hospital tank help!

[dreams]

i set it it up.....got the fish in there & dropped the salinity for the ich

tested this morning....all perameters are were good....but nitrites here at .1.....doing a water change, trying to fix that

it now a ppears as thought i have a diatoms starting in there

all this has occured withing the last 24 hrs

fish appear to be okay, aside from the fact that they were stripped of their comfy home

is this okay?

 

[reefgirl7]

was the hospital tank cycled at all when you put the angel in it?Or did you acclimate the fish to the hospital tank?

 

[dreams]

i set up the tank last night....w/ my tank reg tank water.....added the fish....then lowered the salinity over a 4 hr period

i just checked the ammonia...it was between .25 & .5

i removed a gallon of water & added a gallon i had mixed up for an emegency

the tank is 10g....should i mix up more and change again?

 

[dreams]

he isn't laying down, now that i added the new water, but not swimming around either

 

[bertoni]

The hospital tank should have an established filter before you move the fish into it. I'd move them back to the main tank, most likely, or get some Amquel Plus and do a lot of water changes.

 

[dreams]

i put the amquel in the tank before i started the water changes....

i have changed out about 4 gallons

am i going in the right direction?

 

[Swanwillow]

ummm, the whole point of a hospital tank is that you probably won't have a biofilter

if you use copper, or anti-bacterial stuff in it, the biofilter would be GONE anyways

IMO, your going the right direction... make sure you clean up really well after each feeding, and daily water changes!!!

 

[dreams]

my ammonia test keeps coming up high....is there a reason for this?

another thing, the firefish, blemmie, clown, damsel look okay

the damsel is in a breeder basket cause he was really getting on the firefish

 

[dreams]

would it help if i put my other filter on the smaller tank?....it has a protein skimmer in it....

i have it running on my other tank as an added protection

 

[bertoni]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7009134#post7009134 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Swanwillow
ummm, the whole point of a hospital tank is that you probably won't have a biofilter

if you use copper, or anti-bacterial stuff in it, the biofilter would be GONE anyways

IMO, your going the right direction... make sure you clean up really well after each feeding, and daily water changes!!!

I disagree with both these points. Many antibacterials will not kill the filter. Hyposalinity won't kill it, either.

The reason ammonia is going up is that the fish are excreting it, and you don't have a filter to process the ammonia into something less toxic.

The Amquel Plus binds to ammonia to make it less toxic, but some ammonia test kits can't detect the binding, and still show the ammonia as in the tank and active.

 

[dreams]

my thoughts are this......at this point, the angel is so stressed that even if i do him back in the main tank, the ich will do him in

 

[bertoni]

You might be right. Angelfish are touchier animals than many other fish, and are demanding of water conditions, at least according to their reputations.

 

[Swanwillow]

well, the biofilter is made up of bacteria... and anything in there to kill bacteria...

ANYWAYS... yes, I'd throw a skimmer on there. A mechanical or chemical filter is good, just not a biological one...

is everything affected by the ich? before you hospitalized? or now?

if its not affected by it, I'd move them back. sounds like theres alot of fish, and too many for a ten gallon even with good filtration... to get rid of the ich in the main tank, they will have to be in the hospital tank for a LONG time; thats going to be alot of water changes...


but I can back down on that point... I've never had to go through ich. good luck with your fish, btw.. hopefully they make it

 

[dreams]

not everyone was effected by the ich

i was treating w/ an herbal treatment & garlic......but that is best done w/ cleaner shrimp in the tank....my LFS hasn't had any in forever.....so, it didn't do too well

so, if i put them back in the main tank, can i acclimate the same way i do when i get the fish from the LFS?

 

[bertoni]

Lots of bacterial treatments are far more selective than killing every bacteria. I suspect most all of them are, actually. A common example would be erythromycin, which won't affect the bacteria that handle the nitrogen cycle in our tanks.

If the salinity isn't too low, you should be able to do the same sort of acclimation and move the fish back to the main tank. It's hard to say what's riskier at this point.

 

[mikenpam]

If your salinity is at 1.009 or so you will not be able to quickly move your fish back to the main tank. You would need to raise it back up over a few days. Is there any way you could convert to a 20 for your QT? I used a 20 as a QT with 4 small fish and just fired things up quickly. I used a HOB filter. I did add a few small pieced of LR to help establish bacteria. At this point I would continue to do water changes and see if you can keep the ammonia down until your biological filtration kicks in. Also feed as little as possible and remove any residue daily or right after feeding if possible.

 

[dreams]

thanks for the help everyone

last night, i strarted moving them back.....got everyone moved back into the main tank

i dunno, they all look good.....everyone is eating & active

hopefully, there won't be any fallout

again, thank you all