What to do?

[bjhubb]

Lost coral beauty in qt after 5 days. I drip acclimated and gave a formalin bath the last 30 min of the acclimation. No noticeable sighs of disease. Two days later noticed a few white spots so I added some Rid Ich. Spots kept getting worse over the next two days with treating. Got some Copper Power and treated after doing about 25% water change. The next evening fish was dead. What do I need to do to get 10g qt ready for more fish. Qt has large HOB filter with bio filters. Should I just empty tank and fill back up with dt water or leave the water in since it still has copper and add new fish?

[jlemoine2]

If there was a disease in the tank, I think everything needs a cleaning. Get rid of the water. If there is any rocks, sand, or any other structures, they'll need to be sterilized. Give your tank, filters and other equipment a good bath, perhaps with bleach.

You want to kill any parasites before introducing more fish to quarantine. Should be easy to do in a 10 gal.

Any other thoughts on this?

[bjhubb]

Tank is bare bottom with few PVC pieces. What about my biological filter? I wouldn't want to kill off my bio if at all possible.

[jlemoine2]

Parasites can live in the filter too.... for up to 6 weeks without fish. If you don't sterilize the filter too, there is a high likelyhood you will infect the next fish you put in there.

You could sterilize the filter, and then run it on your display for a few days to "seed" it with new bacteria. Or you can pull some live rock from the display or sump and put it in the QT for some additional bacteria. However, if you end up having to use hyposalinity to treat your fish, it will kill off the bacteria anyway (from what I understand).

[bjhubb]

Why wouldn't running copper for a week or two kill off the ich without fish in the tank.

[jlemoine2]

I have not experience dosing copper, but from my limited knowledge and observations with ich, many fish may not live a week or two with ich. It all depends on when they originally contracted it.

Anyone have recommendations in regard to treating ich with copper?

[mystikdragon7]

Or you could do nothing to the tank and just let it run for 6 weeks to kill off any parasites in there.