Hospital tank set up advice, please comment on plan

[Gooly001]

Hi Tony,

I wouldn't recommend using the aquaclear because the intake is quite strong and any weak fish will get stuck to it; further stressing it out and doing more harm then good. Also, even if you had a biological colony culture on the foam, most medications that you use to treat for disease will kill of the culture, rendering it useless as filteration.

I'd recommend to do regular water changes every other day to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels down instead.

In our experience, tangs and butterflies do not take well to fresh water dips and extremely low levels of hypo.

We use a combination of low level salinity of 1.018 and chelated copper to attack the ich. With chelated copper (Cupramine) we use half the dosage recommended as the tangs are butterflies are very sensitive to copper. You can use API copper test kits to monitor the levels.

As long at the fish are eating during this process, I find that they kick the ick within a few days to a week of treatment. However, due to the life cycle a few weeks in quarintine would be recommended where by the salinity can be raised slowly to reflect the DP tanks parameters.

HTH,

Paul