Yellow tang Popeye?

[XLOR8T]

hi

I bought this yellow tang from a LFS which after testing realized was sitting in 1.017 salinity and Copper for over 2 weeks. He was quarantined by my fish guy for 5 weeks (2 weeks longer than usual as he was coming with a group of zebrasoma tangs) he was in coppersafe.

When I put him in my tank under my lights I noticed the left eye is swollen and pupil is small. He is very active, eats like a pig and doesn’t show any other symptoms so as a pre-caution I started Melafix since Sunday. He had some HILLE and so did the purple tang. That has improved in the yellow and basically gone on the purple. Just wanted some reassurance to direction of treatment. I had to take my skimmer offline and have been pushing a big air pump with two large stones to keep my ORO and PH up abut my ph I now hovering around 7.5-7.65 (down from 7.7-7.8) I’m just trying to assess my game plan moving forward. Pics attached

The front facing image is from day 1 (Saturday) and split image is day 1 vs today day 5.

 

[Humblefish]

Is the left eye cloudy at all, or just swollen? How does the right eye look?

 

[XLOR8T]

Is the left eye cloudy at all, or just swollen? How does the right eye look?

Right eye looks completely normal. The left eye is slightly cloudy but more swollen and the pupil looks much smaller. Here are more pics to compare two sides

 

[Humblefish]

@XLOR8T Looks like an eye infection, and the low pH is probably aggravating his symptoms. I would raise it up to 7.8-7.9. As far as treatment, if Melafix is helping continue with that. However, if it starts looking worse then erythromycin is the antibiotic of choice for eye infections.

 

[XLOR8T]

@XLOR8T Looks like an eye infection, and the low pH is probably aggravating his symptoms. I would raise it up to 7.8-7.9. As far as treatment, if Melafix is helping continue with that. However, if it starts looking worse then erythromycin is the antibiotic of choice for eye infections.

Thank you so much for looking at it. He’s eating well and looks happy I didn’t want to stress him and catch him. Can erythromycin be dosed to tank or do I need to QT for antibiotics?

Also I’m at a loss as to how I can raise PH. I tried dosing 2 part to get my ALK up by 0.5 DKH. It did raise PH to 7.75 but then it steadily dropped back down to 7.55

Normally my tank would go up in PH during the day, even without corals in the tank but right now it’s stuck. Not sure if it’s Melafix or no skimmer or both.

Open to suggestions. Thanks again

 

[Humblefish]

Can erythromycin be dosed to tank or do I need to QT for antibiotics?

Both, but it will be more effective if dosed into a sterile QT because the medication won't get degraded by biofilm: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/qt-and-biofilm.292878/

Also I’m at a loss as to how I can raise PH.

"Baked" baking soda: Spread regular baking soda onto a clean baking sheet, and bake at 300F for 1 hour. This process drives off water and carbon dioxide - which converts sodium bicarbonate into sodium carbonate - and the result is an effective pH buffer. But the rise in pH is only temporary; you must find the cause of it being so low.

 

[XLOR8T]

Both, but it will be more effective if dosed into a sterile QT because the medication won't get degraded by biofilm: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/qt-and-biofilm.292878/



"Baked" baking soda: Spread regular baking soda onto a clean baking sheet, and bake at 300F for 1 hour. This process drives off water and carbon dioxide - which converts sodium bicarbonate into sodium carbonate - and the result is an effective pH buffer. But the rise in pH is only temporary; you must find the cause of it being so low.

Will it drive KH up too? I’m thinking my ionic balance is off. Calcium is 450 Mag is 1600 (don’t know how. Since my salt is 1280 or something and I don’t dose this tank. I did a 30% water change 10 days ago and another 30% 5 days before that as I was trying to reduce very high Phosphate from the system. I had chloroquine phosphate in there for 30 day and started running Carbon 3 weeks ago. Once it was coming out the system I notice big algae growth and tested PO4 and realized it was side effect of CP. I’m down to 0.6 and dropping now. Running Rowaphos in a reactor.