Copper Treatment-Help me Quick

[jloventh]

It seems I got a parasite in one of my two tank. I recently bought a fish from a store that was not my regular store and obviously I am paying for it. Fiirst my Yellow Tang Died, then my Bangaii Carndinal, then my Coral Beauty, now my clown is looking a little black on his back under his skin. My Long nose Hawk looks ok. My regular aquarium store says I definitely have a parasite and should treat with Copper. I dosed the tank last night. I can't tell (instructions seem to vary from the two packages I bought).
1 )Should I remove the Carbon Filter ?
2) Should I change 20% of the Water Daily ?
3) How long should I treat ?
4) I also seem to have a pretty nasty cases of Green Hair Algae in this tank, should I just keep the lights off to kill it off ?

I have a second tank that is a reef tank....everything seems ok in there....Can anyone help me ?

Jeff

[Riptide]

I would setup a small 10g quarantine tank, bare bottom. No carbon filter. A small bio-wheel for filtration in the QT is probably OK.

I change 50% of my 10g QT water every two days. Follow the instructions for treatment that come with the copper if that is what you end up using.

Someone else want to handle the hair algae question? Probably an excess of nutrients in your tank fueling that. Are you using RO water or tap?

[VoodooChild]

Well, I'll see what I can do. First of all, yes I'd remove the carbon. Copper is hard to take out of a tank, but carbon will remove some. As to water changes and dosing amounts, you're gonna have to read the instructions on that one. Most have different directions. If your tank is a reef tank, the copper will kill most things. Hate to tell you that, but if you're lucky something may survive. Probably only your fish will make it through. If you've already dosed, there isn't much you can do except ride out the storm. You mentioned you have a second tank. If that one hasn't been treated yet perhaps you can carefully remove your inverts and put them in the untreated tank. Best of luck.

[jloventh]

So buy a separte QT tank put the remaining fish in there and treat them with the copper ? or Only treat the larger tank ? I have no inverts in this tank so I just want the two remaining fish (the clown and the Long nose hawk to survive...get rid of the parasite and move on. Should I change the water in the big tank...I have now removed the carbon filter.

In RE: Algae. I am using treated tap water.

[Riptide]

I would take the fish you want to cure and put them both in the QT tank. Treat w/copper. You'll need to keep the tank you pull them out of free of fish for at least 30 days to be sure no more parasites remain. I know, a pain... But it must be done to be certain. It would be a risk to return them early even if you had cured them.

As far as the algae goes, I would test your water for nitrate and phosphate. You might want to try switching to RO water and see if that helps.

[MonoSebaelover]

At this point you already have copper in the main tank (which is generally never advised but anyway) just go ahead and treat them in the main tank. Just know that you will not be able to keep any invert in that tank pretty much ever. If you treat with the copper in the tank it will cure it faster but it is still advised to wait 3 weeks before adding any other fish AFTER the fish have returned to normal. Anyway, hope this helps.