5 years of disease free.........but now

[angieg1123]

I have gone 5 years without any diseases in my tanks. Now I seem to gave gotten a double whammy. My achilles tang has come down with ich and my yellow tang has popeye.

I tested my water and the only thing wrong was my alk was low.

The achilles is the newest addition but I QT'd it for 5 weeks- hyposalinity ! It has been in the reef tank a month or so. Never showed any signs of ich.

They are both in a 125G fully stocked reef. I can't get them out. They are FAST! The tank is a mess, corals got knocked over and the fish are more stressed then I intended.

Can I treat the entire reef tank with hypo?

Besides corals and 180 lbs LR and a 6" DSB (all LPS and softies, no sps) the inhabitants of the tank are as follows:

Fish-
1 yellow tang 1 achilles tang 2 percula clowns, 1 lawnmower blennie, 1 yellow tail blue damsel

Inverts-
snails, hermit crabs, brittle star, and pods

If I can't treat the entire tank with hyposalinity, how do I catch the tangs?

I have a 10G tank that I usually use for QT but I can't treat all of the fish in there. The tangs will kill eachother. I have a 45G High tank that I could use, but will it be safe to put all 6 fish in there for 4-6 weeks ?

Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated since I've never had to deal with this before since I always QT all new fish. Just a quick note.....QT doesn't alway prevent ich. (But 5 years was a good run)

Thanks
Angie[

 

[leebca]

you're asking for help, but you're saying things like 'QT doesn't always work.' Might I amend that. . .The aquarist doesn't always do the QT correctly. The QT system works. We make mistakes.

Having said this. A hyposalinity treatment will kill off almost all invertebrates. This means corals, pods, snails, crabs, etc. The ammonia spike will kill the fish. Massive D&D (death and destruction). You would turn your live rock into base rock.

Turn to catching. There are threads on RC regarding this topic. This is just one:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=586506
With patience and determination, it isn't as unsurmountable as it seems.

Borrow QTs if you have to. I can't tell if your current tanks are large enough because you didn't indicate how large your fish were. Buy QTs if you have to and have a garage sale this summer to get rid of it all.

Popeye is another (serious) matter. Some reading:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=792631
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=572323
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=561991
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=5777657

Good luck! We're here to help. :rollface:

 

[angieg1123]

Ok I set up a 45g h QT tank for the fish. I am currently making fresh RO/di water to start bringing the salinity down to 12-14 ppt. I will change out 1/5 of the salt water with fresh ro/di water every 12hrs untill It gets to the 12-14 ppt. I will keep all fish in the QT tank for 6 weeks from the last time I observe any ich on the fish. Longer if I need to, but no less. I'm going to the hardware store to buy 6inch PVC for the tangs to hide in. I have other PVC for the smaller fish to hide in.

I have 2 filter pads that I have kept in my sump that will help with the bacteria in the QT tank ( I keep them there just for my QT tank)

I will keep a close watch on the ammonia and the nitrates. I will watch the PH too. I'm on my way to buy the meds needed for the yellow tangs popeye. I think he injured the eye when he was scratching on the rocks due to the ich.

Can I treat for the popeye in hyposalinity?

Thanks for the help.
Angie

 

[ZaneBoyJ]

Fish Trap

Fish Trap

I used a fish trap from Marine Depot. Acrylic cylinder with a door. You tie fishing line to the door. Starve the fish for a day and then set the trap. For fish on the bottom set the trap on the bottom. For fish in the top water it is best to suspend the trap off the bottom. I caught the damsel from hell after two days of effort. My tank is to big with too much rock to try the net. I won't tear it apart. I will use a hook and line if I have to....

z

 

[leebca]

". . .on ammonia and nitrites. . ." (not nitrates, right? Just a typo).

Antibiotic treatment during hyposalinity has some pitfalls. The affects of the antibiotic is usually magnified in a hyposalinity environment. This statement has to do with the mechanism of interference the antibiotic has on the microbe it targets.

The above risk is such that, I would not want to add antibiotic to the hypo water of the fish that don't have Popeye. I would prefer to treat the one fish with Popeye in its own QT, while going through hyposalinity, and not put the other fishes at risk of an antibiotic negative impact.

I would go ahead and treat the fish with Popeye in hyposalinity, starting with half the dosage of antibiotic recommended and cut the subsequent doses also by half, throughout the treatment.

Aim for the 12ppt salinity level in the range you mentioned.

Sounds like you have it 'wried.'

 

[angieg1123]

I have yet to catch that darn achilles. It will have to wait tilll Friday night. I have to take my mom in for heart surgery in the morning. ( hae to be up in 4 hrs to take here there. The hospital is 3 1/2 hours away from me. That comes before fish.

The popeye on the yellow tang is much better. It is 1/2 the size it was so at least that is getting better. It's slightly cloudy, but I can still see thru it easily.

Thanks everyone,
Angie

 

[Steelslinger75]

Have you added anything to your tank? corals, inverts, etc?

 

[leebca]

I hope the surgery went well.

 

[T1adler]

At a recent presentation for our local club, Anthony Calfo suggested to drain the tank down to what ever level it took to catch the fish you want.

I just had to do this to get my fish in a QT for ich and it worked great. I have lots of LR and corals. Its pretty easy to catch a purple tang when he is only in a couple inches of water. About 20 min to move 9 fish after the water was lowered. I then just pumped the water back into the tank from the trash cans that I had drained it into.

An example of K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid.

 

[angieg1123]

What do I do with all of the LR and Corals? Will they be ok out of the water for the time it takes to lower the water level and refill it? If they will be ok, I'll try it.

The yellow tangs popeye is all better, and the achilles ich looks like it is clearing up, but I know it's part of the life cycle and it will be back 10X worse.

Thanks,
Angie

 

[leebca]

Rock will be fine for the short time. Don't let it dry out. From the rock's perspective. . .it's low tide!