Need some advice about Marine ich in a new reefish tank

[Willbowen03]

Hello, I want to thank everyone on the forums in advance as I am very new to the hobby and these forums have been an amazing source of information.

I have a 37 gallon tank with #50 of live rock, a small green carpet anemone, a gbta (bubbles), small colony of xenia, a few zoo's, 2 true percula (Rocky and Adrienne), 1 Yellow Tang (Ferdinand), and 3 talbots damsels (the three stooges), and one peppermint shrimp (Jacque). Don't blame me for the names my girlfriend claimed naming rights before I even started this endeavor.

The tank has a fluval 205 canister filter, a 200 watt eheim heater, a 2' Sunlight Supply Maristar Light (250W DE HQI 10,000K, 2x24w t5 actinics). About two weeks ago I made an overflow similar to the one in my picture, and put together my own sump. Right now I am using the fluval as the return pump at the end.

This last weekend I noticed spots on the fins and gill area of my tang, so I went and put together a QT Tank. I know I was supposed to have one before but I am on a college student budget. So he has been in the quarantine tank for 3 days, and is being treated with Malachite Green/Formalin ich treatment. Last night I moved the rest of the fish into the qt; as the male clown was starting to show spots as well, and I also put an acrylic divider in for the clowns. I don't want the damsels to pick on the them as they can't hide in their anemone in the QT tank. So right now all of my fish are in the QT tank and the display tank is sitting with all of the inverts and the peppermint shrimp.

My question is am I doing this correctly? And if not what should I be doing? If I am doing ok, what should I be doing next? I am worried I am going to lose all of my fish if i don't start doing this correctly in the next few days.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Will

 

[OldFishMan]

Hello;

Drop your salinity in your Hospital tank over 2-or-3 days to 1.010 and keep it there for 4-weeks.

Hypo-salinity is safe in short term use, and has been the only treatment that has shown me 100% success in treating Ick and related parasites. All other treatments including Copper are toxic to fish.

Your main tank does not need to be treated, with all your fish in the hospital tank the Ick will die with no hosts to feed on.

Enjoy!

OFM

 

[returnofsid]

To elaborate some on the above, IMO, hyposalinity treatment should be continued for 6-8 weeks. At a minimum, 2 weeks after ALL visible sign of Ich is gone. During this process, your display tank needs to remain fishLESS (Fallow). Ich needs fish to live during one stage of it's life cycle. However, the life cycle of Ich means it'll remain living in your display tank for quite some time. This 6-8 weeks of no fish will be long enough that no ich will remain in your tank afterwards. Research has shown that if your display tank doesn't remain "fallow" for at least 6 weeks, reinfestation is likely. Make sure your salinity stays at 1.009 - 1.010. Anything below is harmful to fish and anything above isn't as effective. To assure this level, be consistent about topping off your QT tank and make sure to calibrate your refractometer. I also agree that this is about the only treatment that's shown to be effective at treating Ich and is also safe for your fish. Remember to lower your salinity slowly and at the end of the treatment, take a few days to a week to slowly raise the salinity back to normal.

There are several other treatments that are said to be effective by people with a lot more experience than I have. They're outlined in one of the below provided links. The Reefkeeping link.

You can speed up the process of curing the display tank by raising the temp to 80 and slowly dropping the salinity to 1.017, which is still safe for your inverts.

Here's a couple of good articles about the treatment of Ich.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ichartmar.htm
http://www.reeftime.com/reef-articl...ng-marine-ich-brooklynella-hyposalinty/19.htm
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

I'd suggest you get a new home for that Yellow Tang or upgrade to a larger tank, a minimum of 75 gallons. If kept in that tank, it will be continuously stressed, which will result in a very aggressive fish and could lead to further Ich outbreaks.

Oh and on a lighter note....what dorky names!!! Just kidding!! Good luck with your treatment. Most if not all of us have been there!!

 

[Willbowen03]

Thank you for all your info. So as of right now will my corals and invertebrates be ok under the setup they are in? So I don't have to treat anything in the display tank? My shrimp will be ok in the main tank?

Also does anyone have any good suggestions to add to the tank fish or coral wise that I would be able to keep in this setup?

 

[returnofsid]

Your display tank will be fine. Don't medicate it, as most medications are lethal to corals and inverts. Just leave it Fishless for the entire time.

Not sure what you're asking about what to add to your tank. Don't add anything at all during treatment. You can add corals or other inverts, but NO fish. Also, once treatment is over, I still wouldn't recommend adding any more fish. Your tank is already over loaded with that tang. The 2 Clowns and 3 Damsels you currently have are about the limit of what should be in a tank that size. As for corals, with your lighting set up, as long as all your other parameters are good, you can add just about any corals.

Oh, one more thing...having 2 anemones of different species in that tank is asking for disaster. Your Carpet will get HUGE, way to large for that tank. Even much larger tanks with anemones of different species is trouble.

 

[krisfal]

In case it has not already been said. Before beginning hypo treatment in your QT you should do water changes/carbon/poly filter to remove the medications in the tank. Some medications can become toxic in combination with hyposalinity.

I don't know if you have read Lee's post on ich and its treatment yet. I highly reccommend reading it and all of the other "stickies" at the top of the Marine Fish Forum. Lee has great knowledge regarding marine fish and we are very fortunate to have him as a moderator on that forum.

Here are a couple links to his threads on ich and hyposalinity in case you have not already seen these:
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27003
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27155

You have made a good choice moving these guys to QT. And now that you have the set-up you can also QT all new arrivals, which is a much safer approach then having one new fish infect your entire tank, which is probably what has occured for you. Many of us went through this same problem when we first started, I know I did not QT at first until my entire tank was infected with ich and then I had to scurry to find a big enough tank for QT to hold 4 tangs!

Cute names for the fish!

 

[Willbowen03]

Thank you everyone who has helped me out so far. I was fortunate enough to run into a friend of mine today and happened to get a good deal on a new tank. I was able to get a 75 gallon flat back hex with stand and most of the filtration system already intact. So while the fish are getting better I can get to work on setting up their new tank. I figure the tang will be much happier in this tank. With a tank that size is it still not ok to put the two anemone that I have in, even if they are on the opposite sides of the tank?

 

[Brenden]

I did not read everything that was posted other than your post but just wanted to add. Be sure to watch the PH in your QT as you lower the salinity it will drop.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Just to tag on to Brenden's comment about pH... also be aware that the water you're testing isn't really saltwater, and really isn't freshwater - but somewhere in between. When you test the pH and compare the colors, you're going to see colors you haven't seen before. I was using an API test kit that has both saltwater and freshwater charts. I had to kind of visually average to two to *guess* what my pH was. Just a heads up so you don't freak when you see a color that is totally new to you!