Need help treating marine velvet

[Pickledmoose]

hello all, so I'm new to the hobby and I made a two huge amateur mistake, I bought fish from petco and I didn't quarantine them. long story short I had a marine velvet outbreak in my display tank. My tank was newly cycled so i only had two clarkies and a sail fin tang, lost I lost a clarkie first and wasn't sure what was going on, then a day later I noticed my sail fin tang was totally covered in very small white dots and breathing heavily. because of the size and quantity of the dots I'm fairly positive its marine velvet. I pulled all the fish and set up a hospital tank and treated the fish with Kordon. Unfortunately I lost all three fish. so now my display tank is sitting fallow for 10 weeks and I have two ocellaris clowns in my hospital tank. I'm dosing the tank with copper but my API copper test kit is giving my a reading of almost 0. I have a 10 gallon hospital and the kordon calls for 1 teaspoon per 4 gallons. so 3 teaspoons should be a full dose. I dosed with 4 teaspoons and am still getting a reading thats barley above 0. I don't know where to go from here, I don't feel comfortable continueing adding copper I'm worried ill poision my fish. should i be using a different brand of copper or test kit? any info on what I'm doing wrong or background info on the brands I'm using would be greatly appreciated.

thanks - Joey

 

[mattcoug]

Kordon is a company name - so I assume you mean you are using Kordon copper-aid. For velvet, it is recommended to use Chloroquine. The easiest way to get ahold is NLS Ich Shield powder such as http://www.amazon.com/New-Life-Spectrum-Powder-Ick-Shield/dp/B00MNQWACU/ref=pd_sim_199_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1KF7RTN9C5PCVJ0AGARA

If it is velvet you need to keep the fish in copper until you get the chloroquine, otherwise they could easily die with little notice. Once you have chloroquine, remove copper and use chloroquine.

BTW, Cupramine is generally the recommended copper for most purposes - but don't mix it with things like prime.

 

[Pickledmoose]

Thanks for the info, yes I am using copper aid it was all my lfs on had. I purchased both new life powder with chloroquine and cupramine, just to have on hand. Will running carbon in the filter remove the copper effectively enough to dose the fish with chloroquine or should I do a large water change like two 50% water changes or one 90%? I'm also looking into more accurate copper test kits.

 

[mattcoug]

What is in the hospital tank that is absorbing the carbon right now?

 

[snorvich]

Chloroquine phosphate is the best treatment for velvet.

 

[Pickledmoose]

What is in the hospital tank that is absorbing the carbon right now?

no carbon right now, I'm running a bio wheel with out the carbon