TTM or copper for ich?

[Be102]

Hi all,

I have two clownfish whom have been with me since day one and I suspect them of having ich. I have seen white spots on and off for quite sometime and have decided to tackle the challenge. Whilst I take care of the ich, I need to let my display tank go fallow for 76 days.

I was reading through treatments and now I am quite confused on what to do. I was originally going to just do the TTM with a few 5 gallon buckets and let the fish stay in a new hospital tank which would eventually turn into my quarantine tank.

I am now wondering if I should even bother with the ttm or just dose copper or something to fight the ich and save me some hassle. The fish will ultimately need to wait 2 months to go back into my tank anyways.. why not just treat them in the qt /hospital tank rather than making myself do more work?

What would be the method / best way to go about doing this?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Hi all,

I have two clownfish whom have been with me since day one and I suspect them of having ich. I have seen white spots on and off for quite sometime and have decided to tackle the challenge. Whilst I take care of the ich, I need to let my display tank go fallow for 76 days.

I was reading through treatments and now I am quite confused on what to do. I was originally going to just do the TTM with a few 5 gallon buckets and let the fish stay in a new hospital tank which would eventually turn into my quarantine tank.

I am now wondering if I should even bother with the ttm or just dose copper or something to fight the ich and save me some hassle. The fish will ultimately need to wait 2 months to go back into my tank anyways.. why not just treat them in the qt /hospital tank rather than making myself do more work?

What would be the method / best way to go about doing this?

Can be done both ways. What ever makes it easier on you.

 

[lapin]

I will state my opinion. If I can avoid chemicals in my tanks I will. If I get heart burn from eating raw garlic should I stop eating it or continue to eat it and take nexium or some other pill?

 

[Pongo]

My personal pros for TTM:
Can't mess up the dosage, nothing to measure.
Fish continue to have good appetite.
Don't expose fish to a poison.

Cons: More work.

 

[HotRocks]

I would treat them in copper. Clowns are Hardy. Much less room for error with copper than TTM.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I will state my opinion. If I can avoid chemicals in my tanks I will. If I get heart burn from eating raw garlic should I stop eating it or continue to eat it and take nexium or some other pill?

I tend to agree with you. The only draw back with TTM is the transfers and disinfecting.

 

[Talo’s Reef]

Done both. Lots more work with ttm and always in the back of my mind on if it was disinfected properly.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I would copper them too. Other fish.. ...

Here's a guide:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-and-treatment-guidelines-with-chart.283450/

 

[Be102]

What’s the general favorite for copper? Petco near me didn’t carry “api general cure” cause of antibiotics they said. However they did have other things that said stuff to help rid of ich but didn’t seem too trustworthy.

I can put them in a 10 gallon tank easily and I also bought the stuff to set it up. Should I go about doing that? If I was to set up a qt tank what’s the protocol? Do I still go about adding some biopspira or not necessary?

Would they be fine to stay in the qt for the whole fallow period? Even after dosing copper?

I can ultimately do either.

I also was reading the actual report on TTm and it actually said generally drying out completely is sufficient to rid of ich rather than mandatory bleach or vinegar cleaning. I’m not too worried about contamination ultimately because I would be using a series of buckets so even if one wasn’t surely dry, I could use another one.

 

[User]

Copper power and a hanna checker (high range)

14 days in therapeutic copper, then move to a clean setup minus copper- you get full benefit of copper, without the longer term drawbacks like prolonged appetite suppression and bacterial infections that seem to kick in around the 22-25 day mark

 

[Be102]

Copper power and a hanna checker (high range)

14 days in therapeutic copper, then move to a clean setup minus copper- you get full benefit of copper, without the longer term drawbacks like prolonged appetite suppression and bacterial infections that seem to kick in around the 22-25 day mark

When you say clean setup, what do you mean? I have one 10 gallon tank I intend on using as my qt tank. Would I remove fish and clean the tank? Or just do large water changes?

 

[User]

Completely new 10g tank, hob with cycled media, air stone , heater and pvc pieces. All dry until the day before , fill with salinity matched saltwater so you don’t have to acclimate during transfer and let water oxygenate and heat up over night

 

[Be102]

Completely new 10g tank, hob with cycled media, air stone , heater and pvc pieces. All dry until the day before , fill with salinity matched saltwater so you don’t have to acclimate during transfer and let water oxygenate and heat up over night

So should I not run anything in the hob on the first tank? Or you’re saying I need to go out and buy another 10g tank and another whole hob setup as well as the one I just bought and haven’t used yet? At that rate I’m
Better off just doing ttm and just using 2 sets of heaters and 2 air stones and different buckets.

 

[Pongo]

You could run the copper in the 10g as above, then transfer them to your TTM bucket.

Clean the 10g system and dry, then transfer them back to the 10g for the long stay.

 

[lapin]

TTM involves using 2 tanks. Transfer fish on day 2 or 3 but no longer than 72hrs. Rinse and let old stuff dry for 24 hours. Repeat for 2 weeks. No need to use a hob, just an air stone and heater. Toss the air stone and air hose each transfer. Ammonia will not build up in the two or 3 days. After the 14 days then you can use a tank as QT tank and use the hob. Keep some Prime or something in case you see an ammonia spike.

 

[Be102]

You could run the copper in the 10g as above, then transfer them to your TTM bucket.

Clean the 10g system and dry, then transfer them back to the 10g for the long stay.

How likely is contamination? Can I like put my buckets outside if I was to ttm when not in use to help dry and kill anything left over? They surely can’t really survive after a bleach bath or am I underestimating them?

 

[Be102]

TTM involves using 2 tanks. Transfer fish on day 2 or 3 but no longer than 72hrs. Rinse and let old stuff dry for 24 hours. Repeat for 2 weeks. No need to use a hob, just an air stone and heater. Toss the air stone and air hose each transfer. Ammonia will not build up in the two or 3 days. After the 14 days then you can use a tank as QT tank and use the hob. Keep some Prime or something in case you see an ammonia spike.

This was my initial plan, and I still think I might go with it. The copper sounds intimidating and I’ve never done anything like it before. Surely I can hopefully transfer my fish back and forth with no problems. Can I feed the fish in the buckets still too? Sounds silly but I barely ever feed these two clowns but they do a great job at eating pods or whatever else in my tank.

 

[ddrueckh]

No reason to bleach. just let the bucket, airline, air stone and heater dry for at least 24 hours. Also make sure that every time you transfer, the bucket is filled with new saltwater. This means you need two of everything except the air pump. Since the fish is in the new setup for 2-3 days anyways, this isn't a problem. The part I would worry about the most is if the air stone was completely dry or not. Since they are cheap, I would get a few and let them dry longer between use. I think this method is much better than copper. It is best to feed the fish the day before transfer. This lets them eat and poop...and are then moved into fresh water the next day keeping high water quality.

 

[lapin]

I feed my fish in QT 2x a day. Same as my tank. I feed the tank first.... just in case I make a stupid mistake (who me) and use a turkey baster that I used to feed the qt tank. I make 2 batches of food, separate containers. I do feed live food so never a prob with them eating.

 

[User]

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