Ich agian!

[EnderG60]

Ok I had a tank crash last year and went through the process of putting every fish in hypo (1.010) for 2 months, bleached and acid dipped every last live rock. Bleached the sand, Dipped all the corals in iodide, interceptor and fresh water. Then set the system back up fishless for 3 months.

I added the remaining fish back to the system. All was good.

I got a blue tang which went into QT for 2 months with no sings of ich. I put him in the tank and a week later he is covered in ich.

I am extremely ****ed off right now after going through all that to finally have a disease free tank and the first damn thing that happens is this.

What the hell did I do wrong?

Im trying to catch the blue tang now but do I have to catch all the fish again because that would mean a complete breakdown AGAIN.

 

[ACBlinky]

Did you have the tang in hypo or treat him with copper during his stay in the QT? If not, unfortunately he could have been carrying ich without showing signs. From everything I've read I think the only way to clear the tank again is to remove all the fish, treat them for ich, and leave the tank fallow again so the parasites die off.

FWIW there are, evidently, hyposalinity-tolerant species of ich. In other words no amount of hypo treatment will rid the QT of these pests, and there's no way to tell what strain you've got -- unless you're a biologist with a microscope I suppose. Copper scares me, but I'm going to use it in my QT; it's tried and true and kills all the nasties without fail.

 

[b0bab0ey]

Did you have the tang in hypo or treat him with copper during his stay in the QT? If not, unfortunately he could have been carrying ich without showing signs. From everything I've read I think the only way to clear the tank again is to remove all the fish, treat them for ich, and leave the tank fallow again so the parasites die off.

FWIW there are, evidently, hyposalinity-tolerant species of ich. In other words no amount of hypo treatment will rid the QT of these pests, and there's no way to tell what strain you've got -- unless you're a biologist with a microscope I suppose. Copper scares me, but I'm going to use it in my QT; it's tried and true and kills all the nasties without fail.

+1 Ich can live in the gills and will sometimes never show itself by way of white dots on the fish. This is why I prophylactically treat every new fish in QT. Copper isn't perfect but it's the best option for most people.

To the OP: I noticed you said you only got the SG down to 1.010 during hypo treatment. That wasn't low enough; You have to get it down to 1.009 and keep it there with no fluctuations (see sticky below). Even then, as ACBlinky pointed out, there are hypo resistant strains, and IMO, hypo just isn't a good option.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1991470