How to Quarantine

mfollen

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Today’s experience with the double FW & ruby dip is that it’s not too bad on the fish. The FW dip more-so but not bad. These dips can be good prior to QT as fish made it into QT post shipping relatively smoothly.
 

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Agreed. FW for 5 mins then a 90 minute ruby reef rally dip are well tolerated, and really, nothing to lose by doing them before they hit the QT.
 

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Setup my QT and dosed Cupramine. A few days in I have this white stringy stuff on the air line.

Anyone know what this is?

fe61137b75724dae844ae4ea368f08b3.jpg
 

mfollen

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Hello all!

Two quick questions:
I'm treating an emperor angelfish with a combination of copper power, GC & metro.
After the 2 weeks of therapeutic copper I was going to get her out of the copper and into a new sterile QT.

Can I air dry the used QT to sterilize without using vinegar? If so, how long should it stay dry to sterilize before being used in another TTM transfer?

Thank you!
 

HotRocks

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Hello all!

Two quick questions:
I'm treating an emperor angelfish with a combination of copper power, GC & metro.
After the 2 weeks of therapeutic copper I was going to get her out of the copper and into a new sterile QT.

Can I air dry the used QT to sterilize without using vinegar? If so, how long should it stay dry to sterilize before being used in another TTM transfer?

Thank you!
Personally I would bleach and air dry completely. I would dry for at least 48 hours. I use a hairdryer to dry out crevices on heaters, powerheads, hob, etc. If I need to quickly get the tank back up and running. I always bleach + dry for a minimum of 48 hrs.
 

mfollen

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Thank you! Would it be any quicker to use vinegar vs bleach then drying via hairdryer? I have a 2nd QT running with the same treatment plan and want to transfer those fish very quickly to avoid contamination via aero.
 

mfollen

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Can anyone help me with my ammonia alert badge?

It doesn’t seem to change color and is stuck between yellow (safe) and the slight green...

I did a 25% water change and the color stayed the same.. I took the big plastic film off, but not what I believe was the circular sensor underneath...

Thank you!!!

7FA48E5B-29DB-4C4F-864D-554A730547F8.jpeg
 

Saltyreef

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Can anyone help me with my ammonia alert badge?

It doesn’t seem to change color and is stuck between yellow (safe) and the slight green...

I did a 25% water change and the color stayed the same.. I took the big plastic film off, but not what I believe was the circular sensor underneath...

Thank you!!!

7FA48E5B-29DB-4C4F-864D-554A730547F8.jpeg
It takes up to 4 hours for the alert to return back to normal once the color changes. Also this measures free ammonia.
If you are starting with fresh mixed water and are doing water changes every other day or so to keep the free ammonia down then you should be good and shouldnt see much color change. I was infact skeptical as well because mine didnt change colors for days. I think i was expecting the ammonia to be thru the roof after a day or so but thats not the case with the bioload i have in my QT. You can also do a test and submerge the badge in water that you just spiked with a shrimp or food if you think its not working. And dont touch the sensor bubble with your fingers!
 

Brew12

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Can anyone help me with my ammonia alert badge?

It doesn’t seem to change color and is stuck between yellow (safe) and the slight green...

I did a 25% water change and the color stayed the same.. I took the big plastic film off, but not what I believe was the circular sensor underneath...

Thank you!!!

7FA48E5B-29DB-4C4F-864D-554A730547F8.jpeg
They work best when lit from behind. If your QT doesn't have strong lighting, shine a flashlight at the back while reading it from the front.
 

mfollen

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Awesome. Thank you so much for the tips. I’m doing water changes but blindly as I can’t get a good reading on the badge. Will try these tips later today.
 

Saltyreef

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Awesome. Thank you so much for the tips. I’m doing water changes but blindly as I can’t get a good reading on the badge. Will try these tips later today.
Its much easier and safer to get into a WC routine that doesnt let your ammonia get to the point of alerting. Nothing wrong with doing WCs every other day or so. It will only benefit the QT in the long run and be less stressful on your fish. The badge is there as a tattle tale essentially.
 

mfollen

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Agreed. I used the light and it worked great.

Going to continue doing water changes every three days proactively. Seems to be holding up at that pace so far.

Thank you!
 

HotRocks

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Thank you for a great thread!
Does anyone know if I should quarentene clean up crew and the first fish to go into a tank?

If you are adding a clean up crew to a new fishless tank there is no need to QT them. So long as you wait to add fish for 76 days after the CUC is added.

You should QT all fish, IMO.
 

VJV

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Thank you for a great thread!
Does anyone know if I should quarentene clean up crew and the first fish to go into a tank?

You definitely need to QT all fish, including the first one! If you don’t you will risk introducing a parasite to the system which means that at any given point in the future you risk having all your fish wiped out, even if you QT all subsequent additions.
 

mfollen

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I’m nearing the end of the 10-14 day copper treatment along with GC & metro and have a question on the observation period.

Does anyone not do the observation period after copper treatment and put the fish into display? I was considering not doing the observation period after 14 days of copper treatment, instead keep the fish in the original QTs with copper for 21 days and then put them straight into the display.

The display is empty and these are the first fish. I’m moving at the end of the month and am considering putting them in the display as transferring the fish into new QTs was would be one more project out of a billion with moving going on. The fish show no signs of disease currently.

Thank you!
 

VJV

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If you look at the parasite life cycle you will see that Trophonts will remain attached to the fish anywhere between 3-7 days before they fall off. If during this period you keep your copper concentration at full therapeutic levels no new Trophonts should attach as any free swimming Theronts should be killed by the copper.

This means that theoretically at the end of 7 days the fish should be completely clean of ich. People tend to do 9-14 days before transferring to a new tank in order to be on the safe side.

If you can observe in separate tank it will always be better as there other illnesses that could manifest after the copper which if you put in the display will make it difficult to treat.

If you want to be absolutely paranoid when you transfer the fish to the display (or a separate QT) you should make sure the parameters are a match so you can put the fish in without acclimation. Rising in tank water would be a good idea to make sure no drops of water containing copper are introduced.

If you need to drop acclimate you should remove water from your display into a bucket, add copper at fully concentration to that bucket and than drip this into the bucket where you have your fish. This way you make sure that during the acclimation the copper level remains at full therapeutic level to avoid some Tomont (cyst) that could have come in the net you used to scoop the fish out of the QT, bursting when the copper levels inveje acclimation bucket have been diluted with tank water.

This last part is if you are being paranoid, but still...

For what is worth this is what I have been doing and my display “seems” to be parasite free. The theory of what is known of the parasite lifecycle dictates that it should work.

But it is definitely best practice to first move it into a sterile tank for observation (and taking care on the acclimation phase as above)
 

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If you look at the parasite life cycle you will see that Trophonts will remain attached to the fish anywhere between 3-7 days before they fall off. If during this period you keep your copper concentration at full therapeutic levels no new Trophonts should attach as any free swimming Theronts should be killed by the copper.

This means that theoretically at the end of 7 days the fish should be completely clean of ich. People tend to do 9-14 days before transferring to a new tank in order to be on the safe side.

If you can observe in separate tank it will always be better as there other illnesses that could manifest after the copper which if you put in the display will make it difficult to treat.

If you want to be absolutely paranoid when you transfer the fish to the display (or a separate QT) you should make sure the parameters are a match so you can put the fish in without acclimation. Rising in tank water would be a good idea to make sure no drops of water containing copper are introduced.

If you need to drop acclimate you should remove water from your display into a bucket, add copper at fully concentration to that bucket and than drip this into the bucket where you have your fish. This way you make sure that during the acclimation the copper level remains at full therapeutic level to avoid some Tomont (cyst) that could have come in the net you used to scoop the fish out of the QT, bursting when the copper levels inveje acclimation bucket have been diluted with tank water.

This last part is if you are being paranoid, but still...

For what is worth this is what I have been doing and my display “seems” to be parasite free. The theory of what is known of the parasite lifecycle dictates that it should work.

But it is definitely best practice to first move it into a sterile tank for observation (and taking care on the acclimation phase as above)
Great advice IMO^^^

The observation is a safety net. If something slips through treatment or an infection etc shows up it's easy to treat since they are still in QT. If you had fish in DT you could be putting them at risk if something did slip through. I understand this being a first batch you don't have that to worry about. If something did slip through though you'd have to go fallow in the DT and rip it apart to catch the fish.
 
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