H2O_intolerant;227867 said:
I might just have to do that. You think of be alright pulling all the rock (put it in the stock tang for a few months, kind of a fallow period), and doing mechanical filtration in the meantime?
Great idea, kill 2 birds with one stone. Treat the fish in the main tank, pull out rock and let it be fallow. While you're at it, you really should pull as much of the substrate as possible. Not only will it soak up copper, it will big-time throw off your test results. If your tests are wrong, you could kill everyone with a high dose (or kill no Ich with a low dose).
So I thought about this. Since you have limited water reserve, I think CU is your best bet, because you can adsorb it fully out of the tank after running and don't have to cycle through tons of water to get it out. Since you're not going to siphon as much due to limited water (which means you won't get the non-swimming cysts on tank bottom out), you'll need to run copper longer (because kills it in swimming stage only, not cysts) and run an elevated temp (which accelerates Ich cycle...so you're waiting less time for cysts to hatch and swim...to hopefully reduce length of time that copper is needed). So I would run it for longer than the suggested 3-4 weeks that one can do when they siphon regularly.
I would pick your poison, start the lower level dosing, and continue research to decide what ppm (such as .3 for ionic) and duration you want to do. There are lots of suggestions out there, many (including me) use Cupramine. Just try to match the copper test kit to the manufacturer you use and test before you redose.
I would not jump to a non bio filtration situation in the main tank, any ammonia exposure for already very weakened fish could be real bad. You may want to sacrifice one rock, leave it in the tank, so there is some nitrifying bacteria that stay behind. If possible, I would then try to get seeded bio media into your tank in the next week. Until then, maybe cut back big time on feeding.
One other thing. I would have some bacterial supplements (such as dr. tim's one and only) on hand and watch ammonia/nitrite levels closely, but DO NOT use Ammonia reducers unless you google the Copper/ammonia products combo and make sure they are not a lethal combination. For example, Cupramine plus Prime equals reduction to toxic copper, could kill everything (it sure would be nice if Seachem put that on their product bottles).
Anyway sorry for the novel. Hope that helps. Get other opinions, I may not have the best suggestions!
I would prob do 30g biweekly, if I had the space. I just don't have space to store a 30 g barrel. Maybe I can rig something up under the tank.
