experience with copper?

[sabazerehi]

recently had a huge ich outbreak and all the fish i could save are in a quarantine right now; red finned fairy wrasse, and a pair of black and white clowns. they've been in hyposalinity for about 3 weeks now in a 10g with live rock and a regular carbon filter. i've recently been told that copper is the only sure way of getting rid of ich. however, i've also heard the downsides of copper. anybody have personal experience with it, i already bought some cupramine and i'm hesitant to use it, i also don't have a copper test kit, is it a must? also it says i can't run any filter media for two weeks, can i still do water changes and just add the correct amount of drops to the new water i put in? or should i just leave them in the hyposalinity for another 3 weeks, i just don't want to kill my fish. thanks guys.

 

[turbonut]

hypo and copper dont mix,dont do both either one or the other copper is already unsafe at regular salinty levels at hypo levels it worst,however copper wont kill your fish if used correctly and i noticed you have cupramine which is one of the better copper meds to use,and no while using copper you cant run carbon being that carbon will absorb the copper thus making ur treatment un affective, as far as the live rock u mentioned the copper will kill what in the rock also the rock will absorb the copper and will leach it out at a later time which is bad if u plan on keeping coral or inverts as the copper will kill them.

 

[barometer]

I'm not a fan of copper, just because of how it leeches, but it is quite effective if done properly. I have had good success with formalin/malachite green medication (I believe I used Rid-ich+ and didn't need to change the salinity or temp). Like copper, it should be used in QT and you need to follow the directions. GL, be sure to keep them QTed for the enitre ich cycle

 

[sabazerehi]

thanks guys, sorry i forgot to mention that i would spend a week bringing the salinity back up before using the carbon. i understand that lr absorbs it, so having it in there is useless in terms of filtration anyways? so do you guys think i should go for it and use the copper once i get salinity back up and remove the lr? i guess i would need to get some pvc or something for the fish to hide in, this lack of filtration is also worrying me.

 

[barometer]

most QT setups are devoid of LR and other biological filtration because they're inteneded for medicating which in most cases will kill LR and such. You just have to keep up with the water changes and don't let detrtius/extra food build up

 

[sabazerehi]

k so they can i can do water changes, so do i add the appropriate number of drops of copper depending on the number of gallons i change out? thanks so much guys

 

[barometer]

When I ran the other meds, I just accounted for the WC and kept the level of medication consistent according to the directions. I've not used copper, but would assume you'll want to have a copper test kit around so you can keep track of the levels. I find changes of less volume more often to be easier when maintaining my QT setup

 

[turbonut]

you dont need to raise salinty to use carbon , you do need to raise to use copper though i think you met to say copper instead of carbon, as far a s ur live rock goes thats why i use bio balls for my qt tanks, as long as ur salinty is around 1.009-1.014 then hypo should be good enough as long as they are being kept that way for at least 4 wks min, pvc pipes make good hiding place also, monitor ur water params daily and make sure u have fresh make up water ready incase u detect hi amonia(sp)/nitrite water quality is just as important in ur qt as it is in ur dt.

thanks guys, sorry i forgot to mention that i would spend a week bringing the salinity back up before using the carbon. i understand that lr absorbs it, so having it in there is useless in terms of filtration anyways? so do you guys think i should go for it and use the copper once i get salinity back up and remove the lr? i guess i would need to get some pvc or something for the fish to hide in, this lack of filtration is also worrying me.

 

[sabazerehi]

ya sorry i meant copper lol, ya i have a bucket of premade water and i'm testing the water regularly. luckily things seem to be pretty stable and i only really need to do water changes once a week. and a top off once a week. i think i'm gonna stick with the hypo for another two weeks and then raise the salinity back up and then maybe consider the copper. meanwhile, i still need to find copper test kit

 

[turbonut]

since ur using cupramine which is made by seachem ur gonna wanna find a seachem copper test kit, just stick with the hypo like you said you are going to do and u should be fine

 

[sabazerehi]

ok good, that's what i wanted to hear lol.