hospital tank setup?

[nickyp]

I'm in the process of setting up a 30 gallon hospital tank. Does anyone have any suggestions. I'm not trying to do anything fancy just a few pieces of live rock. I plan on treating the water with copper so I can move my fish from my 72 gallon reef tank in there. They seem to be infected with a parasite. I also want to keep it up and running to use as a quarantine tank when adding new fish. What is the best level to keep the copper at? Do I need to add a protein skimmer to the tank or would that effect the copper levels. I'm kind of new to saltwater fishkeeping so any help is appreciated.

 

[Fragman2]

You may want to consider Hyposalinity as an alternative to copper. Low salinity (SG=1.012) is about half the salt level normal for seawater and it works pretty well for saltwater fish. Its cheap, easy and effective. One of the problems with copper is that it tends to precipitate out and over time, say a month or two after you added it, right when you buy some new fish, you put them in your quarantine system. The question is, does the system still contain enough ionic copper to kill or prevent the parasites? Hmmmm?

 

[Ohiomom]

If you are using the tank a treatment QT tank with copper..then no rock should be in it..use plain old pvc pipe for hiding spaces. The live rock will be killed by the copper and make it very difficult to monitor the level of copper in the tank.

No skimmer is needed but regular parameter monitoring is needed as well as regular water changes. hth

 

[wooden_reefer]

You should start a nitrification filter going for your QT ASAP. Most treatments still allow nitrification so you should use nitrification to the greatest extent possible. Water change is really no fun and causes inaedquate quarantine.

Copper, Hypo, and even many (NOT ALL) antibiotics will not damage the nitrification filter.

Do not use live rock for the filtration medium in a QT. Use floss or crushed coral or crushed oyster shells wrapped with nylon, stretched tight, in an HOT box filter.

 

[wooden_reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15286771#post15286771 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ohiomom
. The live rock will be killed by the copper and make it very difficult to monitor the level of copper in the tank.
hth

Copper kills the highly life forms on the LR (and so may cause ammonia to surge) but not the nitrification bacteria.

LR is not a good choice for the medium of filteration for a QT.

Many say that the Cu level has to be carefully monitored so any calcareous material cannot be used as the filter medium and otherwise, but personally I use copper with calcareous material with consistent success.

Avoid calcareous material and monitor the Cu level if you think it is best (it may well be). For me, until I fail once, I will continue to use pulses of Cu with calcareous material. Add to 0.25 ppm Cu with calcareous material as filter medium.