Ich in live sand starter

[gr3]

I set up my reef tank over a year ago, I quarantined all my fish and dipped all my corals. About two months ago, I felt that I had enough fish in my reef tank, and they were all healthy and Ich free, so I took down my quarantine tank (big mistake). Last month, I ordered some "live sand activator" and "wondermud" from IPSF to seed my new Aquafuge HOB refugium. I should have quarantined the live sand activator and mud. I now have Ich in my tank. I don't have a cycled quarantine tank to put the fish in. I am kind of at a loss and stressed out!

 

[dxdoan]

Unfortunately from what I have read dipping corals doesn't kill off the ich parasites so if you have added corals recently it could have introduced ich.

 

[gr3]

Dipping corals

Dipping corals

No, only thing new was the substrate, snails, amphipods, seaweed, and hermit crabs that came with the substrate; but, I cannot be absolutely sure it was that either. Thanks for the info.

 

[FishN00b83]

This was my exact fear with IPSF. I was going to order a bunch of worms and pods from them recently but decided against it. They use natural sea water directly from the ocean in their facility. I asked them in an email if they had any fish at their facility. They replied no but they do use natural seawater. I decided it wasn't worth it.

 

[gr3]

This was my exact fear with IPSF. I was going to order a bunch of worms and pods from them recently but decided against it. They use natural sea water directly from the ocean in their facility. I asked them in an email if they had any fish at their facility. They replied no but they do use natural seawater. I decided it wasn't worth it.

I ended up taking all my fish out to put into quarantine. I lost my powder blue tang, my large male royal gramma, and a Talbot's damsel while waiting for my tank to cycle. I used Kordon Ich Attack while waiting for my quarantine tank to cycle. It slowed down the progression of the ich, but did not stop it from spreading. Several corals were broken during the process of removing the live rock to catch the fish and my money cowrie hasn't moved in four days. It and a few soft corals did not like the Ich Attack; and, now I am going to let my tank remain fallow for two months while trying to skim out the Ich Attack and do partial water changes to get the water quality back up.

 

[Mishri]

That's a shame you lost some fish and corals. I agree, it could have come in on anything new that you added if you didn't QT it.. anything with that is wet can bring in the free swimming stage of the parasite which lives a couple of days, anything with a hard surface that isn't completely dry or in freshwater for a few hours can bring in the egg form which lives for up to 72 days... I'd extend the fallow period to 3 months to be safe. 60 days usually does the trick, but 90 days just in case is worth it IMO.

In the future I wouldn't wait for a QT cycle, just put the fish in and monitor the ammonia with an ammonia alert badge, use ammonia binder and water changes to keep up with the fish load till the filtration can support the fish, usually only takes 7-10 days before the ammonia stays in the safe zone.

 

[Brieninsac]

I have been worried about this by adding snails and crabs. I finished a fallow period a few months ago and all is fine. But now I'm super paranoid about adding more snails and crabs. Do you think throwing them into a QT for 3 days would let the ich trophozoite fall of and they'd be safe to move to my DT?

 

[Mishri]

nope, you'll need to wait the 90 days to add them or risk introducing tomonts to the system. that's when they encyst on hard surfaces and start reproducing. most claim a 28 day window, but it's been observed under certain conditions to last up to 72 days and hatch, releasing theronts, which live for 2 days.. most likely after 60 days bacteria will start eating the egg if it hasn't hatched, but 72 days is a good minimum... and that is where the 60 day vs 90 fallow period comes from..

 

[Swayze27]

You could have added it or it could have been there the whole time, just my opinion. I had a recent outbreak and most everyone told me to break everything down and pull all my fish out. I feared what happened to you would happen to me, dead corals, dead sensitive inverts, and a wrecked tank and yet still managed to lose fish. I left mine alone and began to feed much heavier. No deaths and fish are fatter than ever. Ich is still present but they seem to be managing it well and it's receding. I hate that this happened to you, best of luck.

 

[gr3]

You could have added it or it could have been there the whole time, just my opinion. I had a recent outbreak and most everyone told me to break everything down and pull all my fish out. I feared what happened to you would happen to me, dead corals, dead sensitive inverts, and a wrecked tank and yet still managed to lose fish. I left mine alone and began to feed much heavier. No deaths and fish are fatter than ever. Ich is still present but they seem to be managing it well and it's receding. I hate that this happened to you, best of luck.

Good luck. As I waited for the quarantine tank to cycle, I tried the heavy feeding and even soaked the food in garlic first. When that didn't work, I tried using the Ich Attack while waiting. I lost the damsel to an accident - not ich - during the tear down. I did not lose any corals, but now have some frags I really did not want. The other two fish died in quarantine. The money cowrie has moved off, hopefully recovered, and all but one of my corals looks back to normal. Yay!