how far along is my quarenteen tank? clown has ick as well

[Chad Vossen]

i tried the formalin dip, 20 minutes in two gallons tank water with 20 drops of formalin. i think that this was half dose but i found conflicting recomendations on different sites. i could have done the dip longer but i had somewheres i had to be.. well it looks as if some of the white spots have droped but still some remain.
any advise would be nice.

as for the Q-tank, its been up for 3 weeks, silica sand with a handful of livesand from the display, the filter has 3 inches of live sand and live rock on top. the intake to the filter is covered in a sponge. temp is 75 degrees. i am getting a diatom bloom and millions of pods all over the place, even mini brittle starfish that came in through the live sand. the parimeters so far show nearly zero ammonia (no color charts, compared with display tank) but the nitrite is purple (no charts either, also compared to display tank test)
any advise on this would be nice.

after the tank is finished cycling, i will remove my royal gramma and clown and do another formalin dip (still could use some advise on dosage) then treat them with copper power (advise on this please) for 40-50 days.

am i on the right track? how long till i can use the Q-tank? the clown shows the ick, the gramma looks fine but i know its still concidered infected.

 

[Chad Vossen]

sorry, left nitrite at "purple". what i ment was that i do have alot of nitrite right now. my ammonia spike has passed but now im dealing with the nitrite spike.

 

[bureau13]

Hmmmm...I think youv'e got some bad info. Formalin won't help with ich (will help with Brook and some other stuff).

The established remedies for ich in QT are hyposalinity or copper, and you don't want any substrate, rock, sand, etc in there. All the life will die off as soon as you start treating with either of those methods, plus copper can get absorbed into the substrate and leach out again later, etc.

jds

 

[Chad Vossen]

know what? your right now i recall not seeing ick listed on the formalin bottle. and now i feel like a dummy for insisting formalin would work when i was talkin to the petco lady lol. plus one for petco, zero for me lol...

well, i bought a cleaner shrimp to help relieve my clownfish while i wait for the Q-tank to cycle. not sure if the shrimp will actualy clean my poor clownfish but its worth the try, either way the shrimp is nice looking.

today im going to do a water change on the display, which means a dirty water change for the Q-tank which will remove some of the nitrite and maybe help the cycle?

i still have copper power. now i just need to find a copper test kit...

 

[bureau13]

I recommend the Red Sea test kit (at least with the Cupramine med I use) rather than Seachem's own....lots of people are having problems with the Seachem test, Red Sea is easy to use, easy to read and seems to provide consistent results.

jds

 

[Chad Vossen]

i banished the black molly into the Q-tank last night. caught him while he was sleeping lol. the Q-tank is NEARLY ready now and i couldnt be more exited.