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QT for PBT (1 Viewer)

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garaymail

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I am having a ich outbreak on two of my fish. I have tried all I can think of as far as in tank treatments go. I have been able to catch my Bariene tang and is in my 20 gallon at now. If I can catch my PBT(he's about 4 or 5 inches), do y'all think a 10 gallon is big enough for a couple week qt?

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garaymail

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I was gonna stick a piece of live rock in there with water from the main tank and copper. That's what I have running in the 20gal qt the Bariene is currently in. Once qt is done, I will just add that Rock to my main qt.

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You realize they're gonna catch it again when you put them back in the DT right? Unless you get all of the fish out for the recommended time period (which is something like 92 days). Was it so bad that they couldn't shake it? Are you running a UV? What other measures are you taking to keep it under control in your DT? Any cleaner shrimp? Did they get stressed and that caused the outbreak? How do you plan to keep them from getting reinfected?

A 10g tank is pretty small for a 4-5" fish. You will have ammonia issues every other day, which means a lot of water changes and adding more copper, which is easy to accidentally overdose. You also shouldn't use copper with ammonia reducer because that can kill your fish. A live rock will help, but won't keep it down for long. I'm not sure if the copper will kill the beneficial bacteria on the rock or not but if it does, that will also cause an ammonia spike. Not to mention copper absorbs into rock, which makes it impossible to keep the copper concentration at the proper level. Also, once you put rock in a copper tank, it can never go back into a reef tank again. Personally, I wouldn't use the live rock and find another way. Maybe a 40g breeder? That will give you more water and time between water changes.
 
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garaymail

garaymail

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I guess I'm more concerned with space for a few weeks. 10 gallons seems quite tiny....But again it's only 2 weeks or so.

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I'd do a 20 long for Tangs.

Like webster said...if you don't go fallow you will only be wasting your time.

Control ammonia and nitrite with water changes. No need to cycle the tank or add media.

When you do a water change, make sure you add water back that's already at a therapeutic level of copper.

This will keep the parasites exposed to copper at all times.

I've switched from Cupramine to Coppersafe with good results.
 

Paul Buie

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I'd do a 20 long for Tangs.

Like webster said...if you don't go fallow you will only be wasting your time.

Control ammonia and nitrite with water changes. No need to cycle the tank or add media.

When you do a water change, make sure you add water back that's already at a therapeutic level of copper.

This will keep the parasites exposed to copper at all times.

I've switched from Cupramine to Coppersafe with good results.

If you are doing fowlr you can get away with copper in the DT to kill it all, but im not sure you you could do coral after that. I know you can use carbon to rid the copper but I do know it absorbs into the calcium carbonate in our LR and substrate. My recommendation is get all fish into QT and nuke the tank with bleach. Start over. Good luck. It's a faster turnaround if it is a new tank and you don't want to let it fallow.
 

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If you use copper in your qt with the live rock.....I would advise against your plan of putting that piece back in your DT.

I agree with the above. You will not get the ich out of your main DT so long as you have any fish in there. Sorry, probably not what you want to hear. It can be quite the task trying to catch all your fish. You will need to run your DT through a fallow period. Otherwise it will just continue it's cycle. You may also want to do some reading up on "Ich Managed System."

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Humblefish

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I'd do a 20 long for Tangs.

^^ Agree. A 4-5" PBT will become very agitated in just a 10 gal. And unless you plan on treating all of your fish & going fallow in the DT, I would rehome the PBT & Bariene after treatment is complete. Acanthurus Tangs are notoriously difficult to keep in an ich management system.
 
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I agree with sneeze. I would avoid putting any rock back in the DT that's been exposed to Copper.

ICH management is really easy. Just keep the fish well fed and healthy along with good water chemistry.

As far as copper in a DT...I'd avoid that too unless you know you'll never add coral later down the road. Strictly FOWLR!

There was a LFS a while back that got all its displays dosed with copper by an angry customer. They lost thousands of dollars. After they bounced back, I remember them saying that they had cleaned all the tanks and that it's a myth that copper can leech back into the system from the silicone, pipes, etc.

I honestly wouldn't trust it though. Check out this video below and what this fish Veterinarian says about copper. It's towards the end.

[video=youtube;946_XDuKR2Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=946_XDuKR2Y[/video]
 
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While we're on the topic of Tangs... I wanna note for future reference and anybody who can remember....

That....."Zebrasoma Tangs" are very sensitive to Lanthanum Chloride!!!! Several reefers have reported extreme sensitivity. It seems to only affect this species though.

^^ Agree. A 4-5" PBT will become very agitated in just a 10 gal. And unless you plan on treating all of your fish & going fallow in the DT, I would rehome the PBT & Bariene after treatment is complete. Acanthurus Tangs are notoriously difficult to keep in an ich management system.
 
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Ok....Not sure where anyone got the idea I am going to put these fish back in my tank or put the rock back in. I said I would put the rock in my main qt tank after using it in the temp qt for the PBT. The main qt is bare bottom and has some live rock and I run copper in there. It is always up and running on its own system, but the Bariene is in there. None of the other fish have any signs of it. So I plan to try to get these guys healthy and see if anyone wants to buy a fully qt'd Bariene or PBT. I'm slowly breaking down this tank anyways to upgrade to a bigger tank. I appreciate the help...I know all the stuff about going Fowler and all that jazz. These fish have been in my main tank for over a year without issue and have had no new additions. I think they got to a size where they were competing and fighting, stressing each other out. My main question was is a 10g too small for a few weeks and it sounds like it is. Thanks y'all.

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Ok....Not sure where anyone got the idea I am going to put these fish back in my tank or put the rock back in. I said I would put the rock in my main qt tank after using it in the temp qt for the PBT. The main qt is bare bottom and has some live rock and I run copper in there. It is always up and running on its own system, but the Bariene is in there. None of the other fish have any signs of it. So I plan to try to get these guys healthy and see if anyone wants to buy a fully qt'd Bariene or PBT. I'm slowly breaking down this tank anyways to upgrade to a bigger tank. I appreciate the help...I know all the stuff about going Fowler and all that jazz. These fish have been in my main tank for over a year without issue and have had no new additions. I think they got to a size where they were competing and fighting, stressing each other out. My main question was is a 10g too small for a few weeks and it sounds like it is. Thanks y'all.

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If you had zero new additions in one year, then there's only 2 possible ways ICH was introduced.

1. Aerosol transmission (rare)
2. ICH was present from the beginning.
 
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Humblefish

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Does "no new additions for over a year" also include corals/inverts? Most of those can carry the tomont (encysted) stage of marine parasites.
 
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