Hospital Tank Help

aerius007

aerius007

New member
Ok, I was jinxed in a previous thread where somebody mentioned my newly acquired Powder Brown Tang can easily get ich. Well guess what? It now has full blown ich. So I set up a ten gallon tank I had sitting around, took ten gallons of water from display and set up a hospital for the tang. I also had a penguin 150 sitting around so I added that but left out the carbon media. I did add the biowheel and am debating adding the foam filter.

I went and bought some coppersafe and added that at the recommended dose. I plan on over the course of the next few days slowly increasing the heat from 77 to 82 and dropping the salinity from 1.025 to 1.020. If I am going about this the wrong way please let me know, this is my first try at this and I want to get it right. I also added a piece of dry rock.

The only feeding I plan on doing is rubberbanding some greens to a rock, the tang has only been picking at the rocks in the dt and not eating what I feed so I think this is my best option and what doesnt get eaten I can easily remove.

hospitaltank010.jpg
 
I dont think you want to lower your salinity when using copper safe. I was always told it was one or the other.

Anyways looks like it will work....
 
Dont lower salinity while doing copper. Also remove the rock. It is just going to absorb your copper when you add it to the tank. Is the filter you added to the back have beneficial bacteria in it to break down ammonia? If not you are going to have to do wc to keep the ammonia down otherwise your fish will die. DO NOT USE products like amquel or whatever to break down the ammonia. These things actually cause copper levels to rise killing the fish.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15079439#post15079439 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by byrdman81
Dont lower salinity while doing copper. Also remove the rock. It is just going to absorb your copper when you add it to the tank. Is the filter you added to the back have beneficial bacteria in it to break down ammonia? If not you are going to have to do wc to keep the ammonia down otherwise your fish will die. DO NOT USE products like amquel or whatever to break down the ammonia. These things actually cause copper levels to rise killing the fish.
Click to expand...

Alright, I'll keep the salinity the same. The filter was dry so there is absolutely no bacteria in it. I do plan on daily water changes of a gallon or two. I dont plan on adding anything else besides the copper. I think Ill keep the rock so the fish has some sort of hiding place if needed or if he needs to scratch off the ich. Thanks for that tip though, now that you mentioned that I will be sure to test copper level, I just happen to have a salifert test kit that Ive used only once.

Any more tips or advice?
 
I put a air stone in my Hospital tank just to help keep the water with lots of oxygen. Instead of the rock you might use like 2 inch peices of pvc... like a T or a 90 degree elbow or two this will give him places to hide.

But it looks like it will be good. Good luck
 
You better have a reliabe test kit on hand. When you do your wc you need to make sure you are adding the water back into the tank with the same copper concentration. If levels get to high you will kill him. The fish cant scratch it off it is embedded in his skin. IF you want to leave it do it but imo its a waste and just something else to soak up the copper you are adding. I would also get a ammonia kit to test the water to make sure your 1 or 2 gallons is enough. i change out 5 gallons in my 10 qt every other day and so far no ammonia but i also had a established filter before i had fish in there
 
either way he chooses you still have to monitor what you are doing. if you do hypo you need a good refractometer
 
powder browns seem to be harder to keep then powder blues, both are tuff to do in 4 foot tank. Just not enough swim room for them. How is the Valmangi doing?
 
As you mentioned in your origional post you already started dosing copper so I would continue with that course of treatment for now. Also if the ick broke out in your display tank then you are going to have to be VERY careful and watch for symptoms on other fish in the DT as the ick "spores" are in the DT tank and also watch when you reintroduce the tang back. Usally the tank needs to be fishless for 6-8 weeks to cure the tank of the ick "spores" as ick needs fish hosts to complete it's life cycle. Corals in the tank should be fine. HTH
 
I know this may sound weird, but I had an ich problem a few years back, and I soaked the food (dry flake or pellets), in garlic extract. The changes were so drastic and immediate that to this day I continue to use it (actually, for myself too).
 
Since it appears that your display tank has had an additional dose of "ich" organisms (remember every white spot that dropped off your tang may produce hundreds/thousands of infective stage organisms), I suggest you consider adding a UV sterilizer for a few (6-12) weeks to help kill the infective stages as they come up out of the sand.

StanD
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15081643#post15081643 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by StanD
Since it appears that your display tank has had an additional dose of "ich" organisms (remember every white spot that dropped off your tang may produce hundreds/thousands of infective stage organisms), I suggest you consider adding a UV sterilizer for a few (6-12) weeks to help kill the infective stages as they come up out of the sand.

StanD
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have one running but I dont know how old the bulb is. My guess is that its due to be replaced. Is there a difference with those bulbs, or will the cheap ones on ebay do the same?
 
as of now the copper is .25ppm 11:30pm. I will check again in the morning to see if the rocks absorb any, I fully understand its possible but debate if its worth having it there for some comfort. *** do I know, im not dr. doolittle. So far the condition has not improved.
 
Ich sucks. I learned my lesson when I first started with quite a few losses due to an outbreak. They don't call it crypt for nothing. I'm on a strict quarantine policy for any new fish. Never know what you are going to get with them, especially tangs. 2 weeks in isolation to make sure there is no ich.
It takes a few days for the ich to subside. Be sure to vacuum up the bottom when doing water changes to remove any ich cysts. Here's a great link on ich:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=595224&perpage=25&pagenumber=1
 
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