Ich Outbreak

SteveVai9708

New member
I put up a post a couple weeks ago that I introduced a 6 line with ich... Well guess what now the ich is spreading! I do not a have the space for a big enough quarantine to house all the fish and leave the tank fallow for 8 weeks. Someone told me to put the inverts in the qt and treat the display with coppersafe. I feel unsafe about this because I ran a med on my freshwater tank about a year ago that had ich once and it killed my beneficial bacteria, thus going back to step one... Only one fish survived. I have a 5 gallon that was a pico FOWLR tank, but that will not do for 5 fish. What can I do at the moment, do most fish fight it off? I have had experience with freshwater ich, but not saltwater. I also heard one put copper in you can't get it out and it stains the rocks. I got my water tested and I raised my temperature to 82. I do not feel like being lectured about not quarantine because I'm a teenager, so I don't have a choice. I was going to use the 5 gallon for a quarantine, but my parents thought I was just being paranoid, now there wondering where the hell I'm going to put a quarantine. This is very stressful because some of the fish aren't mine I let people buy fish that they want and name them. This was, so me the idiot can afford a 65 gallon. I wish I went with the red sea 28g. My cleaner shrimp is having a ball with this ich thing though. He's riding on fish and getting some grub while he's at it :P.
 
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Copper in a reef tank is very bad advise to begin with.
Raising the temperature is equally bad.

What fish do you have?
What are their sizes?
Which of them are actually showing symptoms?
How big is your tank?

BTW: now you can go and tell your parents that they were wrong and are responsible.
 
1) Fish I have:
1x juvenile yellow tang 3"
1x juvenile clown 1"
1x juvenile yellow watchman goby 1.5"
1x sixline wrasse 1.5"
1x adult firefish 3"

2) Yellow tank is showing symptoms such as rubbing against rocks. Firefish has it, again rubbing against rocks.

3) Tank is 65 gallons.

Extra information: He said to treat the DT with this product called coppersafe and remove the inverts by transferring them to the 5 gallon ... He also said if it is not solved everything will die in a week.
 
Well, whoever told you about using copper in a DT is a few decades behind. Copper (any kind) will ruin your rocks and sand because they will absorb the copper and may later leach it out. This will not only make it difficult to keep the dosage at the correct concentration but also make all your rocks unsuitable for future use in an invert system.
If you want to treat in the 65 gallon with copper you would also have to remove all rocks and ideally also the sand - any material containing calcium.

Also keep in mind that you may need to treat for 11 weeks to be sure all ich is gone - doing that with copper may rather be harmful to the fish.

The most problematic of your fish is the yellow tang, all others could probably be treated in the 5 gallon tank - not ideal, but doable.
 
I found a tubaware container laying around, some I'm gonna use that instead. I never treated ich in saltwater before so:
1) Hypo, or copper? Which one would you say is easier and increases their chance for survivial?

2) I'm gonna ask my cousin if I could use his UV sterlizer, so if he lets me use it would that decrease the amount of time the tank has to be empty.

Lastly, thank you for your reply. I appreciate you told me that before I messed everything up because the idea of putting copper in DT just seemed weird to me.
 
Read the sticky on TTM. You could use 2 pairs of 5g buckets for that. Then a 20g tank as QT while you DT goes fallow. Your tang may not be entirely happy for the 72+ days, but I guarantee he will be happier than if he had a constant ich infection.
 
I always use hyposalinity for treatment of multiple fish. It is for many reasons easier on the fish than copper. TTM is also a good choice but likely less doable in your case.

Hyposalinity is quite easy. The biggest issue is to get the salinity right at the start - maintaining it is then fairly easy if you just keep the water level (best mark it with a sharpie or a piece of tape) constant by refilling RO water. Evaporation has a much lesser influence at low salinity than at normal salinity. To minimize even that I usually cover my treatment tanks with a clear plastic or glass lid.
You should also add some 2 part Alkalinity and Calcium solution (go with the daily base dosage) to prevent the pH and alkalinity drifting too low. It would be good to check pH and Alkalinity daily or at least every other day.

I set up the treatment tank clean and adjust the salinity (1.008 - 1.009) and temperature (~25°C). A day later I add the fish (drip-acclimatization over 30 min to an hour). While the salinity is easily maintained I would still recommend to check it every morning and evening.

You will need a refractometer (you should have one anyway) and calibrate it with RO water to 1.000 kg/L (0 "°)

When setting up the treatment tank I would also add some clean "decoration" (clean = no ich on them) for the fish to hide and some bacterial filter starter.
I found ceramic flowerpots to be excellent QT and HT decoration as they are cheap. You can leave them whole or break them to build caves and hiding spaces for the fish. I would leave at least one intact for the clownfish (it's the perfect anemone replacement for them).

I would also add a skimmer - it won't skim much but keep the water well oxygenated.

If done this way the fish will be clean after 2 weeks, but it is safest to go at least 4 weeks before raising the salinity.

The salinity has to be raised slowly. At the beginning raise it no more than 0.001 per day. When you reach 1.016 you can go faster (I've dripped fish from there to full salinity in an hour with no ill effects) or keep it there for the remainder of the fallow period.

Ideally, before adding the fish back to the DT you should run the fish one by one or in small groups through TTM to be sure they won't have any hidden ich on them.

In your specific case, if you keep the tang, you may have to do it slightly different:
- Take all inverts out and store them in the 5 gallon for 11 weeks.
- Store the live rocks in a clear plastic container of appropriate size (may need a heater and for sure a small pump) for 11 weeks
- empty and clean the 65 gallon (ideally sterilize it with bleach, but don't forget to rinse it well and to add a chlorine neutralizer like Amquel or Prime) and set this up as your treatment tank.
- After 11 weeks put the rocks and inverts back in.

This will leave you with a remaining risk that some ich may have slipped through, but is pretty much the only way to do it without getting an additional treatment tank/container (20 gallon would likely be needed).
 
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