Quarantine tank question

[EZMAC114]

I added a desjardini Sailfin tang to my qt on Friday and since then my nitrites have come up to .25ppm. Is this ok or should I do a water change asap??

Ammonia is 0ppm
Nitrates are 10ppm

 

[Squishie89]

Do a water change and add some nitrifying bacteria. I would also strongly reccomend not having sand in a QT, parasites can hide in the sand.

 

[EZMAC114]

It'll be ok to add some bacteria with the fish in the tank? And I wasn't going to use sand but my LFS said to because it would help keep the parameters more stable.

 

[Squishie89]

Yes the bacteria is fish safe, just don't add a ton. Sand can help keep things more stable, but in the end you need to make sure there are no lingering parasites. Also sand and rock can absorb medications and leech them out later on. Also is the fish doing okay? Eating, acting okay?
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/eq...arantine-tank-how-quarantine-fish;-guide.html

 

[EZMAC114]

Has been eating all of the dried sea weed I put in the tank twice a day and swims around fine when he doesn't know I'm there but will get scared and hide when I approach the tank.

 

[EZMAC114]

I just checked again and he is breathing a little rapid but I don't know if he was stressed bc I was scooping out some a little floating sea weed and some water for testing

 

[Squishie89]

Does he have places to hide?

 

[EZMAC114]

He has one decoration to hide behind in the corner of the tank

 

[EZMAC114]

He always goes back there when I enter the room

 

[Squishie89]

You may need to cover the tank with something so he is not disturbed by you walking around. I also suggest getting some large PVC pipe bits for him to hide in.

 

[EZMAC114]

I shut of the lights in that room for the rest of the night and I'll look into getting some PVC

 

[Squishie89]

Sounds good! Please do let me know if you need anymore help.

 

[EZMAC114]

Ok thank you!

 

[EZMAC114]

So the nitrite has come down since I added the nitrifying bacteria and I added an aerator to the tank bc I read that the heavy breathing could be caused from a lack of oxygen in the water and he still has heavy breathing. Would you suggest adding him to my main tank to reduce the stress of the small tank? Or is that a horrible idea?? My qt is treated with copper and I haven't seen any kind of parasites or disease to be on him. And he is also still eating great

 

[Squishie89]

Personally I advise not putting him in the display. Did you slowly up the dose of copper and have you been keeping the copper level where it needs to be? Copper can be tricky in that it needs to be at a certain level to be successful. I am concerned your sand might be absorbing the copper be causing problems. I am going to show this thread to a friend of me and see if he can help

 

[EZMAC114]

The times I have had the copper tested it has tested .3ppm and it has maintained that. I don't have a copper test kit so I take a sample to my lfs

 

[monkiboy]

squishie is leading you correctly ezmac. you will want to remove the sand for all the reasons mentioned. you can do the same with the structure depending on it's porosity. you don't want to use items that can absorb the medication and cause levels to fluctuate.

what copper are you using?

you need to purchase a test kit of the same manufacturer that makes whatever copper you are using (i.e. seachem cupramine and the seachem multitest test kit)

you should be testing level once if not twice a day and making trips to your LFS is cumbersome and not practical and you have no way to assure the test is being done correctly or with the correct test kit.

get an ammonia badge alert as a backup.

testing ammonia with typical test kits while treating with most copper medicines will yield incorrect results.

take note of your fish's normal behavior for activity, respiration, feeding, etc and you'll notice when water changes are due. typically every day to every two to three days is not unheard of but will change based on how much you feed and what biological filtration you are able to sustain during treatment.

you need to provide pvc structures or fittings for the fish to hide and feel secure. a stressed out fish is no good. pvc does not absorb medication as easily as rock or other porous decorations and is easily sterilized for reuse.

i would not move him from qt rather slowly begin to stabilize and improve water quality over the course of a day.

do you have a HOB or power head providing agitation of the surface for oxygenation of the water column? the air bubbler is not a bad one but you do not want to use an airstone with too fine of bubbles as it will just act as a protein skimmer leaving residue on your glass and slowly removing your medications.

let us know how it goes and hope this helps. there are tons of worthwhile threads and information stickies on here and RC to read over prior to your next fish addition in qt as well. be sure to take the time to be diligent about this and your next effort for optimal success. g'luck!

 

[EZMAC114]

Thanks to both of you for all of you info. Will removing the sand stress the fish a lot?? And I put a powerhead in the tank but it was way to powerful for the tank. I will try and get a small enough one tomorrow.

 

[EZMAC114]

This is the copper I'm using

 

[EZMAC114]

Well I just checked my qt tank numbers and they have come up to bad levels