Did I do this right?

legoalie31

legoalie31

Member
okay so i had an outbreak of ich a month and a half ago. i did not know what to do so i did the wrong things for a half a month and had a blue regal tang die. then i figured out I should do copper, knowing i can never have corals in my tank. i took out all of my inverts except for two hermits, which are doing fine. During this time i had my lionfish die from a ammonia spike. My koran angel died and my damsel died from ich. I am 3 weeks through my copper treatment and my snowflake eel and panther grouper and eating and acting normal. did I do anything wrong besides start too late?
 
geridoc

geridoc

Well-Known Member
While removing the inverts and treating with copper in the DT may sound like a good idea, it has its problems, as you have found out. My guess is that you thought you removed all of the inverts, but there were probably many that were not removed (maybe living in the substrate, etc. where you don't see them). The copper treatment killed them, resulting in the ammonium spike that may have killed the fish. Whenever I get an ammonium spike (generally, in a QT) I have found Amquel+ to be effective in preventing distress (mine) and death (the fish's).
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
So to say, tha using copper in the display tank can be disastrous. And copper in a tank with inverts and live rock, will result in the death of live rock and inverts. The copper will also knock out your biofilter. Its not the best treatment choice for tangs either. If you are still using copper, I would stop and start doing daily water readings until you can stabilize your system. That tank should remain strictly fish-only from now on.
Please take a look at some of the info on quarantining fish, ich and hyposalinity in the FAQ Thread.
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by Legoalie31
anyone else?
Beth and Geridoc are both correct. The copper would have killed any invert that you did not catch and would have harmed your biological filtration. What test kit did you use to test the copper levels in your tank? What were your readings? What brand of copper did you use? Being you already removed your inverts, you may want to do some water changes and run some carbon to help remove the copper in your system. When the readings for copper are close to zero begin hyposalinity. Do not reduce the salinity of the tank with the copper still in there.
 
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