Very Large Tank, now with ich

3FordFamily said:
To be honest just because you treated with copper properly and qt'd does not mean your system did not have ich. I've had ich survive copper treatments that were 25% above recommended dose for 6 weeks, in a tank fallow for 3 months, with no new additions.
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Agreed, because copper targets the most variable stage of Cryptocaryon's life cycle - the theront stage. Theront excystment from the tomont can vary from 3 - 72 days, so if you treated for 4 weeks and the particular strain of the parasite excysted after 29 days, you'd be back at square one. It's for this reason that I (and others on this forum) prefer Tank Transfer, as it targets the least variable stage of the life cycle (trophont stage).
 
Deinonych said:
Agreed, because copper targets the most variable stage of Cryptocaryon's life cycle - the theront stage. Theront excystment from the tomont can vary from 3 - 72 days, so if you treated for 4 weeks and the particular strain of the parasite excysted after 29 days, you'd be back at square one. It's for this reason that I (and others on this forum) prefer Tank Transfer, as it targets the least variable stage of the life cycle (trophont stage).
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Yeah, it's a real pain though. I work part time, am a stay at home dad by am and early afternoon, and full time grad school student by night. Maintaining 3 sw tanks heavily stocked is a chore as it is! I also have three dogs, 2 cats, and a wife. Oh and like many a house I take care of myself. Wife works 13 hour days. The wife is the most work.
 
Thanks everyone for the replies! It's nice to get people's ideas and opinions in a constructive format. For now I am going to observe the fish and focus on keeping everyone as healthy as possible. I know some may have been shocked by the number of fish, but most are small. I don't believe in over crowding. I plan to keep posting updates over the duration to hopefully help out others with the same problem, especially with a large tank. Larger systems are great, more room, more stability, but also when a problem arises, it's bigger too!

If it does get to the point where it's not looking good for the home team, I think I will hypo the display. I have a low back injury that acts up now and then, but I have enough fellow fish nerds that will help tackle the challenge.

Thanks again for all the feedback!
 
Humongous said:
Thanks everyone for the replies! It's nice to get people's ideas and opinions in a constructive format. For now I am going to observe the fish and focus on keeping everyone as healthy as possible. I know some may have been shocked by the number of fish, but most are small. I don't believe in over crowding. I plan to keep posting updates over the duration to hopefully help out others with the same problem, especially with a large tank. Larger systems are great, more room, more stability, but also when a problem arises, it's bigger too!

If it does get to the point where it's not looking good for the home team, I think I will hypo the display. I have a low back injury that acts up now and then, but I have enough fellow fish nerds that will help tackle the challenge.

Thanks again for all the feedsback!
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Umm.. The contemporary term is "aquatic life enthusiasts"

Good luck!
 
3FordFamily said:
Yeah, it's a real pain though. I work part time, am a stay at home dad by am and early afternoon, and full time grad school student by night. Maintaining 3 sw tanks heavily stocked is a chore as it is! I also have three dogs, 2 cats, and a wife. Oh and like many a house I take care of myself. Wife works 13 hour days. The wife is the most work.
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Yup...understood. I have a full-time job with travel, a family, other pets and way too many other hobbies. I've limited myself to one tank as a result. :)
 
Been through this twice in twenty years. I believed t has to do something with stirring up a lot f gravel. Save that for anther thread. Do you have some fish traps.? Hw many fish showing signs of ick?
 
I have no experience with large tanks (I've got a 29g) and I've never quarantined or needed to treat for ich, so I'm no expert by any means. Something I've followed and read though could apply to your situation. Member "Paul B" has the oldest tank on here at I believe 40+ years, so he is doing something right. Despite not quarantining he has not had disease outbreaks. He has specific feeding regimen designed to be best for the fishes slime coating and theorizes a healthy slime coat protects against parasites. He feeds live worms to achieve this. If you haven't seen the thread in sure a Google search would turn it up for you. I would like to try his feeding regimen but don't have a place to buy the worms locally and for such a small tank ordering them online doesn't make sense.
 
I haven't read every post, but I've personally dosed CP in my 1200 gallon system and have help many other dose entire stores and tanks up to 20k gallons. If you don't have ornamental algae or corals, CP will be you best bet. Imo and IME hypo is less reliable. Just make sure your CP comes from a reputable source. Single dose, one month, no water changes, that's it.
 
I like CP, too, but as you say it's strictly fish only. It will kill any snail or worm in the tank, so you have to watch for ammonia spikes.
 
3FordFamily said:
I would not use cupramine in any display tank, imo unless absolute last resort
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I wouldn't dose copper in a display either and would prefer do do all treatments in a hospital tank. But I have used CP (chloroquine phosphate) in a display tank with all the corals and as many invertebrates as possible taken out. It took about three months before anything but fish could live in there.
 
Well I have been monitoring the fish and some show signs and some still do not. I am in the phase were they are dropping off the fish now preparing to wage war against them at a later date. My plan is to take the war to them now instead. I have been reading all I can about CP and I'm going to take Alprazo's recommendation and dose my tank. I can easily remove the corals and as many inverts as possible. The two anemones will be a little tricky but I wil just yank the rocks they are attached to. I'm going to use the NLS ice shield powder and will have a 200 gallon batch made up for a water change if needed, better safe than sorry. Alprazo, anything else I need to know?

Some say no skimmer some say yes. Minimal light.

One of the difficulties in treating is explaining to my wife and daughter why the lights are off. Good thing is, they are both so concerned that they are willing to help out with things. I plan to post my observations as much as possible, bump the thread if I get absent minded.
 
If your corals and other inverts are gone, you shouldn't have problems. CP is pretty benign to fish, which is why I prefer it to copper.

Keep an eye out for dead bristles. That was the main effect I found. CP will also kill algae in the tank - if you've got any macros, remove them too. I believe you can use prime with CP, which is another advantage over copper, if you see any spikes as a result of die-off.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
JoelA7 said:
What about snails and copepods etc. Does CP kill them too?
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It will kill snails but some have reported it being somewhat safe towards copepods, hermit crabs.

I'm still trying to determine skimmer or not. I might run it occasionally to remove the die off from algae.
 
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