I know that heartbreak is part of this hobby.

[bizzybeas]

I have a 55 gallon mixed reef tank. Everyone was flourishing until 3 weeks ago I added a beautiful fairy wrasse. Flash forward. I have 3 fish scratching. A gramma and a Midas blenny who are dive bombing the sand. A yellow tang who is mildly scratching and 2 other fish who appear fine. ( one being the fairy wrasse). My fire fish died yesterday. All others are eating normally. 2 days ago I noticed some white spots on the gramma. He is being shy and will not pose for a picture at the moment . I can spot some white spots on his pectoral fins
I just set up a 20 gallon QT tank with air stones, a hang on back filter and PVC pieces. I plan on transferring 10 gallons of H2O from my DT and 10 gallons of new water. I purchased copper power and a Sailfert copper test kit . I am ready to transfer fish today. We are coming up with a plan to catch the Midas because he is wicked fast and I have a cylinder tank. All fish are eating normally as of the moment and I catch the blenny occasionally breathing fast but not always.
my questions.... how soon would you dose copper and how to ramp up?
how would you control ammonia? My LFS recommended 50% water changes daily.
I have a sponge and biomedical in another set up small gallon tank I could transfer but won’t copper just kill any bacteria? Should I eventually lower salinity?


My DT is a 55 gallon with refugium ( red ogo) filter socks and a skimmer. Temp 77, ph 8.2, no ammonia or nitrites, nitrates 20 , phosphate .5, salinity 1.026.

Thank you in advance.

 

[bizzybeas]

I am trying to get a good picture. It looks more like velvet as the tang has tiny white dots on his fins but I can not see any other spots. The spots on the gramma are very tiny.

 

[bizzybeas]

Respiratory rate on the blenny is 60 per minute.

 

[LaxFrags]

hope you find a solution

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Respiratory rate on the blenny is 60 per minute.

Hi, copper won’t kill off all the bacteria. You should ramp up the copper in one day: calculate a half dose, add it and let it mix, then test. You should be at half concentration. Then, add the second half of the dose. If you get a weird reading after the first Half dose, stop and try to figure out- was your dose off, did you read the copper test wrong?
Don’t run low salinity with copper....
Jay

 

[bizzybeas]

Hi, copper won’t kill off all the bacteria. You should ramp up the copper in one day: calculate a half dose, add it and let it mix, then test. You should be at half concentration. Then, add the second half of the dose. If you get a weird reading after the first Half dose, stop and try to figure out- was your dose off, did you read the copper test wrong?
Don’t run low salinity with copper....
Jay

Thank you. I am going to do a freshwater dip first before I add to the Q tank. I will ramp up copper as you have suggested. Now to try and trap the blenny .

 

[bizzybeas]

For anyone following along this thread; my fish look amazing this morning. I would question my sanity except that the 2 cleaner shrimp seem to be removing dead skin cells off of the blenny and the tang. The tang shows no spots today but I know the problem still exists because the gramma has a spots on his fins and the blenny is still dive bombing. I am going to proceed with freshwater dip and QT with copper tonight.

 

[whitcory]

Just saw this and happy to see a fellow reefer With the pro-clear! How do you like it. Here is my post...happy to trade war stories!

 

[whitcory]

Build Thread - Pro-Clear 80 Cylinder Reef New Build Thread (60 Gallons)

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