Does Coral/Inverebrate only tank need protein skilmmer?

[xeanliao]

Hi, I just found ick on my blue tang:-( I cannot treat them in the display tank because I have invertebrates and corals in the display tank. I am setting up a 20-gallon hospital tank and have a question:

By removing all the fishes from display tank, can I also move my protein skimmer to the hospital tank while treatment? In other words, does the coral/invertebrates only tank need a protein skimmer?

 

[Jstaff123]

If you treat with medications (vs hyposalinity, I do not personally recommend hypo BTW) you don't want to use your main protein skimmer in your hospital tank... The plastic can absorb the chemicals and leech back into the display tank when it's switched back over.


I bought a cheap skimmer for my QT system, and it's only used for that purpose.

 

[scooter31707]

I have success so far w/o using one on my coral QT, but I do have one if I need to use one. I agree w/ the statement above; do not use the one that is on the DT, unless you clean it very good and restart it. That would be the only way I would use it.

 

[Mishri]

You don't need a protein skimmer on any saltwater aquarium, and certainly not one on a hospital tank. What you do need is some form of filtration. a protein skimmer is not filtration. So in a QT tank you need some sort of sponge or filter media (such as Bio-pellets) in a filter to produce the bacteria you need.

Protein skimmers simply remove some organics from the water column.. but they aren't filters, usually the live rock in our reef tanks provide the surface area for our bacteria to remove ammonia/nitrite. Protein skimmers help by removing gunk before it can break down, but it wont remove ammonia which is secreted by the fish's gills/urine.

and as others said, most medications require you stop protein skimming.

Get ammonia alert badges, or test several times a day for ammonia if it's an emergency and you need to move them right away to a fresh tank w/o a seeded filter. You can use ammonia binder and 50% water changes to combat the ammonia build up while your bacteria grows in your filter. It usually only takes a week. Nitrite can start killing some fish at 100ppm.. but depends on the fish, we usually don't have that problem in our aquariums... usually it's ammonia that kills them.. (for Freshwater fish nitrite is quite lethal and must be much lower, 0 for sensitive fish).

If it isn't an emergency and you can wait a week then you can setup the filter and put ammonia in it, up to 1ppm and seed the filter that way so you shouldn't need to use the ammonia binder/water changes - but I would always monitor ammonia for a temp setup like that.

 

[xeanliao]

Thank. I took the advise not using protein skimmer, and set up the hospital last night:

The hospital is a biocube, 29, all the fishes are in now with the same water from DT to start with. I moved some filter media from DT to HT, added non-seeded bio balls to fill the back chamber, with protein skimmer, I add an air stone to improve oxygenation. Last night, I noticed the blue tang won't sleep. I just moved some smaller live rock from DT to the display tank and created some hiding place for her. Hopefully, she can sleep tonight. this hospital seems too small for all my fishes (1 blue, 1 yellow tang, 3 clownfishes, 3 gobies and 2 firefishes all about 1.5 - 2.5 inches ). I already observed the YWM and all are acting to each other now. But this is all I have. I guess I also need some advise how to combat the aggressiveness in the quarantine periods.

My plan is to leave the DT fallow for 8-10 weeks. meaning all these fishes has to be in the HT for that long, too, why not doing a little more and slower. I think I should have enough time to do both hypersalinity and copper treatment. Bad idea?

My next move will be in 3 days change 20% water. I am thinking just do pure water to dilute the salinity to 1.02. or, maybe I should just start with the copper treatment first?

Lastly, appreciate all the guidance. I did hypersalinity last year once. now ick come back in one year :-( I want to do it right this time.

 

[xeanliao]

The fishes has been in the hospital for two days. Today, I started my hyposalinity treatment:

This morning (before water change)
PH: 8.
* Ammonia: 0.5 ppm (I normally have zero in my DT, I think this means the bio load definitely is too high for this hospital? I will watch this closer/more frequent.)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5 ppm

Then, I started hyposalinity treatment: 20% fresh water change: salinity -> 1.0.20

All fishes eating well, except the blue tank still jumpy and not eating as much as she used to. ywm is getting mellow now. 10-gallon tank is standby if the yellow tang gets too aggressive. (I am still hoping I don't need to use two hospitals. It is just a bit easier even with more frequent water changes on one tank)

I will do another 20% fresh water change to lower the salinity to 1.016 after the the first water change above

Sound good? Anything you would do differently or anything I need to pay closer attention to?

 

[Mishri]

minimum fallow period would need to be 10 weeks.. 70 days... that gives enough time for all remaining ich that has fallen off the fish to turn into eggs for the eggs to hatch and then the swimmers to starve to death... many people on here recommend even longer, 90 days.. as one study found an egg producing viable ich after 72 days, however that required medication to keep bacteria from eating the egg, which the scientist believes would happen to any egg after 60 days. he concurred that a 72-90 day fallow period would be best in an e-mail conversation someone on here had.

remember that salinity needs to stay at 1.008 to 1.009.. no higher at any point during treatment... keep the tank topped off with freshwater regularly, auto-top-off might be best.
Do not dose any kind of copper treatment, even cupramine with hypo. it becomes more toxic with lower salinity.


and your thoughts are correct, you might need to separate the tangs at some point.

 

[xeanliao]

The fishes has been in the hospital with 1.008 salinity for 10 days. Ammonia started as 0.5 and reduced to zero since 3 days ago. Fishes are active and eating well, I thought everything are good until I noticed the blue tank is getting something like scratch 2 days ago and it looks getting worst today. See attached picture.

Do you know what is that? The blue tank and yellow tank both swing fast together most of the time, but I did not see them fighting? could that be due to fast swimming in the tank that is too small for her and scratch her skin? Or anything I need to react now?