Hypo, Ich, and cycle in hospital tank

[Michelle L]

I have been looking for this info in the archives but there is so much to read and so little time to spare....

Okay, so I screwed up. Two weeks ago I introduced a fish to my display without quarantining it long enough first. Yes, I know better. I didn't have a large quarantine tank because I'd always gotten lucky, and I thought that the 10 gallon he was in was just too small to keep him in for very long!

So the new fish died and now my whole tank is infested with ich. I have been trying to get all of the fish over it by using garlic and extra vitamins but it's getting worse with each round. Time to pull them and get them into a hospital tank.

I bought a 55 gallon tank yesterday and set it up with a powerhead from the 125 display and a Penguin Emperor HOB filter from the display. I am really concerned because last week I had disposed of the pads in the HOB filter (I really only use it for circulation) and hadn't gotten new ones yet, so the pads that are in it now are brand new and have no bacteria established. I am really worried about the hospital tank going into a cycle that I can't control with water changes, and killing all of my fish.

I am going to buy Bio-Spira today to seed the tank. I have read that putting a stocking filled with sand from the display in the new tank will help. How much would I need for a 55 gal., and will removing that much sand affect my 125 gal. display tank?

Also, will hyposalinity kill off the bacteria in the sand?

How much water should I change each day in a 55 gal to keep the cycle under control? I have a large yellow tang, a good sized cortez angel, two perc clowns, and a small green chromis going in there.

As an alternative to taking these risks with my fish, I am debating pulling the live rock (I don't have a huge amount) and the inverts instead, and treating the fish with hypo in the 125 display, but that would mean a huge amount of water changes in a tank so large to attain hyposalinity. What would each of you do?

 

[leebca]

Not a pretty situation. I'll do my best to give you answers and explain what I would do. :eek1:

Creating an 'instant' biological filter, just isn't likely going to happen. You probably can't transfer enough substrate to handle the bioload anyway. Yes. It would affect your 125 biological filter capability. But read further below regarding the effect hyposalinity will likely have. That leaves really only two choices: water changes and chemical filtration.

Some chemical filtration resins, pads, and media can remove ammonia, nitrite, and even other baddies. You can look into those and set up a filter to contain that media/pads.

As to the amount of water changes --- whatever it takes to keep ammonia very low and nitrite very low -- preferably enough to keep their readings below the reading level of the test kit.

Regarding hyposalinity and the biological filter --- quite often the lowering of salinity doesn't kill off the biological filter. But what does happen is that metabolism of the bacteria slows down so that they can't handle the bioload. They will recover and gear back up to handle the bioload, but it will take time. So even if you managed to get the bacteria into the hospital tank, they may just sit there 'enjoying the view' for a few days to weeks, without processing as much of the ammonia and nitrites as they could.

I don't know your system, but there is risk in doing the opposite as you suggested (pulling LR and inverts out and treating in the main display). In the sand bed there are likely very small animals -- inverts -- including pods, worms, etc. They will mostly die during a proper hyposalinity treatment and that will foul the water and you are back to what you wanted to avoid -- a spike of ammonia and nitrites.

For me, I would turn to chemical filtration. That cost would probably convince you the least expensive thing in the future would be to quarantine, keep a biological filter in your display that you can switch into your QT when you need it, and avoid having to count on luck.

Would you read my post here?
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=754008
Thanks.

I wish you well in your efforts. :rollface: