What do you do in QT?

[FishN00b83]

so I have two tangs in qt right now (kole and and powder blue) and I'm wondering what to do. do any of you treat for ich/velvet if you don't see anything? I plan on dosing prazipro starting this weekend, but I'm not sure about cupramine. I have copper and the test kit, but I don't really want to treat for something they may not have. do you think signs of parasites will show during the 4-6 weeks I have them in there? should I dose copper if I see signs or not?

[HumbleFish]

Being these are tangs and those have a high probability of carrying Ich (esp the Powder Blue); I would advise you to treat them with Cupramine for one month. Whether you see symptoms or not. Tangs are good candidates for copper treatment; just raise it over a period of 4-5 days instead of the 48 hrs the directions say.

[FishN00b83]

I'm nervous to treat with it. I've never had to do it before and I've heard so my horror stories about copper. would hypo be a good alternative? I have done hypo in the past.

[snorvich]

Being these are tangs and those have a high probability of carrying Ich (esp the Powder Blue); I would advise you to treat them with Cupramine for one month. Whether you see symptoms or not. Tangs are good candidates for copper treatment; just raise it over a period of 4-5 days instead of the 48 hrs the directions say.

this. Hypo is the least preferred alternative since it is difficult to properly execute (and because some strains of cryptocaryon irritans are resistant to it)

[Newsmyrna80]

What's that joke...half of a tang's body weight is ich;) You could do tank transfer if you are nervous about copper.

[snorvich]

What's that joke...half of a tang's body weight is ich;)

Probably only 40% :hmm5:

You could do tank transfer if you are nervous about copper.

I agree.

[FishN00b83]

lol you guys are crazy. do you think I should do prazipro or copper first?

[HumbleFish]

lol you guys are crazy. do you think I should do prazipro or copper first?

I normally do Prazi first (it's gentler), unless I suspect external parasites is the more pressing issue.

[FishN00b83]

maybe I'll start the prazi this weekend and see what happens. I have some LR in the QT tank now, when I dose copper should I remove it and replace it with ceramic rings or something for bio filtration?

[Newsmyrna80]

If you are dosing with copper you have to remove the LR.

[Neptune 555]

If you are dosing with prazi you can keep the Live Rock in the tank??

Neptune

[FishN00b83]

I'm pretty sure you can leave the LR in the tank with prazi. I've read in a bunch of places that you need to take the LR out for copper. I'm just wondering what to do for ammonia levels at that point. without LR you need something for bacteria to grow, but you can have anything that will absorb the meds. would ceramic rings in a HOB work? I really don't want to do water changes everyday and you can't dose prime or amquel to break ammonia. What do you guys do?

[HumbleFish]

I'm pretty sure you can leave the LR in the tank with prazi. I've read in a bunch of places that you need to take the LR out for copper.

Good info. :thumbsup:

I'm just wondering what to do for ammonia levels at that point. without LR you need something for bacteria to grow, but you can have anything that will absorb the meds. would ceramic rings in a HOB work? I really don't want to do water changes everyday and you can't dose prime or amquel to break ammonia. What do you guys do?

(Props to MrTuskfish and Mrscribbled for the following info):

Go buy an Aquaclear HOB powerfilter suitable for your size QT. For example, I use an AC70 on my 29 gal QT and an AC50 on my 20L QT. These Aquaclear powerfilters come with nice porous sponge inserts that you can "seed" with bacteria for biological filtration in QT (and it's dirt cheap to buy more sponge inserts for them). You can seed them one of two ways. The first is the slow way... stick the sponge down in a high flow area of your sump (or behind the rocks if you don't have a sump) for at least one month (but longer is better). This will allow enough time for bacteria to transfer onto the sponge, which you can then use in QT as biological filtration. And the sponge doesn't absorb copper and other meds the way LR does. The second i.e. fast way is to go buy a bottle of Bio-spira (or similar) and pour it over the sponge. Either way, the point is to "seed" the sponge with nitrifying bacteria that will break down ammonia in QT. I personally consider using Bio-spira more of an "emergency QT option" due to the cost of the bottle of Bio-spira (seeding in your sump is free :beer:).

[FishN00b83]

each I have a fluval mini filter that I can put a bunch of ceramic tubes in (which I have in there now). I can buy a sponge and out it in there too, I just don't think it will be enough for the 2 fish. will the fluval biomax absorb the copper (I have those in there now too). the tank is stable right now so I'd hate to change anything if I didn't have to. anyone know?

BTW thanks for all the info so far...much appreciated