and sand as cupric oxide. So it will show zero when tested because essentially it is zero (in the water column). BUT, if you have a drop in pH to a more acid condition (and it doesn't take much of a drop), the copper will come back into solution to be detectable again. A QT should NEVER have rock or sand for this reason. Once it's there, it's ALWAYS there. It's one of the reasons I only use copper as a last resort. Even the PVC I keep in my QT gets tossed if I have to tx with copper. Once bitten, twice shy.

 

[Cabinetman]

.

Yes. You will test "0". That's because the copper has bonded to the limestone and sand as cupric oxide. So it will show zero when tested because essentially it is zero (in the water column). BUT, if you have a drop in pH to a more acid condition (and it doesn't take much of a drop), the copper will come back into solution to be detectable again. A QT should NEVER have rock or sand for this reason. Once it's there, it's ALWAYS there. It's one of the reasons I only use copper as a last resort. Even the PVC I keep in my QT gets tossed if I have to tx with copper. Once bitten, twice shy.

That’s why I will always keep some carbon and a bag of Cuprisorb in the sump once this is over.