Ups and downs

[danorth]

My tank hasn't lost a fish besides a dart fish and a pencil wrasse, (both look like they got eaten) but my nice clown trigger and purple tang got ich.

So, I pulled much of my live rock out and dropped to just below 1.010. I noticed 2 days later that the trigger and flame angel looked bloated and didn't like that. So after a little fish chat with a buddy from on here I decided to raise the spg back up to keep the remaining lr from causing any kind of amm spike which did get to 0.50. I moved the clown and purple tang to a 20 gallon long with a biowheel Emp 280 and a seasoned biowheel from my 135 and added a skimmer and brought the spg back up in there as well and hit it with copper power. Temp 81*. So the 135 is at 1.018 and will be back to 1.023 today and will bring some of the rock back in and not treat it with anything else. I did treat it with PraziPro for any kind of flukes just to be safe. Flame isn't nearly as bloated now and neither is the clown trig. But I did get to measure it acurately at 8" flat. Hell of a fish. So, that is where I am at, just wanted to share a low since this hobby has those as well. Give me a few weeks to report back how it all went.

p.s. the anemone and tiger cowries and clown got moved to a 10 gallon right next to a window with direct sun. I taped a piece of paper to the side to block the anemone for it but it looks great. I could get used to having a small tank. Just don't tell the wife!

 

[danorth]

Just to update in case this may help some one some day, the low spg wasn't working with my fish and causing an amm spike in the main system. The ich was only visually detectable on 2 fish (trig and tang) so I made a 20 long qt with Copper Power and had an Emp 280 and 400 going with seasoned bio wheels and a skimmer and heater. The ammonia wasn't getting past 0.5 but that was still too much IMO, but after 4 days the fish were spotless again. Keep in mind that I didn't even feed them during this time since I knew the spike was coming.

So since I was about to be away for a 3 day vacation I decided to move them back into the main tank. They were spotless as stated, but I came back to see them sick and covered with ich again. So I waited a day to decide what to do but found my neon dottyback dead and the flame was covered with ich. So I pulled some more lr out leaving about 30 lbs in and hit the tank on Easter Sunday with all of the Copper Power I had left. Then finished the dose on Monday to complete the therapeutic level as suggested on the container. Today Friday again 4 days after the copper the fish are spotless and I haven't lost any more fish. The flame was dead Monday morning. The clown trig is eating all it can (3 times its normal ammount) and the purple tang is grazing again.

Moral of the story, be ready to take drastic measures when needed. My comment to myself before dosing with copper was that a display isn't a display without living fish and 20-30 lbs of rock is easy to come by, the fish are not. So far it looks like I will beat this epidemic but it goes back to proper qt for new fish. I believe a tomini tang brought the plague and though I got rid of that fish, the plague remained and as soon as I saw the ashy color of the clown trigger's body I knew the fish and I were in trouble. So far copper has been the answer after the trouble had been caused. To set up a qt even with seasoned and current bio wheels wasn't enough to thwart ammonia spikes, so unless you have an always active qt it isn't worth setting one up unless you can do 75%+ water changes daily and know how to re-dose meds to the correct levels daily.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[krazykarel]

Keep us updated...you killed live rock though or did I misunderstand?

 

[danorth]

Day 6 after copper to the main, the fish are perfect looking, all of them. I coppered about 20-30 lbs of live rock but didn't kill it exactly. It is keeping the ammonia at zero so it must still be alive. Again, my live rock didn't look nice to begin with, it was always brown, green and had nasty algae on it.

 

[paulamrein]

Alas, there will be copper in your tank for a VERY long time. Which will leach at any given time given the right conditions and can overdose the tank at a whim. I would look into cleaning methods and break down your tank. Copper leachs not only in rock and sand but also in the glass itself. Am I reading this right you coppered your main display?

 

[danorth]

Yep, sure did. No-no or not, I wasn't going to let the fish die. I can easily remove all sand and rock and dump it. The polyfilter and water changes will remove the rest. I've don't it before with rock that is actually in this tank now that came from my previous 100 (I upgraded from) that was coppered. The filters and skimmers carried over to this tank as well after being sprayed clean. I was able to keep an anemone for 2 years in there as well as shrimp and some polyps. So the rock didn't leech that much back out after I had the poly going for a month. Since I'm not keeping a reef I don't really have a concern about copper. It was removed before, it will be removed again.

 

[paulamrein]

Ok, go for it. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else though, it's one of those it works for you good. It's your tank, if you sell the tank down the line you owe it to the person buying it to also tell them. Like I said, it's fine as long as params are good, but a drop in ph or a few others like temp will leach it out.

 

[danorth]

I agree on the disclaimer, and would notify the next owner. Many things in this hobby work for one, but not another person. I wouldn't suggest the copper in the display either, but if the fish were the display and rest of the tank was ugly, I'd say hit it!