"ICH FREE TANK" Quest Begins

[markcasto]

Dairy of Treatment using Hypo salinity. UPDATE...

Day 1. Removed all fish from 130 gallon tank into QT tank
Day 2. 52 gallon QT tank containing 3 Regal Tangs 8 Chromis 2 Damsels. Start to lower salinity by removing 20litres of water and replacing with fresh RO water.
20 gallon tank QT with 5 Clowns and 1 Flame Angel left to observe for a week.
Day 8. Salinity down to 1.009 in 52 gallon QT tank.
Day 37. Begin raising salinity slowly for 7 days till back to normal.
Day 45 Fish returned.
20 gallon tank treated with hypo salinity on 8th day raised back on day 37 along with 52 gallon tank.

No white spot after first week of hypo in 52 gallon, no white spot in 20 gallon at all.
Treated ammonia peeks with water changes and Seachems Prime tested for ammonia twice daily for 3 weeks at start. Also, used Seachems Stability to help establish the bio filter. Used a Deltic Refractometer and PH monitor to keep ph and salinity at correct levels during water changes.

Biggest problem was keeping ammonia levels down needed two ammonia test kits for this I used Tetra test kits which are easy to read and accurate.
Found the use of Seachems Prime and Stability helped a lot in this case.

This is the plan I am following, I am now on day 31.

 

[Triggerfish]

SUMMARY

SUMMARY

i believe these are the approaches the 4 of us have taken so far. let me know if something is off.

tjay
Main tank: fallow min 8 weeks
QT method: hypo 6 weeks last sign of ich, min 8 weeks total qt time

markcasto
Main tank: fallow 6.4 weeks
QT method: hypo 4.3 weeks, 6.4 weeks total qt time
Issues: NH3 problems to start off

cduran02
Main tank: fallow 8 weeks
QT method: 2 weeks copper, 8 weeks total qt time

triggerfish
Main tank: fallow min 8 weeks (LMB left in tank-immune?)
QT method: hypo 6 weeks last sign of ich, min 8 weeks total qt time
Issues: difficulty maintaining proper hypo sg level without use of refractometer. wasn't corrected until week 3 of quarantine

 

[cduran02]

You could also add that I did 2 gallon water changes (and correcting copper dosage during treatment) every two days for 3 weeks until the QT tank was completely cycled.

Also, as of this morning, no sign of ich re-occurance!! Still have a halequin shrimp in QT with 8 weeks supply of star fish to feed it. (I've got to find a way to breed these star fish, its a pita having to QT star fish so I can feed the shrimp.)

 

[Triggerfish]

ok,,i need a fish in the tank soon.
if my angel still looks good after 3 weeks of no ich signs,,(prior to this he was hosting like crazy), I'm bringing him out of hypo in a separate tank.
that will make 6 total weeks of qt and fallow tank.
I can't last longer than that. when i put him back i will monitor the results and report.
regardless of how long i qt these fish, it may not matter anyway due to the fact that i left the LMB in the main tank. if this doesn't work out,,i will remove him and try to feed him nori in the qtank to keep him alive. the qt is starting to grow some algae now so that will help.

i have absolutely no problems running this whole process over again for a longer duration. at least i will know that there are no other possible options, i can live with that..right now there is an option, and that is to put a fish back in after 6 weeks.

 

[markcasto]

I'm with you on that one.
6 weeks is long enough for me to. I need my tangs back in there to munch on the algae and the others can feast on the pods and worms. If the ich comes back I will have my QT tanks at the ready this time.

I also did daily water changes for the first 3 weeks now doing them every 3 days and my seachem badge is working great having taken the faulty one back to the shop.But I would strongly advise any one who has not got the QT tank up and running to get two ammonia test kits some seachem prime and stability and test for ammonia twice daily for 3 weeks until it evens out.Better still get your filter in the main tank ready now and set up that Qt tank asap and have a 200litre container full of RO water ready to go.
Prevention is better then the cure.

 

[tjay]

I am starting my climb out of hypo tomorrow. So here we go

 

[Triggerfish]

mark - i'm on day 32. it's right around the corner.

tjay- good luck, hope all goes well during the climb.

btw: i just restocked on salt 200g bucket,,so i'm ready now..well to prepare it anyway..

 

[tjay]

Well the calculator kind of worked.
I mixed up the first two changes figuring if I had the next one made up ahead of time I could do the every 12 hour thing no problem
well turns out the first change raised the salinity .003
that was a little much so I am giving it 24 hours before doing the next one.
So my calculations raise the tank pretty fast. I was hoping to keep it under .002 a day.
Going to adjust a little on the next mix, still the calculator was better than totally guessing

 

[Triggerfish]

i took my angel out tonight..stressed him out big time trying to get him in the bucket. moved to the 10g.. i raised the sg the same amount as you..sitting at 1.012.
going to check on him now.......seems ok..has a nice cave to hang in.
i will leave all other fish out for probably another month,,to see if the angel comes down with anything when he goes back in.

 

[markcasto]

Only 10 days to go now going to start raising the salinity next in 3 more days.I have ordered two banggaie cardinals from my fish store. He told me they get them from TMC who qt them then they keep them for 7 days to make sure they are ok? not long enough really but they have to make a living and it up to us to QT our new stock if we dont want ich.It will be good to see my tangs back in the tank. Good luck every one lets hope the ich is gone for good.

 

[tjay]

Our slow climb on the salinity is going well. We should have fish in the tank sometime next week.
I am going to take the QT tank down and clean it real well and cycle it again fresh for the next purchase.
We want to add a blennie but I am curious. With Blennies being sand sifters and having no sand in the QT what would you feed the little fellows until they are out of QT and back in a tank with sand?
We are going to add pajama cardinals at some point, a schooling fish would be a nice addition

 

[Triggerfish]

i raised the sg another notch this morning to 1.013
fish seemed ok so far..just a tad hyperactive, ,but could be due to the small confines of the 10g. he ate right away today.

the blenny will need algae,,my LMB doesn't really sift the sand much..just scrapes algae from the rocks and glass..i guess it depends which kind you get... dragonets will sift.

i am really becoming interested in getting a couple of schooling heniochus.

 

[tjay]

Who carries those?

 

[Triggerfish]

what heniochus(bannerfish)?

saw couple at petco and local lfs...both places had 1 that looked decent and the other was iffy. would like to get at same time.

 

[tjay]

Well I am a little worried about the salinity climb. We have not increased the total salinity by more than .002 in any 24 hour period but the yellow tang seems to be sluggish and has a brown face.
Everyone is eating but has me a little concerned.

Also I am seeing cyano in the main for the first time since the tank has been up, almost overnight.
Our posphates are 0 and we use rodi water, nitrates were high but are dropping right now we are around 20 ppm
Skimmer is skimming away dark green skimate. So I am cofused. Could it be the fallow condition of the tank bringing this on?

 

[markcasto]

tjay-cyano is all over both my QT tanks now but the water quality is ok I have been adding seachems prime to deal with the nitrite and nitrate it detoxifies them and make it easyer for the bio filter to deal with.Keep a close eye on your tang and check all your water params twice.I wish I had done that when my yellow tang was looking a bit peaky.I now have a routine where I check ammonia nitrite nitrate ph salinity temp and water changes.I do this once in the morning and a visual check in the evening to be safe.I also have the seachem alert badge on the tank to warn me if the ammonia levels should go up.
Start increasing my salinity levels tomorrow for one week then the fish go back at last.
I had an alga blenny when I first started out he just picked at the algae on the rock.But when I gravel cleaned the substrate I was amazed to see how big his poos where.

 

[Triggerfish]

hope the tang will pull through without issue.

it's possible the the phospate level will read zero in the tank as the algae is using it up.. i have zero levels myself and continue to get some green nuisance on the back glass and couple of rocks.

UPDATE:

i have deviated a bit from the schedule in raising the sg for my angel.
i am doing this in a separate 10g.
raising it over a 4 day period:
1.009
1.012
1.013
1.015
1.019 - slight error here
1.021
1.022

so far he is doing great,,although it appeared he was hating the small 10g setup.

right now he is in a small qt bucket acclimating with main tank water with a dose of paraguard for 30m.
i then will fresh water dip him w/ formalin for about 1 min. then in he goes.. we will see what happens. based on the lifcycle, i do not see where these things can last longer than 5 weeks without a host.
pic to follow...

 

[Triggerfish]

well, fish went back in with no apparant problems so far.. a bit shy but really seems to be checking out the new setup since he was last in. fish is pretty active,,but traversing the rear of the tank mostly and staying within the caves,,but moving all over within.
ate soon after as well..so that is a great sign as the fish has been handled 5x in last 4 days, including 2 baths and 1 dip.

my tank has a much much different look than even 1 month ago. it will only be enhanced with the addition of FISH..

other fish still remaining in hypo within the 55. i think i may pull my niger out within a week. depending on how the angel is looking.

 

[water`bug]

How's the Angel doing now?

Hope all is still well!

 

[water`bug]

Oh, btw... nice pictures!