copper main tank

[bunk97]

I have had a problem with the terrible ich monster. It took a hold of my SW tank. The original fish who had is dead now. I am still treating my main tank with sea cure copper to make sure I get all the remaining parasites killed. There have been no reaccuring spots on any fish but I just want to make sure. I have a fish only tank no inverts or live rock. copper would not have anything to do with a ammonia problem would it?
any help would be greatly appreciated.
humahuma a.ka. andrew

 

[kev]

Nope, copper won't affect your ammonia lvls at all. Are you using a copper test kit? If your having ammonia in your tank, your either over feeding, your tank hasn't cycled yet, or your having some sort of die off. How long has yer tank been running?

 

[fshhub]

another note, the ammonia could be part of your problem, causing ich. it does stres your fish

 

[bunk97]

I noticed when I got a bursa trigger home a couple of days later that he had a couple of white spots like pin head zits on his head I belive that he was the cause for the spread of the ich. I was new at it so did not know what to do After talking with some people on message boards and my LFS I Decided to go with copper. It has worked pretty good. Some people say once you have copper in your main tank you can never have any inverts or live rock. Well that is not true at all says most people I have talked to. If you get the right stuff (cuprisurb,polyfilter,good carbon ect..) then it will be no problem. I know have a quarentine tank which I will use from now on when any ich is spotted or new arrivals. If I had once had ich in my tank but that fish is gone and I don't see any new signs of ich do you think that it is o.k. to stop useing copper I have been useing for about 2-3 weeks now with no signs of any more ich.
Thanks so much for your time and help.
Humahuma a.k.a Andrew

 

[fshhub]

just a note of caution, coper is a mineral and can and does often get absorbed into your rock and sand, in which case filters carbon and sponges will not remove it from tehm once it does, after this fact it will only continue to leech back into the water
sorry not too sure of the terminology, but the description is accurate, copper is not easy to remove completely from a system(just advising caution to those who do consider copper)
as for the time frame, i would go for a month minimum, ick gestates for about 4 weeks