Fish has beginning stages of ICH. But that fish and all other fish seem fine. NEED ADVICE

[threebuoys]

Can I dose the tank directly? I saw its never a good idea to do that. So I would assume I would need to do water changes to get it that high? Trying to calculate the dosage to get it to that 2.0-2.5 with 2 two-gallon water changes by tonight. Going home on my lunch to do the first one. But need to know how much to dose it with. it currently has 1/3tsp per gallon in it now.

You can dose directly, I will use a small pitcher to get several cups of water out, then mix the copper in it, them pour into a high flow area.

Edit: calculate Total Amount needed to get to 2.50 ppm for the volume of water you have in your tank.

Then assuming you are at .84 already
(1 - (.84/2.5) x Total Amount = incremental amount
or
( 1 -.336) x Total Amount = incremental amount
or
.6664 x Total Amount = incremental amount

 

[Cool tangs]

QT everything and I mean every single thing thay goes into your tank! Otherwise there no point in just QTing your fish.

If you do TTM it doesn't take up much room in your house and you don't need a permanent QT setup that cycled.

For corals and inverts just get a small tank with a basic light to keep them alive and do water changes.

Otherwise buy a overkill high end UV steriliser, make sure you do the maintenance though. It can work but personally I prefer to just QT everything

 

[elchopo]

Went home on my lunch and the tang seems to be doing pretty decent. I added 2tsp of coppersafe. Not sure the levels because I ran out of Hanna testers but I’ll get some on my way home. But that should be fine and I can dose the rest tonight

 

[elchopo]

I recently went through an emergency copper treatment with a white tail bristletooth tang; I noticed a few white spots on his fins and thought drat, guess I'll have to pull and treat for ich, but I was going out of town for the weekend and didn't want to drop him in QT where there would be no LR to graze and I wouldn't be around to monitor the copper, so I figured it was ok to leave him in the DT for a few more days. When I got home, the ich was much worse, but critically he had a massive secondary bacterial infection that was causing skin to slough off. I couldn't believe he was still swimming and otherwise acting pretty normal. Got him out ASAP with the fish trap and put him straight into the QT with coppersafe at 2.5. I didn't see any improvement for almost a week and every morning kept thinking this is going to be the day I lose him, and then suddenly almost overnight the infection and ich were gone. He handled the coppersafe beautifully, even the handful of days where my top-off glitched and the concentration ended up at 2.65. This was my first experience doing QT and coppersafe so I was anxious too, but am very happy I did it. Definitely would have lost the tang (and probably one of my clowns too) had I not pulled and treated. Like I said first time doing it so absolutely not the voice of experience, but wanted to share what is hopefully an encouraging experience! I did not ease up to 2.5 either, just dosed the QT to that, then added the fish using normal acclimation over 30 minutes. How big is your QT (sorry if you posted that earlier and I missed seeing it)? If it's 5/10G it may just be easier to mix up a new batch of water, dose and test to 2.5, then do a 100% change rather than working out the math to increase the dosage through partial water change.

Thanks for this. This has made me worry so much. I have spent $100's of dollars on trying to make sure the fish are taken care of and I have everything I need. but now that I do I just find it daunting to go through with it because I am so nervous I am going to jack it up and they all die. But seeing the tang this morning just confirmed to me that I did the right thing with going ahead and treating them. I believe they will be healthy enough to go through treatment and may even be healthy enough to handle a mistake here or there.

 

[elchopo]

Got HT to 2.28! I think I am going to stick with that tonight and let them relax and with tomorrows 10% water change I will add the rest to get it the rest of the way.

 

[elchopo]

@threebuoys I checked the copper level just before work this morning and it was reading 1.88. Do I need to wait x amount of time between adding more water with the copper mix and testing the hospital tank's copper level?

 

[threebuoys]

@threebuoys I checked the copper level just before work this morning and it was reading 1.88. Do I need to wait x amount of time between adding more water with the copper mix and testing the hospital tank's copper level?

I'm surprised it dropped overnight. Do you have any calcareous (calcium based) material or carbon in the QT system that would absorb copper or did you do a water change?

Recheck your copper and if it continues to check out low, go ahead and add directly to the tank however much you need to get to the 2.50 level. 1.88 / 2.50 = 75% so you are 25% low. Add 25% of a full dose. No water change.

 

[elchopo]

I'm surprised it dropped overnight. Do you have any calcareous (calcium based) material or carbon in the QT system that would absorb copper or did you do a water change?

Recheck your copper and if it continues to check out low, go ahead and add directly to the tank however much you need to get to the 2.50 level. 1.88 / 2.50 = 75% so you are 25% low. Add 25% of a full dose. No water change.

No, I don't have any carbon. The only thing I have is some filter pads in the HOB. I did at one point have something from seachem that removed metals from the water but obviously, I took that out before adding the fish.

I did a water change and added the copper and then I tested right after to get that 2.28

okay, I will add that. seems like that would be 1tsp

 

[threebuoys]

No, I don't have any carbon. The only thing I have is some filter pads in the HOB. I did at one point have something from seachem that removed metals from the water but obviously, I took that out before adding the fish.

I did a water change and added the copper and then I tested right after to get that 2.28

okay, I will add that. seems like that would be 1tsp

Some filter pad material (some type of poly fiber I believe) can absorb copper. Usually, the white pad will change color when that happens.

 

[Spieg]

When you do water change, it's best to add copper to the fresh mixed water before adding to tank so levels don't fluctuate.

 

[elchopo]

Some filter pad material (some type of poly fiber I believe) can absorb copper. Usually, the white pad will change color when that happens.

I think I do have some of that. What would be best to add to the HOB? Figured I needed it just to help with debris.

Ill test again when I get home and if it's lower I will 100% assume that's the case.

 

[threebuoys]

I think I do have some of that. What would be best to add to the HOB? Figured I needed it just to help with debris.

Ill test again when I get home and if it's lower I will 100% assume that's the case.

Just check the color of your media to see if its changing. I use foam in a canister for my QT. The copper will remain stable over time if nothing is there to absorb it. Often, my first dose will remain above 2.0 for the entire 30 day QT period.

 

[elchopo]

Just check the color of your media to see if its changing. I use foam in a canister for my QT. The copper will remain stable over time if nothing is there to absorb it. Often, my first dose will remain above 2.0 for the entire 30 day QT period.

What type of foam? Now that I think of it I adjusted the filter the other day and it had an orange hue to it.

 

[threebuoys]

What type of foam? Now that I think of it I adjusted the filter the other day and it had an orange hue to it.

I use poret foam I purchased on internet/ It's fairly dense. Some aquarium filters that run off air pumps are made of foam. They are inexpensive. You could probably trim the foam from one of them with scissors to fit in your HOB.

 

[elchopo]

I use poret foam I purchased on internet/ It's fairly dense. Some aquarium filters that run off air pumps are made of foam. They are inexpensive. You could probably trim the foam from one of them with scissors to fit in your HOB.

I have polfilter in the hob....just figured out that it removes metals......Going to remove

 

[elchopo]

Yesterday was scary. I overdosed on coppersafe and it was around 3.50ppm. I immediately did a few water changes and got it down to 2.75ppm. I kept the polyfilter in the tank overnight to bring it down more and it was sitting at 2.34 when I checked this morning. I removed the ployfilter so I am hoping when I go home and check it will still be around that level so I can start dosing with water changes and not have to worry about any swings.

 

[threebuoys]

I should have also mentioned, do not use activated charcoal in your QT filter as that will absorb copper too.

 

[elchopo]

I should have also mentioned, do not use activated charcoal in your QT filter as that will absorb copper too.

Yup I knew that! I didn't realize polyfill was used to remove metals. Went to my LFS to get a sponge and I saw it and the package said "Removes metals". I was like "oh....."

But the fish are still doing well! I think I can officially say the therapeutic stage has started! Hopefully, they do well for the full 30 days. But no matter will shoot for 14 days and 76 days fully out of DT.

 

[elchopo]

Today is the last full day of their copper treatment! Things have gone super smoothly! No fish have died and they have been eating like pigs the entire time. For the first ten days or so I was doing daily water changes and then every other day and ended up not having to do them for 3-4 days at a time. Tomorrow I will be moving them to a dedicated QT tank for 44 days while the DT tank rids itself of potential ICH. Huge lesson learned.

 

[rmorris_14]

Today is the last full day of their copper treatment! Things have gone super smoothly! No fish have died and they have been eating like pigs the entire time. For the first ten days or so I was doing daily water changes and then every other day and ended up not having to do them for 3-4 days at a time. Tomorrow I will be moving them to a dedicated QT tank for 44 days while the DT tank rids itself of potential ICH. Huge lesson learned.

Excellent work! Glad everyone else is safe and thriving.