Hospital Tank Substrate Question

[clittrell]

I am in the process of setting up a 29 gallon hospital tank to treat ich. I think I am going to use Cupermine seems like it has had very good results. I am going to keep the fish out of the Display Tank for 8 weeks. I am going to use PVC pipe for aquascaping.

My question is...

I have read not to use any crushed coral in the tank. I have a Orange Diamond Sleeper Goby that digs in the coral bed for food and his home.

What should I do?

Thanks,

 

[wooden_reefer]

I have read not to use any crushed coral in the tank.

Some object to having crushed coral because it is a calcareous material, and copper precipitates on calcaerous material.

Some object to it for other unvalid reasons for use in QT, often nitrate issues. For use in QT, this is not a valid reason.

If you use hypo against ich you will have no debate on the first type of objection; you can use crushed coral in QT.

I use crushed coral but in sacks inside the filter compartment of a power filter, not on the bottom. For QT, paint the bottom and use little substrate. You can have substrate on the bottom just for one goby but remove it later.

It is catergorily not a good idea to have a bottom substrate in a QT as the major or only medium of biological filtration.

For myself, I pulse straight copper in a calcareous environment but many have admittedly valid reason to avoid calcareous material when copper is used. It is a valid choice, IMO.