Have Velvet in reef DT. Please review my protocol and advise

[Ferrell]

lost two fish today from a velvet outbreak. Other four (2 clown 2 reef chromis) still kicking and eating.

Protocol: 10 gallon hospital
Filter sponge from DT sump with air pump.
Heater, no lights
Water from DT to start

Place fish in aerated freshwater heated rodi for up to 5 min.
Then bath fish in saltwater with AS Ich-X for 60 min. Aerate or not at this point?

Then directly to hospital tank with Cuprion. Is one drop per gallon enough? Can’t find therapeutic dose? Please let me know what level.

Monitor fish, copper and ammonia levels for one month.
Leave DT fallow for 6 weeks or 76 days???

Can I use DT for water changes of hospital since DT is technically infected?

 

[Ferrell]

lost two fish today from a velvet outbreak. Other four (2 clown 2 reef chromis) still kicking and eating.

Protocol: 10 gallon hospital
Filter sponge from DT sump with air pump.
Heater, no lights
Water from DT to start

Place fish in aerated freshwater heated rodi for up to 5 min.
Then bath fish in saltwater with AS Ich-X for 60 min. Aerate or not at this point?

Then directly to hospital tank with Cuprion. Is one drop per gallon enough? Can’t find therapeutic dose? Please let me know what level.

Monitor fish, copper and ammonia levels for one month.
Leave DT fallow for 6 weeks or 76 days???

Can I use DT for water changes of hospital since DT is technically infected?

@Humblefish or @melypr1985

 

[deedubz]

I have no experience with cuprion, so I can't help with dosage.

Bring ro water to temp and aerate heavily 20 minutes before freshwater dip. Stop aeration just prior to dip.
For the bath you'll want to keep the aeration going the entire time. I've never used ich-x either so I can't help there.

In an ideal world, you'd want a larger qt. If a 10 is all you have you can make it work, but ammonia may become an issue. I'd advise against using dt sponge or water, but in a pinch you can(defeats purpose of bath to then put them in contaminated water). Do not do waterchanges with dt water once you start treatment, as you could end up adding more parasites.
You'll definitely want a heater and either(or both) airstones/little power head for aeration. Do you have an hob filter like an aquaclear to place the sponge in?

An alternative would be to go grab some biomax and a sponge and soak it in dr tims/biospira/etc for a couple hours in a Tupperware(add fresh saltwater to completely submerge). Then pour the water in the qt and place media in hob.

 

[Big G]

From a previous post by Humblefish on dosing Cuprion:

"The recommended therapeutic dosage for Cuprion is 0.20 ppm. However, that product can be very difficult to measure accurately using a hobbyist grade test kit. I recommend one of the "professional grade" test kits listed here": https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/copper-test-kits.257924/

 

[HotRocks]

Cuprion is one drop per gallon, to get to .2ppm. which is therapeutic. Like @Big G said. It's very difficult to test at that low of a range and be accurate.

I have tested it digitally, and for what it's worth the bottle I had was spot on.

 

[Ferrell]

Thanks for the responses. I read a lot of @Humblefish posts which I used to form my treatment protocol & used what meds I had that fit into the regimen
UPDATE
After thinking and talking with wife after we calmed down we thought it logical not to do water changes with DT water so I’ve got the RODI cranked up and made about 15 extra gallons in addition to the normal storage for water changes.
All in all FW dip went fine after 1/2 tearing down the aquascape to catch the little beggars. Bathed and brought cuprion up to therapeutic (1 drop per gallon)and placed fish in HT with heater, thermometer, some pvc and the foam filter. Don’t have HOB (was on my list) but opted to use foam filter with air pump from BRS that had been in sump for a few months. I know it may have had the velvet but the nearest store was 45 minutes away & I know fast action is required with velvet as evident from flame and blenny overnight passing. So it’s become a throw away after this is over. Not taking any chances with a five dollar filter.

The cuprion should kill the velvet in the sponge filter or keep at bay until I can get HOB, right?

So far so good. Monitoring ammonia and have alert badges coming Monday. Time will tell and DT will remain fishless for 6 weeks. Will post updates as we move forward. Very stressful day

 

[Ferrell]

From a previous post by Humblefish on dosing Cuprion:

"The recommended therapeutic dosage for Cuprion is 0.20 ppm. However, that product can be very difficult to measure accurately using a hobbyist grade test kit. I recommend one of the "professional grade" test kits listed here": https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/copper-test-kits.257924/

Thanks I missed that article

 

[deedubz]

The cuprion should kill the velvet in the sponge filter or keep at bay until I can get HOB, right?

Once you're at therapeutic, yes. The copper can't do anything to help the fish as far as the parasites already on them. That's why the fw dip and bath are key. It does, however, prevent the free swimmers from attaching to the fish

 

[Ferrell]

Update
They made it through the night. Clowns look good, reef chromi look a bit stressed. Couldn’t have been chasing them around the DT for an hour.

 

[deedubz]

Update
They made it through the night. Clowns look good, reef chromi look a bit stressed. Couldn’t have been chasing them around the DT for an hour.

That's great news! It'll only help that clowns and chromis(at least blue-green) are pretty tough customers.

Since this is a 10g you'll want to feed but you'll want to be careful about overfeeding. Make sure you siphon out any uneaten food. Also, and the baths really help with this, keep an eye out for bacterial infections. Velvet is notorious for causing them. It may be a good idea to just do the baths every couple days to help clean the wounds. Best of luck to you!

 

[Ferrell]

Thanks for the info. The 2 blue reef chromi passed today and had so many wounds I think they just succumbed. The clowns however look good and take a little food so I’m hopeful with them. They didn’t have it as bad as the chromi.
I did a 50% water change today and ammonia badges should be here tomorrow so I can monitor even closer. Two in a 10 won’t be as hard as four if that’s any kind of consolation.
Thanks for all y’all help and advice. Now it’s just time to sit back, relax, replace a few corals that got moved around during the capture, reformulate a stocking plan, keep the bacteria going in DT and stock up on some QT items and meds I want to have on hand. REEF2REEF community is awesome and very supporting in time of crisis. Thank you all for your time

 

[deedubz]

Oh man, I'm so sorry to hear that. I recently lost several fish to this horrible disease, so I can relate. I certainly hope these clowns can pull through. Let us know if we can be of any further assistance

 

[Big G]

Thanks for the info. The 2 blue reef chromi passed today and had so many wounds I think they just succumbed. The clowns however look good and take a little food so I’m hopeful with them. They didn’t have it as bad as the chromi.
I did a 50% water change today and ammonia badges should be here tomorrow so I can monitor even closer. Two in a 10 won’t be as hard as four if that’s any kind of consolation.
Thanks for all y’all help and advice. Now it’s just time to sit back, relax, replace a few corals that got moved around during the capture, reformulate a stocking plan, keep the bacteria going in DT and stock up on some QT items and meds I want to have on hand. REEF2REEF community is awesome and very supporting in time of crisis. Thank you all for your time

Clowns can be incredibly tough and are often the last man standing in a tank ravaged by velvet. The internal damage by the parasites needs to be watched and anticipated. Great food with some vitamins and stellar water quality will help them recover. Best of luck.