HotRocks
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My Tank Thread
Copper only kills the final free swimming stage (looking for a fish to host) of the Ich/velvet life cycle.What's the reason for increasing the duration of the copper? Are you breaking the lifecycle of ich by moving tanks?
So in 14 days time the fish themselves are clear of any trophonts. (likely in 7-10 days) 14 is insurance. They drop off the fish and begin reproduction eventually to the free swimming stage of tomite or dinospores. In therapeutic copper they explode instantly upon release. Therefore the fish can not be re-infected. That is why the transfer to a sterile QT works in the 14 day range, as the tomonts are left behind in the copper tank. FYI tomonts can encyst upon anything hard. PVC pipe, glass, filter, heater, etc. So you do have to use caution when transferring fish. I always net them into a bucket matching QT parameters dosed with copper. Then use a sperate net to move them from bucket to sterile QT.
However if you are lowering copper sooner than 30 days using the same tank there can still be viable tomonts releasing free swimmers to re-infect the fish. Make sense?
1 QT for Copper = 30 days of copper at the therapeutic level.
2 QTs = 14 days in tank 1 of therapeutic copper, then transfer to sterile tank 2.