Lost all my fish to velvet, need advice on fallow specifics

JW508

New member
Hi guys,

I have had two very successful running FOWLRs over the past 10 years, early on I battled ich but never lost any fish to it. I didn't always quarantine every new addition back then but QT'd them all and have added new fish over the years and have been very fortunate up until a couple weeks ago. I purchased a nice lionfish that was in a tank all by himself for a month for my office FOWLR as a final addition and after one week I came to work on Monday 4/13 and every fish was covered in white spots. I thought it was ich, until I noticed a bunch of them huddled together in front of the wavemakers breathing heavy. They had all the characteristics of velvet like dusty skin, uncountable white spots. These are all large- show size fat and healthy fish that I have had for many years. All water parameters are great, 50g weekly water changes along with my algae turf scrubber keep everything pristine. With no QT setup any longer, I decided to treat DT with Cupramine since I knew I had to act fast. Harlequin tusk, clown trigger, and Mappa puffer stopped eating, eyes turned white, and all died two weeks later on 4/27. Possibly due to the copper? Ramped up as directed and Level was checked twice a day with the seachem kit and maintained .5.
Red sea Sailfin tang, Purple tang, queen angel, and magnificent foxface all continued to eat nori, spectrum pellets, and fresh seafood during these two weeks and looked like they were improving until they suddenly died on 5/4- 5/5. Huge disappointing loss.
My question is, What is the proper procedure to leave it fallow? I did a 50 g water change and started running cuprisorb two days ago, did the cupramine in the system already kill off the velvet or allow for reduced fallow time? Lights have been off since I started treating the tank. Only thing in the tank is live rock and sand. All pumps/ powerheads are running, algae turf scrubber is still running and I still have filter socks in the sump. Should I turn off the scrubber lighting? Remove filter socks? I think im going to replace the sand bed also. Yes, I am buying another large QT setup to for when I start adding again. any constructive info will be appreciated.
 
I am sorry for your massive loss, it's painful, it happened to me sometimes, especially when I did not buy quality fish, and many times I had to start the tank from scratch. I'm not sure you can leave your tank fallow. You added cupramine to your main tank, so the rocks and sand have sucked up the copper. If you have live rock, copper is deadly to invertebrates and other organisms that are living there, and will eventually die. If I were you, I'd start the tank from scratch, and quarantine. Sometimes it does not seem necessary, but you can avoid disasters like this, once again, I regret your loss. Here is a link, so that you understand a little more about marine velvet:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/sp/feature/index.php
 
If you have had ick and velvet in the tank I think the recommended fallow period is 76 days.
 
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