super stooge
New member
Okay guys, time for the latest in our hourly series of ich threads.
Long story short, my 180g reef has had ich creep into it. Its going to be impossible for me to catch all of my fish for treatment so I have no choice to break down the tank, remove the rock and get the fish like that. Initially this was a devastating thought but the fish have to be moved to a new tank in about two months anyway so ill just move the timeline forward on that and set up in the new tank again instead.
The current plan is to remove all of the rock, inverts and corals and take them to the new tank along with my powerheads, lights, controller and other systems. The new tank will run fallow with all my corals for about 8 weeks to break the ich life cycle.
The question is what happens with the fish for treatment. I've used hypo salinity to treat ich successfully in the past but lost a number of fish during the treatment and struggled to keep water params stable in the minimalistic hospital tank.
Im considering using tank transfer between two large plastic tubs this time around. TTM seems like the more effective of the two methods from what I have read and should be easier on my fishy friends.
Herein lies the problem though; I have too many fish friends! All together I have 19 fish in my tank and while I may be able to get away with keeping all of them together for the two weeks of the TTM, I dont want to house that many fish in my small quarantine tank for a further 6 weeks beyond that while I wait for the fallow tank.
So with all of the background out of the way, I have two options:
Option 1:
remove the live rock and coral and use my current 180g display as a massive hospital tank with which to undergo hypo. Keep my beefy skimmer and return running on the tank for the duration of the treatment. Once hypo is complete, raise the salt back up and keep them housed in the rockless dt until the new tank fallow period is complete.
Pros: By far the easiest method in terms of labour. No need to transfer back and forth between plastic containers. skimmer and large water volume help to ensure stable water params
Cons: hypo may not be 100% effective and will be quite harsh on the fish possibly leading to more losses
Option 2:
Remove everything from the current tank, fish go into plastic tubs and undergo TTM. My issue here is that I would again want to house the fish in my empty 180g display for the remaining 6 week period in order to give them space and maintain water quality. I'd need some way to sterilise my current dt though. doing the inside of the glass is easy enough, but how can I guarantee the entire tank is sterile? Inside the pipes? Between each baffle? inside the skimmer and pumps? If I were to add bleach to the tank after everything is out and run it for a day or two, then drain it, clean it and leave it dry for a week and a half, would this kill off any remaining life stages in the tank?
Pros: TTM has a better chance of eradicating ich and is easier on the fish resulting in fewer losses.
Cons: if even a single cyst survives in my current DT after cleaning, the fish will be re-infected after they come out of the tubs making the whole treatment pointless.
BONUS QUESTION:
What do I do with my mandarin? treat him as in invert and take him to the new tank with the corals after a freshwater dip? put him through the ich treatments and hope I can feed him bottled pods for 8 weeks or something?
Thanks guys
Long story short, my 180g reef has had ich creep into it. Its going to be impossible for me to catch all of my fish for treatment so I have no choice to break down the tank, remove the rock and get the fish like that. Initially this was a devastating thought but the fish have to be moved to a new tank in about two months anyway so ill just move the timeline forward on that and set up in the new tank again instead.
The current plan is to remove all of the rock, inverts and corals and take them to the new tank along with my powerheads, lights, controller and other systems. The new tank will run fallow with all my corals for about 8 weeks to break the ich life cycle.
The question is what happens with the fish for treatment. I've used hypo salinity to treat ich successfully in the past but lost a number of fish during the treatment and struggled to keep water params stable in the minimalistic hospital tank.
Im considering using tank transfer between two large plastic tubs this time around. TTM seems like the more effective of the two methods from what I have read and should be easier on my fishy friends.
Herein lies the problem though; I have too many fish friends! All together I have 19 fish in my tank and while I may be able to get away with keeping all of them together for the two weeks of the TTM, I dont want to house that many fish in my small quarantine tank for a further 6 weeks beyond that while I wait for the fallow tank.
So with all of the background out of the way, I have two options:
Option 1:
remove the live rock and coral and use my current 180g display as a massive hospital tank with which to undergo hypo. Keep my beefy skimmer and return running on the tank for the duration of the treatment. Once hypo is complete, raise the salt back up and keep them housed in the rockless dt until the new tank fallow period is complete.
Pros: By far the easiest method in terms of labour. No need to transfer back and forth between plastic containers. skimmer and large water volume help to ensure stable water params
Cons: hypo may not be 100% effective and will be quite harsh on the fish possibly leading to more losses
Option 2:
Remove everything from the current tank, fish go into plastic tubs and undergo TTM. My issue here is that I would again want to house the fish in my empty 180g display for the remaining 6 week period in order to give them space and maintain water quality. I'd need some way to sterilise my current dt though. doing the inside of the glass is easy enough, but how can I guarantee the entire tank is sterile? Inside the pipes? Between each baffle? inside the skimmer and pumps? If I were to add bleach to the tank after everything is out and run it for a day or two, then drain it, clean it and leave it dry for a week and a half, would this kill off any remaining life stages in the tank?
Pros: TTM has a better chance of eradicating ich and is easier on the fish resulting in fewer losses.
Cons: if even a single cyst survives in my current DT after cleaning, the fish will be re-infected after they come out of the tubs making the whole treatment pointless.
BONUS QUESTION:
What do I do with my mandarin? treat him as in invert and take him to the new tank with the corals after a freshwater dip? put him through the ich treatments and hope I can feed him bottled pods for 8 weeks or something?
Thanks guys
