2 Tank Quarantine Verification/Clarification

ap7x · Jan 10, 2019

Hello all!

First of all, thank you for all your time and effort in helping the community!

Basically, I wanted to verify and clarify some things regarding a 2 tank quarantine process I have in mind for all incoming fish. It's prophylactically trying to knock out Ick, Velvet, Brook, Flukes, and external parasites. I'll try to keep it as brief as possible, so some standard details I might just gloss over or assumed true from the sticky threads (and common answers from searching a lot the past couple weeks lol).

My plan:

QT #1 - 20g Long
Copper Power treatment - setup as described in threads with matrix in HOB Aquaclear filter

1) Fish go in, copper raised to therapeutic, maintained - 14 days from therapeutic levels. May be fed API Gen Cure + Focus + Selcon food mix.

COMPLETE Elimination: Velvet, Ich, Internal parasites

Question: If the API Gen Cure and food are not properly bound by the focus, will the unbound amount of API Gen Cure be an issue with Copper Power? Think I've read even full API Gen Cure is not issue per se, but just a lot of medication + possible oxygen issues so I'm guessing this small amount won't be a problem.

Question: If ammonia badge indicates no ammonia, meaning the bacteria seem good enough, am I correct in thinking water changes are not necessary per se? Minimizing it would obviously help maintain the therapeutic copper levels.

Question: When the fish "graduate" to QT#2, can I use QT#1 to treat another round of fish with copper without sterilization or will I have some super copper resistant ich/velvet monsters waiting?

After the 14 days, moved to QT #2. Same setup as QT #1 (no copper though).

QT #2 - 29g
API Gen Cure treatment, follow directions (dose, 7 days, dose)

COMPLETE Elimination: Brook, flukes, external parasites

Question: Would some live rock in QT #2 be negative considering no copper? If not, I'm thinking the extra bio filtration would help, since the fish may spend a little extra time here depending on their status. Also just to mimic more of a.. reef environment. Even if it is just rocks instead of PVC lol..

Verification: I am not missing any "wipe out the tank" type of diseases or hard to treat stuff through this QT process, correct?

Ultimate Verification: CopperPower and API General Cure treatment over this two QT setup would completely eliminate Velvet, Ich, Brook (big 3), internal parasites, flukes and external parasites?

I've read some threads where it seems everything was done right but somehow a person returns the fish into DT after fallow (above and beyond 76 days) and somehow ich or velvet shows up on their quarantined fish. I'm assuming user error somewhere somehow (and it can be easily happen, so I understand), so just wanted to check on that.

Thanks again!

HotRocks · Jan 10, 2019

Sounds a lot like my process

You can run a second batch in tank 1 once those fish graduate to tank 2. You may want to sterilize between batches depending on what you dealt with on the last batch.

Water changes would be discretionary based on bioload, and water clarity. Water quality is important. If you do need to do a WC during copper it's important to pre-dose the newly mixed water with copper prior to adding to tank so that the copper level in the tank doesn't fluctuate.

Using biospira should establish a working biofilter.

You won't want rock in tank 2, we don't have enough data to know what it does to medications like general cure or antibiotics (as far as degradation) if they were necessary. We DO know they will work just fine with PVC instead of rock.

ap7x · Jan 10, 2019

Haha @HotRocks , right from the expert's playbook. Seemed like the least stressful/less room for error/hit all the bullets process lol. You and Humble and all the contributors have been a wealth of knowledge. And yup, I'm going to use Fritz Turbo for bacteria, which I trust to do very well with the Matrix as well.

If you don't mind, as a baseline I am going to assume every fish has ich and velvet, so at least those would be present in QT#1, so I'll assume tomonts are present after batch #1. Would I want to sterilize for this reason or will the copper just kill the theronts/dinos every time they release (going back to whether they get resistant)? And if not for that, is there something else I would want to sterilize for that copper wouldn't take care of? Because I am thinking, if the copper tank can be "contaminated", even if the fish don't show the first two weeks, they might have had something and I should sterilize anyways?

Noted on QT#2 rocks; thanks for pointing that out.

HotRocks · Jan 10, 2019

ap7x said:
Haha @HotRocks , right from the expert's playbook. Seemed like the least stressful/less room for error/hit all the bullets process lol. You and Humble and all the contributors have been a wealth of knowledge. And yup, I'm going to use Fritz Turbo for bacteria, which I trust to do very well with the Matrix as well.

If you don't mind, as a baseline I am going to assume every fish has ich and velvet, so at least those would be present in QT#1, so I'll assume tomonts are present after batch #1. Would I want to sterilize for this reason or will the copper just kill the theronts/dinos every time they release (going back to whether they get resistant)? And if not for that, is there something else I would want to sterilize for that copper wouldn't take care of? Because I am thinking, if the copper tank can be "contaminated", even if the fish don't show the first two weeks, they might have had something and I should sterilize anyways?

Noted on QT#2 rocks; thanks for pointing that out.

I wouldn't worry about viable tomonts in tank 1. I am more concerned with a gram negative bacterial infection breakout.

One thing to consider for immediately placing new fish in tank 1 as soon as a batch leaves is if you get too far ahead of yourself and your fish recently moved tank 2 need additional attention like antibiotics to clear an infection or any type of additional treatment. They could end up there longer than originally anticipated. Hence having to leave the newer batch in tank 1 for longer than expected. Copper is an immunosuppressant, so I wouldn't want to have to leave them in therapuetic copper for more than 14 days if at all possible.