Need Help! Emergency.

[marcus_yeh]

Did anyone try the Seachem's Cupramine to treat the parasite problem of the fish? Will it kill nitrifying bacteria in the filter? According to Seachem's website said, it will not destroy the filter bed, but....
I had used the low salinity(1.010) and garlic oil soaked food to prevent the prarasite for my new flame angel and map/maculosus angel in a 20g quarantine tank for three weeks, but it seemd not work. Then I tried the Cupramine three days ago, the parasites are gone. However, I tested the ammonia level this morning, and it is about 0.5 ppm. The copper level is about 0.25 ppm, and the nitrite level is about 0ppm. I am not sure if the high ammonia level is because I overfed the fishes or becuase of the cupramine? Last time I tested the water was 10 days ago and everything was fine.
I was thinking of moving the fishes to my main tank immediately, but the salinity difference between the two tanks is very big.
I am going to do a water change later. Should I start to raise the salinity of my quanrantine tank in order to move them to my main tank as soon as possible? Shold I keep using the Cupramine? According to the instruction, it takes 14 days to kill all the parasites.
Anyone please give me some advices. I am afraid the fishes will die because the high ammonia level. Thank you very much.

 

[Rich-n-poor]

personally I would keep the fish in the quartine tank for the full 14 days.

you can reduce the level of amonia by doing a partial water change in this tank.

try a twenty percent change and continue to use the cupramine as directed.

then change 10% of the water daily to keep the amonia in check and slowly raise the salinity with each change

do you have any filtration on the quaratine ?
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[marcus_yeh]

Hi Rich-n-poor,
Thank you for trying to help me. I use the Fluval canister filter for the 20g quarantine tank. Do you think the Cupramine killed the nitrifying bacteria in the filter?
I just knew the Red Sea's test kit I used for the copper level can only test the free copper ion but not chelated copper. Do you know if the Cupramine is chelated copper? If I overdosed it, will the nitrifying bacteria killed?

 

[Rich-n-poor]

if you are running carbon in the canaster filter the carbon will remove the cupramine.

cupramine is suposed to be ionic and not contain any chelates if that answers your question.But if this is a tank that you use to isolate new fish or as a hospital tank I doubt that there is a bacteria culture for you to harm in the first place for the following reason:

the nitrogen cycle requires something to start and maintain it. If the tank is empty and you do not feed it the bacteria will starve since they have nothing to convert to energy.

i.e. food becomes protiens becomes amonia (bacteria grow to eat amonia) becomes nitrite (bacteria grows to eat nitrite) becomes nitrate. remove all tank occupants and dont feed the tank and there is nothing to maintain the cycle.

I would guess that the amonia you detect is the start of a new cycle in this tank since adding the fish (if the tank was empty previously). The way I have always done this is to transfer a piece of rock into the hospital tank(and therefore some bacteria) when I place a fish in one and then I try to do daily water changes to keep any water quality issues at bay.

Hope This Helps

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[naesco]

I agree continue with the treatment in the QT and change a little water daily or every there day to keep the ammonia down.

 

[marcus_yeh]

Hi Rich-n-poor, naesco,

Thank you guys. I keep an blue damsel in this

quarantine tank to maintain the nitrogen cycle.

The two angel fishes were bought and introduced

to the this tank about 25 days ago. You guys

suggested me using the Cupramine continuously.

But I am worried it will kill all the nitrifying

bacteria in the filter, so the ammonia level will

go up. Do you think my ammonia problem was caused

by overfeeding or the Cupramine? Thank you.

 

[Rich-n-poor]

i would say increased bioload.

the damsels would keep the nitrogen cycle running but the bacteria culture would only be large enough for the waste produced by the damsel.

add more fish and the culture must grow to process the increased waste output. More fish more fish poop that simple.

this is the reason all fish should be added slowly to a tank with time between each addition to allow the bacteria culture to grow to accomadate the new bioload.

There is a phrase called New Tank Syndrome in which someone sets up a tank gets it running fine for about a month or two adds fish very slowly maybe 1 every two weeks. Since everything is going great he decides he has an established tank so he comes home with 3 or 4 new fish at once adds them to the tank and then a week later everything dies because amonia spikes.

the large increase in fish/bioload is too much for the bacteria culture to process so toxins spike until the bacteria grows to accomodate the larger food source (i.e. fish waste)

I trust seachem products I use them myself if they say it wont harm the bacteria I would tend to trust them.
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