How do my hospital tank plans sound?

[jmicky41]

My fish in my 125 FOWLR recently came down with crypt. I tried "no ich" - which I belive has the same ingredient as "kick ich", but it dosen't appear to be working. I also tried adding garlic to the food. My 2.5"mitratus butterfly is darting around the tank and has many spots and is hiding more. The 2" hippo tang has a few spots but is acting well. The yellow tang (body about silver dollar size) seems unaffected.

So tonight I decided to set up a hospital tank. I bought a 20 long with a biowheel hang on filter, flourescent hood, and a hang on heater. My plan is to take 20 gallons out of the display tank and then add the fish to the hospital tank. Over a day or two I was gonna take a gallon out of the hospital tank and replace it with RODI with a bit of buffer in it. I will do this untill the sg is 1.009 ( I have a refractometer). Hopefully all the fish can survive this for a month or so.

I realize that I do not have an establised biofilter on the new tank, but was planning to cram as many bioballs from the big tank into the new filter and maybe leave some floating around. I also have a 3lb piece of live rock I am not attached to that I may put in there as well. I assume I should test for ph and ammonia often and be prepared to do small water changes often.

So, does all this sound allright? If all goes well the ich should die in the hospital tank, and the display (being fishless) should be clean as well? Is there anything I am forgetting? I've been keeping marines for years, but never had a q-tank.

 

[Spracklcat]

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[Spracklcat]

Sounds great to me, except don't put the rock in there--it will just serve as a substrate for the ich to reproduce in. Using the tank water will help establish your biological filter, and like you pointed out, as long as you keep on top of your water testing and changes if necessary, you should be just fine. Doing frequent large water changes will also help with the ich too--

What I would do is put some sort of plastic plants or pvc type thing in there to give the fish some sort of hiding places: you don't want them to get aggressive with each other from overcrowding, which will lead to stress, which will make it harder for them to fight the ich.

 

[paulamrein]

Also the time frame is key. You mentioned a month or so. I always do it for 8 weeks, (2 months) to make double sure. And the bringing up of the salinity is a lot longer than the bringing down. Two factors I saw that will help you out. Good luck. I'm in week 5 and everyone is doing great. It's not as long as it sounds. Also, anything...ANYTHING going into the tank afterwards should go through the same 8 week treatment. If it is non-fish you can do 4 to 6 weeks. The 2 months is a drop in the bucket compared to the benefits.

 

[jmicky41]

Thanks guys, I did pick up some 2 and 3 inch PVC elbows from the hardware store today.

Now after all is well and I am ready for new fish, would it be advisable to quarantine more delicate species in this stark tank. Possible future additions planned would be a trio of anthias, a flame angel, and either a goldflake or blueface angel. I feel that the display tank would be a better environment for these fish - but I sure don't want to deal with ich again.

 

[Spracklcat]

Absolutely quarantine. And if it were me I'd take my time adding fish back; first you don't want to overcrowd your QT tank and stress the fish, and second if one fish has something transmissible, you don't want to spread it to all your new ones.

 

[jmicky41]

So far so good I guess. Although, the hippo's eye is starting to cloud up. Hopefully it is just irratated by the ich (it has a couple spots on it's eye). My future fish additions were planned for after the holidays, maybe January or February.