what type of copper to treat ick? Coppersafe?

Unfortunately I am now setting up a hosp. tank for my 2 remaining fish that haven't died from a major ick outbreak this week. I've lost 4 so far and 1 of the remaining fish looks bad. That being said I've never set up a qt tank before (obvious huh?) and never used copper. What brand or type of copper should I used in the QT? The only brand I can find so far in the LFS is Coppersafe by Mardel. Anyone use this? or can you suggest a better option that I should order?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Hey i just had a serious infestation of ICh myself.....do you use a hydrometer to measure you salinity? i found out mine was not accurate anymore and was really reading at 1.030. i was the cause of the ICH in this case. Also taking fish out of the DT and treating in a hospital increase the stress on you sick friend by alot and could do more harm then good. are they still eating?

 

not eating. I'm going to do as i've read and allow my dt to sit for 6 weeks without any fish. At the rate they're dieing and by the look of at least 1 of my remaining fish, I'm likely to lose them all anyway. I'll risk the stress to the remaining fish to rid my tank of this apparently large infestation.

good tip on the salinity. I'll look into my options there.

 

You do not need to cycle a QT if your doing large water changes a couple times a week . . . besides, the copper your adding will kill off any biological filtration that you gained in that 6 weeks. I would get them out of the ich infested tank asap seeing as you lost so many already. I have used copper safe before with great results, but I would recommend you pick up an API copper test kit so you can monitor where your levels are at before and after water changes. Amquel might be a good thing to have on hand just in case also.

~Will.

 

Any of the copper meds will work, as long as you monitor copper levels to make sure you don't OD. Keep in mind that you will be doing very frequent water changes and will have to re-dose copper to stay at a therapeutic level.

Personally I used Seachem cupramine, but as I said, any of them will work.

Here's the catch, though. Unless you treat all your fish for 3 weeks or so, and then leave them in QT for 8 weeks with your DT fallow of fish (inverts/corals are ok), the fish will just re-catch ich once you re-introduce them. Just something to keep in mind.

 

thanks for the responses. the plan is to keep all fish out of my dt for 6 weeks. my 2 remaining fish will stay in the qt all that time. this sucks. but, now i have a qt that will definitely be used on all new arrivals in the future.

quick question...i should not use any carbon in the qt while treating with copper, right? just filter floss?

 

what is Amquel?

 

No carbon. It may interfere with the copper med, depending on the med you choose. Your main filtration in the QT can be a small sponge filter, if you want, or just water changes every 2 days or so.