Switching up the hospital tank and using copper

carlson · May 1, 2016

Recently I made a new addition to my tank with a small hippo tang. I, yes this was a bad choice, didn't quarantine him, and you can probably already tell how this wound up. I've heard hippo tangs are ich magnets. As of now since he's been in my tank a few days he's seemed to be happy swimming around in all the open space around my two main rock pillars, but tonight I noticed that he was rubbing up against a rock repetitively and realized I had to make a decision fast or it would be a tank disaster all over again. I've tried many methods to get rid of ich and velvet in the past such as fresh water dips, and using hospital tanks with copper, and Ive decided to switch things up a bit. I've taken all of the inverts and coral out of my tank, and decided decided to leave the fish, rock, and sanded in the main display, and dose that tank with copper. This might not be the best choice, but I feel like it will work as far as really getting all of the parasites out of the sand bed and rocks in my main tank. Tell me what you think! I'm planning on starting copper tomorrow, and when I'm done with the whole process I'll use products to get the copper back out of the main tank. The water I used to set up the separate tank was made fresh and no water from the main was added. Tell me what you think!

carlson · May 1, 2016

Also, the pipes you see are in there to keep the urchin away from the coral I have, I gave him a rock covered in coraline to keep him happy.

tcarter1936 · May 1, 2016

I'm not an expert but have always been told not to reuse anything that has been used with copper on inverts so I'd wait for more input before doing it.

melypr1985 · May 1, 2016

I'll be honest. I think this was the last thing I would do. Even if you can get all the copper out of your sand and rock, it's still going to be difficult to be sure your copper levels stay at therapeutic levels since the rock and sand are absorbing it and leaching it back out again. The best thing to do would have been Tank Transfer method and leaving your display fallow for 76 days. If you wanted to mix things up anyway. Sorry to be so blunt, but I sincerely hope we caught you before you dosed the copper in your display.

carlson · May 1, 2016

But then I would have to have a tank for fish to put the cuppermine in, a separate tank for inverts, and then my main tank
[emoji19]

Duke4Life · May 1, 2016

carlson said:
But then I would have to have a tank for fish to put the cuppermine in, a separate tank for inverts, and then my main tank
[emoji19]

Use plastic tubs

melypr1985 · May 1, 2016

carlson said:
But then I would have to have a tank for fish to put the cuppermine in, a separate tank for inverts, and then my main tank
[emoji19]

Actually you can leave the inverts and corals in the display. Ich doesn't feed off of inverts... just fish. So leaving all that in the display and leaving it fallow for 76 days will rid the display of ich. Put the fish in QT and treat however you like - Tank Transfer Method, CP, Copper, Hypo. I like the various treatments in that order. We have stickies on each I believe or at least some info on all of them in the stickies. If you'd like I can link them here.

carlson · May 1, 2016

Ok, I like that idea, but what really bothers me is having a $100 blue tang along with other fish in such a small space for a while? I feel that that would stress them out so much.

carlson · May 1, 2016

I had a powder tang in a hospital tank for a while and I felt bad seeing him miserable, and I'm not sure it helped his situation or made it worse

melypr1985 · May 1, 2016

carlson said:
Ok, I like that idea, but what really bothers me is having a $100 blue tang along with other fish in such a small space for a while? I feel that that would stress them out so much.

How large is the blue tang and the QT? You may just need to invest in a 20 long or maybe a 40 breeder depending on the fish's size and the amount of fish. Make sure to have enough PVC elbows for everybody to have a spot and they should be reasonably comfortably for the relatively short time they are there. They will be back in their home soon enough and much more comfortable without all the parasites eating them alive.