Ick/Marine Velvet breakout plus a parasite. Help.

[leoskee]

I admit it. I was naive. Ive had my current tank for two years now and any problems that came up with ick took care of themselves.

Over the last week I have introduced 6 new fish to the tank. All went through a 15 minute (2 min fresh/ 1 min salt) fresh water dip with the pH adjusted to the water from their bag.

This morning I was looking at a coral when my tomato clown swam by my field of view. I instantly noticed that he was very dark as opposed to his usual bright red color. Upon further inspection I realized that he was covered in white spots and had some white on the outter surfuce of his scales. I then realized the he also had some sort of clear parasite on his side. I looked at the rest of the fish and one by one I noticed the same thing except for the parasite, only the clown had one.

The fish are in a well established reef.

Coincidently I need to move my tank about 8 inches away from the wall. I was going to just drain the water and remove the sump from the bottom and try to move it with the use of the plastic pads used to move heavy furniture. Now that I have this problem I am thinking of just breaking the tank down, QTing the fish and moving the tank.

I need some help. Any suggestions would help.

Thanks.

Leo

 

[baobao]

Wow, that's a lot of coral and rocks you'll have to move. Maybe you can get away using a powerful UV sterilizer. Would need some pictures to accurately diagnose - if you have velvet, system would probably get wiped out very quickly - bottom line, you probably instead have ich/brooklynellosis since you seem to be talking about clowns. if you don't have too much invested in the fish, I would again try to get away without breaking down the tank. if you are willing to remove all the rock,corals, and substrate ( a gargantuan task from the pic), then you can conduct hyposalinity and formalin treatment.

 

[leoskee]

I never thought of it that way. I have more invested in the corals than I do in the fish. Hey....wait a minute! I just felt like I committed some sort of sin. How can I think of my fish as being casualties of war?

Seriously though, you bring up a good point. It will be easier to replace the fish than to replace the corals. Last time I had ich it took care of itself.

I still have to move my tank. I might follow my original plan of draining the water, taking out the sump/fuge and moving the tank. I can leave the fish in and the rockwork in place.

I'll have to decide in the morning.

Thanks for the info.