Do You Have To Lower QT Copper Levels Before Transferring Back To DT?

[Tnops]

I think that since fish stores have copper in their tanks, you wouldn’t have to drop the copper in the QT first. Is this wrong?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I think that since fish stores have copper in their tanks, you wouldn’t have to drop the copper in the QT first. Is this wrong?

No, you don't have to, but there is much benefit in dropping the copper in your QT and then holding the fish copper free for 14 days (I use that time to dose prazi if need be). That way, if any protozoans got through, you'll see them break in your QT, not your DT. Some aquarists use an even better method: after 30 days of copper, they remove it for 14 days. then, they add it back for 48 hours and remove the fish WHILE it is in the new copper dose. That helps eliminate any theronts that managed to still be lurking. It is all a cost/benefit exercise: if you DT has many thousands of dollars of fish in it, you want to opt for the most conservative approach (the last one). If the new fish have more value than the fish in your DT, you might opt to remove them right at the end of the 30 day copper, to get them into the more stable DT ASAP....

Jay

 

[Billldg]

I was always concerned with adding any amount of copper to my DT, so I always either dropped the level to as close to 0 as possible, or transferred them to another sterile QT tank that was absent of copper for a week or 2, as Jay said, before adding to my DT.