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Old 04/05/2003, 12:55 AM
Newflee Newflee is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Canada
Posts: 386
Those are some nice fish. I sorry that your in this situation but I bet you'll learn from it. The weird thing is I bet lots of people who read this won't.

As far as the gravel goes, I imagine it will help but it really isn't as porous as we'd like for n-bac. If you don't mind sacrificing worms and misc inverts you could just put your base rock that doesn't have anything on it in the quarantine. It's completely dependent on what you value more. Your rock or your fish. If you do this you will not be able to use it in your reef again, but you can keep it in your quarantine for future purchases.
Better yet I would see if one of your aquarium buddies or local fish store would spare you a sponge or such out of their biofilter to get your aquaclear going. Your LFS owes you that for not selling you clean fish or at least educating you on the risks. Don't bother trying to use someones bioballs as they dont have enough surface area for an aquaclear. You need sponge or something similar. Don't worry if the bio matter you borrow is suspected to come from an infected tank because the treatment you will be administering will take care of that. On that note I must also tell you that even established biofilters are stressed by copper treatment so obviously a really healthy one is advisable. In your case you'll have to take what you can get.
You must keep in mind that stress is a huge factor in how your fish will do under treatment. You must provide them a stress free environment with lots of hiding spots and safety. Once removed from the matrix of the reef many old friends will fight and you don't want that when they are already sick. Large pvc elbows, t's and pipes( 3 -6" diameter) make great plastic rockwork. Keep the tank very dimly lit and feed sparingly. If your guys are good eaters as you say, then cut back on the feeding and feed only garlic treated foods. Use fresh garlic very very finely chopped and mixed with whatever you feed. Most fish will eat the garlic itself. Prepared garlic products are not worth using IMO.
It sounds like you have C. Iritans for sure (which may not be a huge problem to solve), and perhaps oodinium (dusting) which copper takes care of but often not quickly enough to save the fish.
I feel you must treat promptly and if you need to do daily water changes for lack of a good biofilter just try to reduce the stress of your messing around as much as you can. As I mentioned earlier, if the Cu level drops below treatment levels (.15ppm) you may not be achieving anything.

One other important note: Your species are a little sensitive to any stress and therefore I recomend you bring the copper levels up slowly over a period of a week. Cu is chemotherapy and if not done properly it can kill your mates. It's not rocket science but be carefull and prudent.
After you have gone through all this, go in and give your LFS S**T for leaving you out in the rain.


One other note: add airstones to the quarantine. The primary stress that these bugs put on the fish is via the gills. Eventually they cannot get oxygen. Extra aeration will help with that as well as boost the growth of whatever biofilter you use.