I have read the postings about marine ich and also about treatment with cupramine but i have several questions. This morning I lost a fish and I am trying to figure out if I did something wrong or it just died of stress from the marine ich or movement to the quarantine tank.
I saw symptoms of marine ich in my display tank last week so, since I did not have a quarantine tank at the time, I bought a 10 gallon setup. I realize that it is not cycled and have been making frequent water changes to keep my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels in check. I have a clarkii clownfish, a green clown goby, and had a diamondback goby which I found dead this morning. I am using the red sea copper testing kit which was recommended by the LFS as being more accurate than the API test kit.
To the best of my knowledge I have followed the instructions on the cupramine and the test kit but just to be sure here is what I have done to treat the tank.
Day one: Set up the 10 gal quarantine tank with water from the display tank. Let it sit overnight to make sure the temp was holding steady. All water parameters were the same as my display tank.
Day two: Caught the fish and added them to the quarantine tank. I did not want to treat them immediately because I felt they would be stressed in the new environment. All water parameters tested fine.
Day three: Did a partial water change (approx 2.5 gallons) and added cupramine as shown on the bottle. 20 drops for a 10 gallon tank. Tested and got a 0.2 ppm result.
Day five: Did a partial water change (2.5 gal) to combat rising ammonia and nitrite levels. Tested for copper which was still holding strong at 0.2 ppm. Added 20 more drops to bring level up to the treatment dosage of 0.4 ppm.
Day six: Another partial water change. Since the tank has not cycled I am doing these regularly to make sure that the ammonia and nitrite levels stay in check. After the water change I checked the copper. It had fallen below the treatment level to 0.25 ppm. Based on the directions of the Cupramine to maintain a consistant concentration at the 0.4ppm level, I assume that I have to add more as needed if levels drop due to water changes. Because I did not have info about how much to add to get the treatment level I put in 4 drops and retested after 4 hours time. The water tested back at the 0.4ppm so I thought I was back to where I needed to be.
Day seven: This morning I woke up and checked the tank. My diamond goby was dead and my clarkii has one eye popped out. The green clown goby appears as normal. Fearing I had overdosed on the copper I did a water change before leaving for work which dropped the copper to 0.25ppm. All other parameters tested ok.
Should I add my carbon filter to remove the cupramine until the clownfish improves or should I keep treating for the marine ich? Any other input would be great as I am new to the saltwater hobby and I love my tank and fish. In hindsight having a quarantine tank at the start could have prevented a lot of these issues but hindsight is 20/20.



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