Help! Large ich outbreak

[c0nspire]

Help, please, with my problem:
I just got back from an out of town trip and my in-laws where taking care of our 180g tank. About have the tank has ich; porcupine puffer, kleins butterfly, lipstick tank, and bi color angel.
The lionfish, maroon clown, foxface, green chromis, and lawnmower blenny appear fine.
Im about to do about 90g of water change, but i dont have anything large enough to QT all the live stock that is affected. Is it safe to hypo-salinity the whole system?

Size of tank:180g

Age of tank 2 months
Sump: 50g, fuge/return/skimmer section
Skimmer: diy skimmer
nitrate: 10-20 ppm
ammonia: 0
temperature: 84deg
Water source Tap with Prime
Salinity:1.023
Alkalinity:
Lights total 900w MH
Calcium:
Magnesium:
Dosing?[ None

i did the basic test (ph, nitrate, ammonia, nitrite) cant test the others if i need to, pretty sure my nutrafin master kit does all of them.

Thank you!

 

[bertoni]

I think that a 90g water change might do more harm than good. Is there some problem with the tank other than the ich?

If there are no corals, snails, or other invertebrates, you might be able to do hyposalinity without losing much, but there could be a lot of bristleworms and other animals that will die and rot, which could be an issue.

I'd look into a large tub for use as a hyposalinity tank, or to hold the live rock. You'll need some sort of filter for the fish, like a hang-on or something similar. If you separate the live rock (and sand) and the fish, you could try Cupramine, which might kill the ich more quickly.

 

[geaux xman]

why do you have your temp at 84? thats high...

any snails or inverts?

 

[c0nspire]

no snails, there is a cleaner shrimp.
corals include torch coral and brain coral.


Its going to be quite difficult to catch the fish in question, but I can if thats what it comes down to. I can use the 20G rubber maid that i use for water changes to hold the fish, I have a fluval 305 that i dont use, it was form my 50g before i switched over to a sump setup.

Im not sure why the temp was at 84, faulty heater perhaps. It's kept at 80 otherwise.

No other problems with the tank asides from plenty of film algae on the glass, tested the phosphates, it was 0.25 ppm, the chaeto in the sump is thriving though.

 

[bertoni]

I'd get a bio-wheel or similar filter going, and make plans to separate the live rock, corals, and shrimp from the fish.

 

[c0nspire]

i have a whisper 10, but its probably too small (rated for 10g, which is was my QT is) the rubbermaid holds just over 20g

try to do my best to get them into a rubbermaid so i can treat with copper and then throw out the rubbermaid afterwards...

 

[Madjamey]

84 ? Tap w/ prime ? Nitrate 10-20 ppm ? Age of tank 2 months ? All these together may be the cause for the stress and ich outbreak ! Water change w/ ro/di ,lower your temp to 76-78 , and hope this young tank pulls through.

 

[c0nspire]

im still saving for an ro/di kit. The 180g is 2 months, i moved 3/4 of the fish frommy 50g which had been running for 2 years. fish time ich outbreak for me.

 

[bertoni]

The tub can be wiped with some vinegar to clean it, if you'd like to keep it for future use. I agree that the Whisper filter sounds too small.

 

[c0nspire]

what size filter should i be looking to aquire? any reason the fluval 305 wont work? what am i looking to run? just pads to remove debris, and then carbon when im finished treating with copper?

 

[lisafoster]

I don''t know if such a heavily stocked 2 month old tank could handle a 90 gallon water change. You need a much larger than 20 gallon hospital tank for all those fish. If you put all those fish together in such a small area they will be way to stressed to survive treatment. I would either pull all the fish get a much larger ospital tank and treat the fish or just hope your tank pulls through. I believe the problem stems from stocking way too fast for a barely cycled tank you do not have enugh bacteria built up to handle all the waste from the fish, tap water hight temps, high phosphate and I am sure higher than 10ppm-20ppm nitrates.

 

[c0nspire]

When i started the 180g i used about 1/4 the sand bed and 70lbs of LR from my 55g tank
I guess i will get 2 or 3 large rubbermaid garbage cans so i can treat my livestock.

 

[lisafoster]

Can you set up your 55?

 

[c0nspire]

no, when i broke it down i removed one of the glass panels as it was drilled and i wanted to re drill it so the plumbing when through the bottom of the tank rather than the side.

Ive moved my lipstick tang and porc puffer into one 77l (20g) rubber maid, im gunna get 1 or 2 more today and probably do 3 fish in each.

 

[Sk8r]

Please check out the stickies in the Fish Disease Forum, newly revamped: these may give you some help.
Wishing you good luck with this situation. I hope you have an ATO. Maintaining hypo without one is a real headache.

 

[c0nspire]

can i use airstones to circulate water and displace the surface? Ive read that airstones are not recommended because over oxadizing the water will increase the ph

 

[Sk8r]

An airstone, as I understand it, increases ph by expelling co2 from the water, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. Do note that with a ph shift, ammonium from fish waste converts to ammonia, as in opening a shipping bag---same problem. However, if you use good filtration, and have an ammonia alert on that tank, plus keep the water properly buffered and managed, it should help: if you could set up a strong CFL bulb on a bucket of cheatomorpha with your air pump, and closed-loop the holding tank water back through that, you could create a secondary assist for consumption of nitrates, ammonia, phosphates, and other things plants sop up as they grow. If you're doing hypo, read the instructions in the stickies in the Disease Forum, and particularly note your 4 weeks starts after the last observed spot leaves the fish.

 

[c0nspire]

i hadnt yet decided on a method, It almost doesnt matter which method i go with, they all require 8 week qt from the dt, and if anything goes back sooner than 8 weeks the ich in the dt wont die and i risk re infection.

The lipstick just died, he got stuck against a power head in the tank, the puffer is in a garbage can, but i might place him in the 10g qt so i can actually see him better, the only other fish that i think will be a concern is my bi color angel, (at this point)

also one of the puffers eye's is very cloudy, solid white, he definatly isnt able to see how of the one eye, and the second eye what looks liek ich/mucus on it.

 

[c0nspire]

I am almost leaning towards qting my 2 corals and the cleaner shrimp and hypo'ing the main tank. This saves me having to hypo at least 3 seperate tanks, and my 180 g tank has about a 1/2 gallon evap per day.

If i pursue this route is it guarantee'd that all my live rock and the sandbed would once against become dead?

 

[jcw]

I am almost leaning towards qting my 2 corals and the cleaner shrimp and hypo'ing the main tank. This saves me having to hypo at least 3 seperate tanks, and my 180 g tank has about a 1/2 gallon evap per day.

If i pursue this route is it guarantee'd that all my live rock and the sandbed would once against become dead?

I believe the answer is not necessarily, but hypo will likely kill all the inverts in the DT causing an issue.