Poland Union Elementary - Ich Support

Alanc425 · Jun 25, 2016

Pola0502ds said:
I am pleased to announce that the yellow tang is finally eating. So happy! And man, i was worried.

So i basically removed half the amount of copper that was in the tank and its been that way for about 5 days. 3 days ago and since, i thought i would see the yellow eat but i was never sure until today. With that said, what exactly should be my plan to get more copper in the tank without having feeding problems?

Yay

, as thought we probably dosed too quick. Were we dosing everyday after they ate? If I read that correctly?

I would try 0.5mg every other day at this point, maybe even one step further and 0.25 in the morning and then at night. Cupramine starts being effective at 0.35ppm so we don't have to rush to 0.5ppm

melypr1985 · Jun 25, 2016

Pola0502ds said:
I am pleased to announce that the yellow tang is finally eating. So happy! And man, i was worried.

So i basically removed half the amount of copper that was in the tank and its been that way for about 5 days. 3 days ago and since, i thought i would see the yellow eat but i was never sure until today. With that said, what exactly should be my plan to get more copper in the tank without having feeding problems?

You may end up with eating problems again, but I'd leave it like this for a few days to be sure he's eating well before ramping the copper back up.

Pola0502ds · Jun 27, 2016

What do you guys recommend to take care of the algae/cyano problem? I scraped it all last time and i guess that was a bad thing to do because i had a algae spike

Alanc425 · Jun 27, 2016

Do you have lighting or is the tank next to a window?

Humblefish · Jun 27, 2016

The problem with cyano is so many things can cause it:

Poor water quality/excess nutrients in the water (Do you use 0 TDS RODI? What are you nitrates/phosphates reading?)
Old light bulbs
Low flow (if detritus is collecting in a corner of the tank due to low flow, cyano will grow there).

Pola0502ds · Jun 28, 2016

I have a 4 bulb aquatic life T5 fixture over it in the basement that runs for 8 hours. No window. It was a extra light i had so i used it but now im thinking it might be too much. I was turning on whites and blues but this morning i programmed it to only turn on blues. It was just cyano but now im getting green algae everywhere to so today im going to do a large water change. What i want to know is should i scrape everything off the glass and pvc or not? I was thinking i should do a 75% water change.

Pola0502ds · Jun 28, 2016

Humblefish said:
The problem with cyano is so many things can cause it:

Poor water quality/excess nutrients in the water (Do you use 0 TDS RODI? What are you nitrates/phosphates reading?)

Old light bulbs

Low flow (if detritus is collecting in a corner of the tank due to low flow, cyano will grow there).

I have a rodi unit that is producing zero TDS water

The bulbs are 3 months old

I have a powerhead in the tank that does a great job, there is a ton of flow. Im wondering if i feed too much. I feed the 5 fish a quarter size of larrys reef frenzy twice a day and for lunch i give them a pinch of flake food. I didnt think i was overfeeding because after they would eat i wouldnt see anything on the bottom of the tank. There is a 5" blue tang, 3" yellow tang, (2) 1" six line wrasse and a 1" clown.

I think someone said i can put a skimmer on this tank and still use the cupramine without having the skimmer remove it? True? I have a coralife skimmer rated for 55 gallons that ill put on it if you guys think i should.

4FordFamily · Jun 28, 2016

Pola0502ds said:
I have a 4 bulb aquatic life T5 fixture over it in the basement that runs for 8 hours. No window. It was a extra light i had so i used it but now im thinking it might be too much. I was turning on whites and blues but this morning i programmed it to only turn on blues. It was just cyano but now im getting green algae everywhere to so today im going to do a large water change. What i want to know is should i scrape everything off the glass and pvc or not? I was thinking i should do a 75% water change.

If the water you're using for the WC is high in TDS then it may cause another bloom - where I am in the Midwest, even with an RO system the TDI is high so it's an extra struggle.

Pola0502ds · Jun 28, 2016

Double post deleted

Pola0502ds · Jun 28, 2016

4FordFamily said:
If the water you're using for the WC is high in TDS then it may cause another bloom - where I am in the Midwest, even with an RO system the TDI is high so it's an extra struggle.

Im assuming since my TDS meter is reading zero that its good water. OR, even if it reads zero is there a possibility that i can still have bad water (forget that the tds meter can be off).

Alanc425 · Jun 28, 2016

You could reduce the lighting to maybe 1 bulb or amount of hours. I'm not sure if its the proper way, but I don't even have a light over my QT, just use whatever ambient lighting is in the room. You have no NO3or PO3 export in the tank but at least the algae wont grow without lighting.

Humblefish · Jun 28, 2016

Pola0502ds said:
What i want to know is should i scrape everything off the glass and pvc or not? I was thinking i should do a 75% water change.

You can scrape it off, so long as you also siphon it out during the WC.

Pola0502ds · Jul 7, 2016

Quick update and a question:

During last weeks tank cleaning, I think I scared the crap out of the yellow tang and hippo. They both developed Ich again, which i am almost glad to see because i wanted to make sure I watched the progress of getting rid of it because when they went into QT, just prior the ich went away.

I think I made a mistake, I did a water change last night and before that I added copper to the new water in my brute mixing trash can. This trash can is also the container I use to mix saltwater for my DT. Am i screwed because I mixed the copper in it? Will the brute trash can absorb the copper and then possibly leach out back into the water? Now when I go to do a DT water change I can possibly introduce copper into a tank I don't want it to be in?

Humblefish · Jul 7, 2016

Pola0502ds said:
I think I made a mistake, I did a water change last night and before that I added copper to the new water in my brute mixing trash can. This trash can is also the container I use to mix saltwater for my DT. Am i screwed because I mixed the copper in it? Will the brute trash can absorb the copper and then possibly leach out back into the water? Now when I go to do a DT water change I can possibly introduce copper into a tank I don't want it to be in?

You aren't screwed, but I would give the brute trash can a thorough cleaning before using it for your DT. Wipe the insides down with a vinegar soaked paper towel. You especially want to clean off any calcium carbonate deposits (white deposits) on the plastic, which can absorb and release copper.

You also want to be very careful not to cross contaminate your DT with the fish in QT. Don't use the same hose, feeding apparatus, equipment, etc.

Pola0502ds · Jul 15, 2016

So an update and some issues. Need advice.

The yellow tang has been eating like a pig for a good while now and the copper levels have been where they need to be for a week plus. Thats the good news.

Rewind 2 weeks ago, i cleaned the tank and while doing so i think i scared the crap out of the yellow and hippo tang which stressed them out to the point of developing ich again. So it was full blown and when i checked on them today there are no more ich spots on them.

Just today while checking on them i noticed that the blue hippo is the only one not doing well. It has this white stuff all over the one side of its body and just a little on the other. Im going to call it "stuff" because its definitely not ich. On top of it, on the body by the fin it has developed a dark purple/blue patch that looks like fungus. The 2 six line wrasse keep picking at him and literally wont leave him alone. I know its stressing him. However, besides just knowing its there he is acting nomal and ate like a pig. I have no idea what it is or what caused it. Any help?

The only thing i can think of is maybe my copper levels are just a little too high? The salifert copper test kit is terrible because i think the shades of blue on the card are too similar. Would that cause this? I have not tested for anything else because i do a 50% water change every week. The alert badge for ammonia has been fine.

Pola0502ds · Jul 15, 2016

Here are pics

Humblefish · Jul 15, 2016

Can you take some photos under white light? I can sorta see what you're talking about near the lateral line, but its hard to say if it's just HLLE or something else.