I have a Question, instead of remove all the fish and put them in the QT and do the copper treatment . Why can't I just do the hypo treatment in the DT? I only have 2 piece of coral and a cleaner shrimp . I can put them in a small tank. I don't have any live rock , all my rock are dry Marco rock. Let me know what you guys think.
First time dealing with ich . NEED HELP!
- Thread starter jason89
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The Plummer
New member
I wouldn't, as I've clearly stated above, I don't believe hypo to be as effective as tank transfer, but it's only your time, money, and ultimate frustration. Besides, how do you plan on keeping ich out of your DT with future additions.
You will eventually have to resort to the TTM to ensure a parasite free environment for your DT.
Doesn't your husbandry ethics demand that you do what's best for those lives you've chosen to hold in your hands. Especially when it can be done relatively inexpensively as I've outlined?
Stop trying to be lazy and ultra cheap, buck up and put forth the effort to do it right, or get out now.
Sorry to be so tough on you, but reality is reality, no matter how you wish it to be otherwise.
Bobborocco
New member
your headed for a expensive road my friend if you keep trying to take the short cut now. Spend the money and save yourself the anger and frustration later!
Oh ok. Thanks for your help. I'm not being cheap, I used to have a couple small freshwater tanks. So I already have all the equipments , I just don't want to take all the rock out and remove most of the water to get all the fish out and then acclimate them for buckets and to the QT tank. I just dont want to put them in shock.
rocride
New member
I skimmed through this and when it comes to the welfare of the animals I want you to consider hypo,tank transfer is a quicker cheaper method but IMO harder on the fish.Don't bother with copper,too hard to moniter/dose and can be worse for the fish.
Set-up a QT,sump it,skimmer heater etc throw in some rock and run it at 1.010 sg. for at least the amount of time you main needs to be fallow,longer the better...8-10 weeks should do it? lower sg makes life easier for the fish so longer won't hurt!!
I have tried both and I didn't carry out the transfer method properly but moving the fish every three days and dealing with the water quality in a small container was a pain.I lost three fish and ich became worse so into the frag tank they went and down came the sg.Fish were on the edge for a few days but are fully recovered now,I think the TTM would be great for one fish!
I had a severe case and within 4 days in hypo it was 60% gone,that was a month ago and a relief! Hypo will kill off everything,snails,shrimps,sponges,feather dusters etc but I think beneficial bacteria survives,I still need to find more exact info. on this!
I know hearing someone tell you to go spend more money on another tank is not ideal but you'll always have it as an option and you can pick up stuff pretty cheap in the buy/sell forums.
I shut down my big tank and considering a restart and if so I plan to start up in hyposalinity and try to stock my complete fish list,run it for a cpl months before bring the sg back up and goin ahead with corals etc. Still some reading to do for myself on this approach.
Set-up a QT,sump it,skimmer heater etc throw in some rock and run it at 1.010 sg. for at least the amount of time you main needs to be fallow,longer the better...8-10 weeks should do it? lower sg makes life easier for the fish so longer won't hurt!!
I have tried both and I didn't carry out the transfer method properly but moving the fish every three days and dealing with the water quality in a small container was a pain.I lost three fish and ich became worse so into the frag tank they went and down came the sg.Fish were on the edge for a few days but are fully recovered now,I think the TTM would be great for one fish!
I had a severe case and within 4 days in hypo it was 60% gone,that was a month ago and a relief! Hypo will kill off everything,snails,shrimps,sponges,feather dusters etc but I think beneficial bacteria survives,I still need to find more exact info. on this!
I know hearing someone tell you to go spend more money on another tank is not ideal but you'll always have it as an option and you can pick up stuff pretty cheap in the buy/sell forums.
I shut down my big tank and considering a restart and if so I plan to start up in hyposalinity and try to stock my complete fish list,run it for a cpl months before bring the sg back up and goin ahead with corals etc. Still some reading to do for myself on this approach.
The Plummer
New member
I too was worried about the stress of the constant transfers, funny thing is my fears were never realized. Exactly the opposite happened. My fish are much more calm now, they don't hide from me and they actually are excited to see me at feeding time. My coral beauty isn't nearly as skiddish and is actually feeding prepared food, before it wouldn't touch seaweed salad,flake, thawed mysis, and would only nip at the occasional dried brine shrimp if it happened to float by. What's really neat is I had to move a pump in the bucket and my yellow tang wouldn't move away from it so it let me gently scoop it with my hand to move it, it rested calmly on my hand and even let me pet it, before it slowly went on its way.
As far as new purchases how do you an on KEEPING ICH OUT of your DT. Are you advocating leaving the QT at 1.009 all the time for new purchases?
I ask this because simply placing a fish in a QT for a month to monitor its health will only reveal that you have a temporarily immune fish that is most likely a carrier of ich and WILL reinfect your DT. That's why I chose TTM as future additions will automatically be subject to TTM to rid parasites, before time in QT.
In fact, I don't even see a problem counting the 15 day TTM as part of the 4 week QT at this time, unless someone else could dispell that notion.
rocride
New member
so glad your fish are doing great!
no,my rough theory is to run the tank in hypo til i'm done or satisfied with my stock list and run it in hypo for 6-8 or up to 12 weeks after the last fish.
In the meantime my frag/QT tank tank will be getting the coral purchases with no hosts (fishless/fallow).Ich needs a host.
This way I can house the fish for a larger tank in the larger tank,more room than the frag tank and I can monitor the coral for pest algaes etc in the frag tank.
Then I bring the salinity up on the main display and transfer my corals over.I would like to say at this time my fish stocking is done but in the case of a new adddition,probably one fish at a time,I could just run a 10g QT and my fishless frag tank serves as a place for new corals waiting transfer.
There's some great articles on exactly what is happening to the Ich during hyposlinity and the TTM.I am just hung up on the effects of benificial bacteria and hypo.
cheers
no,my rough theory is to run the tank in hypo til i'm done or satisfied with my stock list and run it in hypo for 6-8 or up to 12 weeks after the last fish.
In the meantime my frag/QT tank tank will be getting the coral purchases with no hosts (fishless/fallow).Ich needs a host.
This way I can house the fish for a larger tank in the larger tank,more room than the frag tank and I can monitor the coral for pest algaes etc in the frag tank.
Then I bring the salinity up on the main display and transfer my corals over.I would like to say at this time my fish stocking is done but in the case of a new adddition,probably one fish at a time,I could just run a 10g QT and my fishless frag tank serves as a place for new corals waiting transfer.
There's some great articles on exactly what is happening to the Ich during hyposlinity and the TTM.I am just hung up on the effects of benificial bacteria and hypo.
cheers
MrTuskfish
Team RC
Prophylacticly treating with copper is possibly the most hotly debated question on the QT topic. I treat all new fish with copper and am very comfortable with it. Others just observe for several weeks. Low levels of copper do absolutely nothing to kill parasites. Algae is the main target of low copper levels, I believe.
Either fully treat with copper of skip the copper all together.
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