how long to quarrantine new fish for ich

[downhillbiker]

i just purchased a new group of fish: coral beauty angel, 2 green chromis, royal gramma, rainford's goby. the coral beauty started showing lots of ich spots. i treated the quarantine tank with copper power, hyposalinity, fed garlic, and slowed down the flow past my uv sterilizer.

how long do i need to keep them in quarantine? my main tank doesn't have ich, so i shouldn't need to quarantine the fish for 6 weeks to allow the main tank to go host free. can i add the fish after 3 weeks?

i will be adding them to my 75 gallon with a regal tang, a tomini tang, and maroon clown.

 

[paulamrein]

I would do it for at least 4 weeks AFTER the last of the spots are gone. Also, it's your tank, I'm not here to tell you what to put in it, but the fish that are already in the tank are pretty aggressive, you may run into some fights down the road especially if the fish already in has had time to establish themselves. And the fish going in are more of the peaceful end of the spectrum so, you may take precautions in putting them in. Also, I wouldn't recommend putting all in at the same time, space it out some so your biological filtration has time to adjust. So, you could have an ammonia spike, and some hiding scared fish at first introduction.

 

[downhillbiker]

Thanks for the input paulamrein. I will be adding the fish after about 3 more weeks. I intend to add all my additional base rock that i'm getting when I add the other fish. I have a few corals and some live rock, but not enough. I was planning on adding the rock and then the fish, same day. I know it will stress the fish a little but I think it's the only way I will be able to ease the tensions.

I also intended on adding the fish at the same time. Is 4 small fish actually going to give my tank problems biologically? I have a good canister, that i clean daily, and a protein skimmer, I just dont see how it can be that big of problem.

Heres why I am adding some rock.

 

[paulamrein]

Canister filters and protein skimmers take out nutrients. The bulk of ammonia comes from the fish's oxygen exchange. So, if the fish are swimming and breathing than yes it could add some strain for a week or two.

 

[downhillbiker]

Thanks again for the input. I think that I will go ahead and risk it. I can do more water changes if I need to, I will just monitor the chemical levels. I do weekly water changes, 5 gal/week for the 72 gal tank, if needbe I will just up the changes to keep up with the yuck.