#wait.. maybe rody is achievable... hold on......

[jaerockyaoi]

dream blunt rotation (joke...this is like my top 4 transformers things i'd like to get if they didn't cost an arm and leg minus soundwave.. he's the most achievable one i think 😭)

[burningbaal]

New Fish QT plan

I’ve become a super believer in Safety Stop, but we all know it isn’t actually perfect. I like the idea of QT and prophylactic treatments, but don’t love copper because it’s pretty harsh and fairly dangerous...you have to keep the concentration dead-on perfect for the whole time or it fails (either lethally or by being sub-therapeutic).

Humblefish (on R2R) has found great success with the ‘hybrid’ Tank Transfer method, and I plan to use it with some additions. One note: my current nano has 4 untreated fish in it (prior fish had no treatment, current fish went through safety stop only), so I don’t think I’ll do more than Safety Stop in my nano, but when I move the system, I plan to fully treat the fish that move and leave anything from the old system fallow for 90 days to ensure the new system is as disease-free as I can manage, and here’s how I plan to treat new fish (and the fish that move to the new tank).

Keep two 20 gallon long tanks ready for QT at all times (plus I’ll eventually use my current nano as a coral/invert QT to make sure they don’t bring junk into the system). Each fish QT will have a heater, powerhead, PVC fittings. Also have an airpump and tiny pad heater for the Safety Stop routine. Oh, and Prime for sure. At least one of the QT tanks should have a sharpie line showing the 10g line.

Get one tank ready and running with 12 gallons of 1.026 saltwater in it before bringing the fish home and make sure I’ve got some RODI to salinity-adjust the QT tank

Stick a big sponge or similar in the display’s sump to pick up bacteria (for later)

Every time a new tank is filled (especially during TTM), dose 2x the recommended dose of nitrifying bacteria (like MB7, Dr Tim’s One and Only, Biospira, whatever) and 1x the dose daily during feedings. This also should keep ammonia to a minimum, but should also minimize the risk of bacterial infections because 

Day 0

Temperature acclimate the fish to 1g of 1.026 in a bucket.

Open the bag, put in a few drops of Prime to combat ammonia that may have built up and is now exposed to fresh air (more toxic as CO2 off-gasses).

Check salinity of bag, if below 1.023, adjust the bucket to be 1.023, if below 1.020, adjust bucket to 1.020, if below 1.016, adjust bucket to 1.016.

Make sure bucket is one gallon, mix in Safety Stop Part A (formalin).

Net fish into Part A (with airstone and pad heater), obvserve breathing for 45 minutes. 

This formalin bath should act much like the first H2O2 bath of the hybrid method; ridding the fish of most external and attached parasites. plus these baths ensure a minimum of the source water goes into the QT

Net fish to 1g of Part B (same salinity as Part A) for another 45 minutes

Add RODI to QT tank so salinity matches bucket (or a couple points higher maybe). 

Net fish from Part B into the QT tank, make sure it is dosed with Prime to fight of ammonia build up in this sterile tank. Adjust QT tank with new water to make it to the 10g sharpie line

Offer food daily that’s soaked in antibiotic to combat internal parasites

If salinity was low, do the daily topoffs with saltwater to raise it slowly. Otherwise topoff with RODI to maintain salinity. 

Try to just de-stress and feed for 6 days, don’t transfer early as 6 days before the peroxide dip is actually important for disease life cycles.

Day 6

Ensure 2nd QT tank is prepped with warmed water at salinity to match QT A.

Turn off powerhead and dose 200mL of 3% store-bought H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide) to make a 75 mg/L concentration in QT A (the fish is leaving). 

Note, this is 6 days after the formalin treatment, so it probably achieves the last step of the ‘hybrid’ part of the TTM.

Observe for 30 minutes

There’s little risk of losing oxygen as the H2O2 is actually adding oxygen as it reacts with things in the tank, and it’s only 30 minutes. Moreover, it’s important to not agitate the surface to preserve the H2O2 concentration

Net the fish to QT B, careful to minimize carryover from the old system. Make sure QT B has Prime, let it ride.

Clean QT A and all equipment (recommend good gloves due to bleach)

Drain and rinse with tap water

Pour in 1g of tap water and 1 cup of bleach (this is crazy strong, but easy and I’m crazy as a former microbiologist I love me my bleach), use sponge to wet all surfaces, leave powerhead and heater submerged for 20 minutes

Wipe down walls of tank for a few minutes, then fill tank with tap water. in my 20g long, it should hold about 16g of water, so the 1 cup of bleach is about 0.3%, leave this for at least an hour, no more than overnight (needs time dry).

Rinse bleach water out of the tank, and dry. Towel dry is nice, especially if less than 48 hours before the next transfer.

Keep feeding medication-soaked food going to rid them of any internal parasites (nothing else we’re doing touches internal problems)

Day 8

Fill QT A with new saltwater (should easily be at 1.026 now by topping up with saltwater all week), let it warm up overnight

Still feeding med-soaked food

Day 9

Net fish from QT B into QT A, same as on Day 6, Prime in new tank

Repeat cleaning just like Day 6 so QT B is bleached and clean

Still feeding med-soaked food

Day 11

Fill QT B with new saltwater, let it warm up overnight

Still feed med-soaked food

Day 12

Repeat the H2O2 bath just like Day 6. In theory this is unecessary as the Day 0 formalin and Day 6 H2O2 should have fixed all of this, but I’d like to be safe.

Net fish from QT A into QT B, same care as on Day 6.

Clean QT A as above

Fish should be free from velvet and similar external problems, but not yet free of ich

Keep feeding med-soaked food

Day 15 - Repeat day 9, into QT A, done feeding med-soaked food (unless stringy poo was observed; keep med-soaked food for two weeks after those symptoms vanish)

Day 18 - Repeat day 9, into QT B, fish now is ich-free! Clean QT A

Move sponge from sump into QT B, add some Prime, observe carefully.

Hopefully, everything has been beat and you can just watch for two weeks. If anything else comes up, treat it and wait a new two weeks.*see below

Day 32 - Fish is ready for the display!

* if a bacterial infection shows up at any point, I will start dosing the ‘trifecta’ like HumbleFish recommends. I’m hoping this doesn’t show up before Day 6; I want to have the first H2O2 treatment done so that all surface parasites are taken care of (Part A of Safety Stop plus first H2O2 on Day 6). If not, I’ll probably have to just skip the H2O2 and revisit it after the antibiotic treatment.

Whenever this does show up, I’ll just ditch the TTM plan until the antibiotic course is done and restart it (Day 6 ) when the antibiotics are completely done. You can’t ‘outrun’ bacteria like you can with the parasites, so the TTM just adds a layer of complication to what’s already complicated. Exception: if the fish actually has a parasite (like ich), then I’ve got to stick with the TTM plan and add some MelaFix (and hope) and the antibiotics will probably just have to wait unless I’m feeling up for the double-attack...yuck. I might keep a cheaper 8 or 15w UV sterilizer on hand for these types of emergencies, hoping that by keeping it UV’d for the current 3 days will get the fish well enough it can make it through the next 3 days (I don’t plan to sterilizer my UV for each cycle and not every bit of it that gets wet is sterilized by the UV light).

Taken mostly from HumbleFish below, note that “all 3″ means Furan-2, KanaPlex, and Metroplex; each at their own advised dose. Always good to mix in a bowl of tank water before pouring into the QT and MAKE SURE the tank has plenty of surface agitation to prevent oxygen depletion.

Kanaplex dose: one scoop per 5g of QT water

Metroplex dose: one scoop per 5g of QT water

Furan-2 dose: 1 packet per 10g of QT water

I’ll probably try to soak food in the metroplex or API General Cure as well to try to clear internal infections

Day 1- all three Day 2- furan-2 Day 3- 25% waterchange THEN all 3 Day 4- furan-2 Day 5- 25% waterchange THEN all 3 Day 6- furan-2 Day 7- 25% waterchange THEN all 3 Day 8- furan-2 Day 9- 25% waterchange THEN all 3 Day 10- furan-2 Day 11- 25% (or more) waterchange If the fish wasn’t appearing clear of bacterial infection at day 9, then continue- Day 11- 25% waterchange THEN all 3 Day 12- furan-2 Day 13- 25% waterchange THEN all 3 Day 14- furan-2 Day 15- 25% (or more) waterchange