Do medications evaporate? Aerosolize?

[azbigjohn]

I am creating a hospital tank to QT all of my (previously un-QT'd) fish while I change over to another tank.

I have a tank all set up, heated, with a new mesh top for gas exchange. Because I plan on running copper (and then Prazi) I added an airstone to the tank to increase oxygenation. (I should mention it's a 40-gallon tank as we are talking 7 fish here.) I added a bacteria-laden sponge when I transferred the fish over.

Everyone is now in the tank and eating (been two days) and I am about ready to start adding the copper. Which brings me to my dumb question...

The airstone is dramatically increasing my evaporation, including salt creep on the mesh top...

I know if I do any water changing, I need to add copper (or whatever med) to the water to keep the concentration at the appropriate level. The question is, since I am seeing salt creep on the lid, do I need to bring any top off water up to the correct medication concentration before adding it?

I realize I should just test the water before and after with my API test kit (for copper) but after the recent long discussion of the vagaries of the test kit, I thought I would ask...

Thanks for everything you guys do to help keep our fish healthy!

 

[Humblefish]

Medications don't evaporate per se; but if you were losing a lot of water due to excessive "splashage" then you would lose whatever concentration was in that water if you topped off with non-medicated water.

It's usually negligible, however.

Edit: For normal evaporation/salt creep, do top off with non-medicated RODI. However, regularly test your copper level (for example) and SG just to be sure. :)

 

[melypr1985]

Medications don't evaporate per se; but if you were losing a lot of water due to excessive "splashage" then you would lose whatever concentration was in that water if you topped off with non-medicated water.

It's usually negligible, however.

Edit: For normal evaporation/salt creep, do top off with non-medicated RODI. However, regularly test your copper level (for example) and SG just to be sure. :)

+1