Fresh Water Dips

azeritis

Member
Do you do freshwater dips either with medication (copper,formaline) or without before adding fish into your tank? Is thios necessary if you use a qt?
 

flamehawk

Active Member
I've used them on all my purchases before putting them into the Q tank. I've had no problems and a high survival rate. It's probably less stressful to use hypo, so will do so in the future.
In any event my fresh water procedure consists of the following:
Put 5 liters of filtered fresh water in a pail(even though it's gone through a good filter, I still add a couple of drops of declorinator to be on safe side), of course the tempature s/b exactly as the Q tank. I add a teaspoon of sodium bircarbonate( baking soda) to get he PH to the same level as the Q tank. I then carfully remove the fish either by hand or net. I release him into the pail and watch closely. Some fish seem to adapt to the dip quite well. If he starts to stress out, I immediately take him out and into the Q tank. Do not add any medicines at all to the fresh water. It does sound a bit stressful but like I said it has worked.
It's quite interesting that most who use this, do so to avoid using a Q tank. I do not advocate this because when the fish comes out of the fresh water dip it needs some time to recover and the last thing it needs is to be chased by a territorail tang or other fish. Always use a Q tank. Good luck.
 

barracuda

Active Member
I used fresh water dip only for my yellow tang, back when he had black spot disease. Whithin 5 minutes the problem was gone.
 

s_l_pugh

New Member
I have had a maroon clown for about two weeks now.
I noticed last night that he has cloudy, small, white spots on him.
What is this, ick, and what should I do? It is has been a while since I have treated any diseases and I have forgotten. (I am at work and do not have my reference books to look at. )
Thanks for the advice.
 

flamehawk

Active Member
Put him into a seperate tank and lower the salinity over 2 days to 1.009. He must be desease free for 3 weeks before you return him to the main tank.
Please qurentine all fish purchases in the future. Good luck.
You may also want to post over on disease forum where Beth or Terry and others can also help.
 

s_l_pugh

New Member
I have been checking that out. I have read up on the QT and 1.009.
I have an empty 10 gallon I used years ago for freshwater. Cound I use that as a QT? Do I start it like a would a SW tank? Nothing fancy - no sand, no big lights? What about a filter? I have a penguin I used on my sw tank before I got a fluval, could I use that? Will that be enough filtration by itself?
Thanks.
 

flamehawk

Active Member
Please go to disease forum on this board and open the first entry labeled basic fsq by beth. This will tell you all you need to know about Q tanks. Good luck.
 
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