tkeracer619
New member
In an attempt to rid my system of Vermatid Snails and an unidentified flatworm that I was unable to eradicate through other routes I used Chloroquine Phosphate in my display. I did so during a fallow period after removing all coral and inverts. This was very successful and after a short period of time green and coralline algae returned to normal.
After moving the fish back into the display Crypto showed itself again. They were treated with Chloroquine Phosphate for 30 days in an established quarantine system prior to being re-introduced.
After much deliberation I decided to try treating the entire system with CP since it had already been run successfully without an ammonia spike. I had yet to re-introduce inverts or coral. I dosed the tank as I had before and monitored the system for two weeks prior to leaving the country for vacation. When I left there were no signs of Crypto. When I returned everything looked great and soon enough green and coralline algae returned. After a month, so did the crypto...
I decided I would dose the tank again, maybe I had gotten the dosage wrong, after all I am estimating water volume. This time I purchased a Photospectrometer in an attempt to monitor Chloroquine Phosphates levels.
Here is what I have found. On my first test, I had dosed the system to a theoretical concentration of 44mg/gal. It measured 25mg/gal. I dosed the system with a small maintenance dose (0.5 grams) and then 24 hours later took another measurement. The levels in the tank had continued to drop. I dosed a larger amount of 5.0 grams, added it directly to the display, and gave it an hour to mix before running a test. About 12 hours later I tested again, the numbers were even lower. After another 7 hours the levels continued to rapidly drop.
Here is a chart that shows the testing.
The tank has no active filtration or UV in operation other than filter bags so I can only assume this degridation is caused by one of two things (or a combination of the two).
A. It's being absorbed by the substrate.
B. Bacteria is consuming it.
I assume bacteria is the culprit here, if it were being absorbed I would think absorption would be at a constant or reduced rate. However, it seems the more I dose the faster it degrades leaving me with the thought that more bacteria have grown and are consuming the medication.
I understand this is a very small sample set over a short period of time, however, given I cannot get pukani rock anymore and the maintenance dose at the current rate would entail continuously dosing 360mg of CP per hour for a total of 260 grams over the course of 30 days (assuming consumption stays consistent) I'm throwing in the towel on this attempt. It appears that a therapeutic concentration of Chloroquine phosphate is not achievable.
I will add to this post as time goes on and I get to investigate chloroquine phosphates role in my QT procedures but I have had several failures with it over the years. Most of the time I keep my QT tanks cycled unless there is a failure in which I bleach, dry, and restart the QT. I feel like this same issue may exist in a cycled QT which may have led to some of those failures.
My next step will be to bleach some rock and repeat this test in a sterile environment to see if I see if the CP absorbs into the rock.
One thing to note is that the known concentration sample I made to calibrate the spectrophotometer on day one is still reading 40mg/Gal concentration.
After moving the fish back into the display Crypto showed itself again. They were treated with Chloroquine Phosphate for 30 days in an established quarantine system prior to being re-introduced.
After much deliberation I decided to try treating the entire system with CP since it had already been run successfully without an ammonia spike. I had yet to re-introduce inverts or coral. I dosed the tank as I had before and monitored the system for two weeks prior to leaving the country for vacation. When I left there were no signs of Crypto. When I returned everything looked great and soon enough green and coralline algae returned. After a month, so did the crypto...
I decided I would dose the tank again, maybe I had gotten the dosage wrong, after all I am estimating water volume. This time I purchased a Photospectrometer in an attempt to monitor Chloroquine Phosphates levels.
Here is what I have found. On my first test, I had dosed the system to a theoretical concentration of 44mg/gal. It measured 25mg/gal. I dosed the system with a small maintenance dose (0.5 grams) and then 24 hours later took another measurement. The levels in the tank had continued to drop. I dosed a larger amount of 5.0 grams, added it directly to the display, and gave it an hour to mix before running a test. About 12 hours later I tested again, the numbers were even lower. After another 7 hours the levels continued to rapidly drop.
Here is a chart that shows the testing.
The tank has no active filtration or UV in operation other than filter bags so I can only assume this degridation is caused by one of two things (or a combination of the two).
A. It's being absorbed by the substrate.
B. Bacteria is consuming it.
I assume bacteria is the culprit here, if it were being absorbed I would think absorption would be at a constant or reduced rate. However, it seems the more I dose the faster it degrades leaving me with the thought that more bacteria have grown and are consuming the medication.
I understand this is a very small sample set over a short period of time, however, given I cannot get pukani rock anymore and the maintenance dose at the current rate would entail continuously dosing 360mg of CP per hour for a total of 260 grams over the course of 30 days (assuming consumption stays consistent) I'm throwing in the towel on this attempt. It appears that a therapeutic concentration of Chloroquine phosphate is not achievable.
I will add to this post as time goes on and I get to investigate chloroquine phosphates role in my QT procedures but I have had several failures with it over the years. Most of the time I keep my QT tanks cycled unless there is a failure in which I bleach, dry, and restart the QT. I feel like this same issue may exist in a cycled QT which may have led to some of those failures.
My next step will be to bleach some rock and repeat this test in a sterile environment to see if I see if the CP absorbs into the rock.
One thing to note is that the known concentration sample I made to calibrate the spectrophotometer on day one is still reading 40mg/Gal concentration.
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