Ich and secondary infection nelp

[Mark NJ]

I have had my reef tank setup for 10 years. Just got hit with a major outbreak of ich and lost 3 fish whithin 2 days. The remaining 4 are in a 40 gal breeder quarentine takn now and I'm in th process of reducing the salinity for a hyposalinity treatment.
The question is that I just noticed what appears to be rust colored areas appearing on the tail of my Hippo Tang and the same on the Yellow tang. Is this some type of secondary infection? Bacterial or otherwise? I reasearched for a bit but cant find anything that addresseds what I'm seeing. Thanks, Mark

 

[Patrick12]

It sounds like a 2ndary bacterial infxn. Recommend either kanamycin or gel-tek neomycin food....if they are eating, and you really research it out and think it is bacterial in nature. I would make sure though. Hard to really dispense much real advice without a good visual.

 

[kevin2000]

Sounds like a secondary bacterial issue ... might clear up on its own - if not you will need to use an antibiotic. Maracyn2 s/b adequate for a minor bacterial issue .. found in most Petco/Petsmarts.

While use of antibiotics won't interfere with hypo .. they may had an adverse impact on any biological filter in your QT so you should be prepared to do some water changes in the event that you detect ammonia.

 

[Mark NJ]

Thanks for the info. Any suggestions on filtration during hypo salinity treatment? I'm using a 40 gal breeder tank with a 10 gal sump. I threw a few sponges that I soaked for a day or so in the main tank sump into the quarantine tank sump to add some bio and put a filter on the pump intake to catch food particles. I will clean that once a day. Also used main tank water (mostly) to fill the Q-tank which I have reduced slowly to 1.009. (pH 8.3) Other than that Im open to suggestions. I did some research and from what I gather, a skimmer won't work at 1.009sg and a bio wheel is inneffective. I mixed 30 gallons of hypo salinity water to the above parameters and will do water changes daily. Also watching for any ammonia spikes. Thanks

 

[kevin2000]

My 02

I suspect it takes a couple of weeks (in the ST) for sponges to get sufficient bacteria to mitigate ammonia issues so be prepared to make water changes to keep ammonia levels at zero.

If you have some mature filter media in the show tank you should consider using that in the QT .. even a portion of it would help.

Prime/Amquel or other ammonia conversion product may also help.

 

[Mark NJ]

Thanks Kevin, Im doing the water changes and checking ammonia twice a day. I also picked up some amquel. So far so good with the 4 fish I have left. Looking better actually. Mark