help me please!

[tah532]

Ok now i know this isnt a new problem to aquarists, but it seems that my coral beauty and sailfin tang have ich or marine velvet. Tiny little white specks are forming on them, but not on my clownfish yet. I believe the tang brought it in with him, the coloring on the tang makes it hard to see the specks on him. Now here is the dilemma, I dont have nor do I have room for a quarantine tank, which makes me a horrible hobbyist I know. So I need to know what i can do with what i've got? Any help much appreciated!

 

[hdtran]

(1) Read the series on marine 'ich' in Advanced Aquarist Online (link button somewhere near the top). Start with the back issues, and proceed forward.

(2) After you've read the articles, if your tank is 'fish only', then, treat your fish with copper. Be sure to get a copper test kit so that you don't either underdose (no therapeutic effect) or overdose (kills fish). This is especially important for the clown.

 

[WannaBeReefer]

If you have a QT Tank use that to treat the fish, copper is usually a bad thing in the main tank, if you have live rock/sand that is.

 

[tah532]

i dont have a QT tank and if i were to set one up this weekend i have to wait at least a month for it to cycle dont i?

I have a shrimp, two crabs, and numerous snails in the tank so i dont want to dose the tank especially with my liverock in there as well, right?

are there any treatments out there that dont have copper? If not i might as well just assume I'm going to have one group of creatures dying, huh?

 

[Carpentersreef]

If you don't know what's going on in there now, chances are that you won't have much luck with copper. Copper treatment is tricky.

Hyposalinity is a much safer route for you. Using existing tank water, fill a quarantine tank and transfer the fish to it, and use pieces of large PCV tubing to provide hiding places. Over the next 5 days, lower the salinity of the quarantine tank to 1.009 by replacing some of the water each day with fresh water. Keep it there for 3 weeks (is it 3 weeks or is it 5?).
Do weekly water changes with 1.009 water.

...and always ask more questions if you're still not sure... :wink:

Mitch

 

[Anonymous]

Definitely don't put copper in the maintank. If you wanted to use a second tank to medicate the fish, you could fill it with water from the main tank and make water changes from the main tank as necessary. Doing that you wouldn't need to go through a whole cycle. If the tank has no sand or rock there isn't much to cycle anyway. Just make sure you don't put water from the q tank back into the main.

 

[tah532]

thanks! i will give it those methods a shot.

 

[vair]

Totally agree with above posts regarding no copper, Qt tank hyposalinity and using display tank water to avoid cycling. IMO I can't agree on using display tank water for water changes. Use fresh mixed water. If you take water from your display tank you will be adding Ich to your Qt tank. Your diplay tank has to go five weeks with no fish to stop the cycle of Ich.

Good luck Ich sucks

Dave

 

[tah532]

well i talked to my LFS owner who is very knowledgable and he seems to think my temperature was too low and that probably caused the ich. I have been keeping it at 75 degrees, and he said to bump it up slowly to about 84 for a couple weeks then back it down to 82 and see if that helps. He also stated that hyposalinity might help as well.

 

[Anonymous]

If you take water from your display tank you will be adding Ich to your Qt tank.

Doh! Good point, guess I just wasn't thinking there.

 

[Anonymous]

Low temp is *not* the reason for Ich. Do research.
Agree with Vair--ich suckuth.
~wings~