Ich~Low salinity and copper treatment??

[saltwaterbliss]

Ok,
Have my neon gobi and 2 clown fish in the QT with no coral and 1 cup of live sand...Do I do both the lower the salinity and the copper treatment or one or the other?

 

[eric b 125]

i wouldnt use copper, it is tough to administer properly and never leaves the tank that it's used in. just slowly lower the SG. do you have a refractometer? you will need one to lower the salt to the right levels. you could use a good glass hydrometer, but not one of those plastic things.

 

[saltwaterbliss]

I do have a glass Hydrometer and have it in the QT. So I will just start lowing the SA!
Thanks!

 

[spanko]

I will take for granted since you are in this forum you have read the sticky at the top of the page, if not please do so. Good luck and I hope it works for you.

 

[sepulatian]

Definitely read the second sticky from the top of this board about treatments. Hyposalinity must be done correctly. It is not difficult to do but does require diligence.

 

[peter1215]

Originally Posted by Eric B 125
http:///forum/post/3005740
i wouldnt use copper, it is tough to administer properly and never leaves the tank that it's used in. just slowly lower the SG. do you have a refractometer? you will need one to lower the salt to the right levels. you could use a good glass hydrometer, but not one of those plastic things.
Eric
isn't the purpose of a qt to use it in order to medicate and treat fish? that said, why would he be concerned about residual copper. also, if he uses cupramine, it can be removed from the tank using the correct chemical filtration. As for reading the levels, cupramine is relatively easy to maintain at the recommend level as long a good test kit is used like seachem or salifert. I'm not knocking hypo but people tend to make copper usage much more difficult than it really is. You just need to know what your doing because an overdose can be deadly.

 

[beth]

Copper is a toxin and works on introducing the toxin to the fish as well as the parasite. I agree, though, that cupramine is a good product offering the least negative side effects as far as copper meds go.
Hypo is equally as effective, and its safe for fish.