Fish dying; not sure why!!

Everything is now contaminated with copper, next step for me would be to grab a copper test kit and some Seachem CupriSorb. Hopefully you can get all the copper out but you may have to ditch the sand and liverock and treat just the tank with the cuprisorb til you get no copper on the tests, you may not be able to get it all out of the rocks and sand.

 

What is the timing on the Cuprisorb? Should I start now? Or let the copper run it's course?

 

The damage is done as far as copper in DT, can you get a QT tank set up to reat the fish while getting the DT cleaned up? Are there inverts and such that are really copper sensitive in there?

 

the caulking that holds the tank together also absorbs the copper. you're going to have a hard time with this. you *may* have to completely scrape it out and reseal the tank!

also, if it hasn't been mentioned, chocolate chip stars are not reefsafe.

your remaining snails/shrimp etc are probably all going to die :-/ from the copper. act fast and you might be able to save them.

for future reference, i prefer to treat ich with diet, not chemicals or stressful QTs.

 

I'm hoping the cuprisorb can take can of the silicon, but no promises.

 

OMG. Wow what a nightmare and sorry for your loss. Who recommended treating a DT with copper??? That is a HUGE no no. Kiss all the inverts bye bye. LR and LS is junk! You'll never get the copper out. That tang grows to 1 foot. So, as soon as the tang grows up its upgrading the tank or selling the fish. Sorry.

 

I think he said he just freaked out and did it on impulse. its a shame to hear tho.


Let this be a lesson to ALL reading that this is not adequate tank husbandry.

 

Appreciate the comment on bad husbandry. Definitely makes me feel a lot better. I think people underestimate just how hard it is to make a saltwater tank flourish.

I guess the advice here is to treat the fish in a QT tank and just remove everything out of the main tank immediately?

 

I disagree. Take the time and effort to understand the hobby from a marine biology stand point and any one can make one flourish. I started with a 20 gallon tank, my first ever fish tank, of any kind. And its going strong.

Didn't wanna make you feel bad man, by any means. but you went about this whole thing completely wrong and jeopardized many critters lives because of it.

I dont have a QT tank. i just make sure i know what i put in my tank. I dont buy on impulse.

 

The fish should be okay (assuming you are monitoring the Cu level and it's not too high), but everything else is gonna die if you don't get it out. LS and LR are shot, have to get new. Tank my be salvagable but no gaurentees.