oh no not me

[hedgedrew]

So I usually am on this forum helping people. Now I need quick help. I have a pair of deep water basabei butterfly's that were all good and eating. Came down with massive ich in the hospital tank they are in. Keep them there cause ot separate chiller at 70 degrees. Ok so no problem. Throw some copper sulfate ie go slow through 24 hours into hospital tank to get copper to. 15 to. 20 ppm of old style copper sulfate. So what's the problem. Of course appetite. One of the butterfly's stopped eating. How long before that becomes more important than the ich. I can always swithc to cp it it's easier on the Flys. Any advise.??

 

[Breadman03]

I like tank transfer for my run of the mill fish. Would that be feasible for you?

 

[snorvich]

I like tank transfer for my run of the mill fish. Would that be feasible for you?

Tank transfer is better than copper but the difficulty will be temperature control. CP, if available, may be best alternative.

 

[hedgedrew]

How many nights in copper with no eating do I take copper out and go with cp??

 

[snorvich]

How many nights in copper with no eating do I take copper out and go with cp??

If I were dealing with fish of this nature, I would do CP. The problem with copper is timing: 30 days is the "gold standard" (although not a 100% solution which is 72 days).

 

[Dmorty217]

Drew, pull the copper and use the CP.

 

[hedgedrew]

Ok. 60ml per gallon?? On 45 50 gallons. Is 2700 mg or 2.7 grams. That correct?? Repeat dose in day 5 or 7 or do water changes daily and just replace.?? Lights off??

 

[Dmorty217]

Lights off, 40-80mg/gallon is recommended for I have read anywhere from 10-30 days. NLS ich shield powder says 21 days. A couple disease books say 10 days and a lot on here say 30... Do a water change and expose to UV light to rid the tank of the CP

 

[hedgedrew]

I've read a one and done dose and also adding to new dose after 5 to 7 days. And some do 30 to 50 per waterchanges and just replace new water with new cp.

 

[Dmorty217]

New water with new CP already mixed in before adding is what i have read and done myself. I think that redosing every 5-7 days is if you don't turn lights off or if the CP isnt 99% pure. I am assuming you get yours from the pharmacy via the vet?

 

[hedgedrew]

Ya its pure crystal stuff. Do I have to raise levels gradually or just dump in 2.5 grams.??? I already did large water change and put cupersorb and polypad in to pull copper and fish look better. But this infestation is all over.

 

[Dmorty217]

When I have done it (several times) I have just done it all at once and the fish never seemed to even notice I put it inthe water

 

[Dmorty217]

Do you have a lot of algae in the tank? If so you might do a water change and redose just to get the phosphates down

 

[hedgedrew]

No. Just some live rock clean boulders. No algae at 69 70 degrees!!

 

[jrobison]

I am using CP now on about 11 fish. I used the base amount and am treating at 60mg. I stepped it up over three days. Fish haven't seemed to mind. With not having to test and redose etc I don't ever plan on using copper again. Good luck!

 

[hedgedrew]

This am the butterfly's looked so much better after copper was removed and lots of ich cycts have dropped off. Both ate well and look back to normal. One last water change later this am and I going to add the cp by mid day. I assume skimmer off??

 

[Dmorty217]

Elliot on here uses cp in his system continusly with a skimmer on. Humblefish asked alprazo about a skimmer being on and he made it sound like it will degrade the med, but I'm not 100%

 

[jrobison]

Im not running a skimmer but I really dont know if it would matter or not.

 

[hedgedrew]

Well the question is the airbubbles do something or is it about the skimmer skimming cause you could always keep it low just for the oxygen

 

[hedgedrew]

Ok. Update. Took copper out all day. Must have done 5 or 6 20 to 30 percent water changes. The polyfilter cuprisorb and carbon didn't work fast enough cause I only have room for passive filtration in sump of wet dry. Ok so when copper came down to. 05ppm or less I dosed 40mg per gallons or 2 grams in total. Tomorrow I will ramp up to 60mg and dose another. 8 .9 of a gram. Good news is the fish are eating!!!! That wasn't the case yesterday. So lots of dots fell off and cp in water and we got some appetite. Very excited. Man I didn't realize how. 20 ppm copper sulfate with citric acid could mess fish up so badly. Never had that problems with butterfly's.