swap from qt to reg water

[gguertin]

I had 4 fish in qt for 5-6 weeks now for ich. They were being treated with copper. I took all the water out and put 30 gallons in from my display tank. I netted the fish and they were jumping all over got real spooked and now this morning they dont want to eat and the coral beauty look pale. Is there something I can do next time to acclimate them? How do you do that when you are completely taking them off of copper?

Also there is a damsel in there and he has been laying in the corner for a couple days and his sides look beatup but I havent seen any fish attack him really? if anything he was always the mean one?

[Angela Short]

"all the water out" as in at one time? What I did to aclimate to my display from my 30 QT was I mixed up a huge rubbermaid of fresh SW ( 30 gallons) and pulled out the same amount of water from the display in another rubbermaid. I replaced the display with new SW for a water change and did about 4 water changes in the QT with the old display water over 2 days. One change in the AM and one in the PM over 4 changes. This will get your params more in line slower with the display. Check the params of both tanks, espescially PH, salinity and temp. If they are off adjust accordingly. Catch and transfer.

Or just do it like a new addition. Catch them and have them in a 5 gallon bucket of QT water, maybe 1/4 full. Power head or bubbler stone and heater and drip acclimate them over a few hours. Till the water you started with is doubled 2 times I think and dumped so not to over flow the floor. Make sure temp is same and catch and release. Hope this helps. You should have had them out of copper long before 5-6 weeks by water changes and carbon. Hope they haven't suffered any long term damage from such a long exposure to copper.

[gguertin]

the bottle said 4 weeks? and I read on here 5-6 so thats what I went with? I should have acclimated them better though this was pretty stupid when you think about it but I wanted to get them out of the copper and I had sand in the bottom of the tank so I had to drain the tank and remove the old sand.

[gguertin]

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/55048mini-CIMG0064.JPG
this is what the damsel is doing and looks like? all 3 other fish look fine? any ideas?

[Angela Short]

OK my bad on the copper, I have only used seachem and its ten days :). Did your copper levels stay at theraputic levels with sand in the QT? I have read sand and rock absorb it real bad and its hard to keep a theraputic level. I can't tell much from the pic, maybe just stressed out from the sudden water changes? Damsels are suppose to be the touph guys though. Hope they make it for you.