I'm curing my system of Ich! Watch it.

[TeenyTank]

:bounce1:

I asked you all how to get my tang out, and I have now started the journey of curing him, all my fish and my beautiful 20 gallon reef of Ich. I appreciate all input, comparisons and feedback. Here is my saga.

I had an 8 gallon nano reef for about 5 1/2 years. I wanted to step up, but not too much! I put all my live rock to a 20 gallon tank, moved my yellow watchman goby, tank bred O. Clown who hosts with my pacific frilly green mushrooms and all my live rock to the new tank. I got some more live rock, it has some sponges which are thriving, a sea squirt or two and got some shrimp and emerald crabs, a sixline wrasse, (his name is Donny, cuz he cruises around like a mob boss) and a few blue green chromis. I would attach pics but they fail......

I was also talked into a pacific blue regal tang to help with any algae I might get. Yes, 20 gal tank is too small for him and yes, he get stressed and came down with ich!

So here I am. I moved my mbuna cichlids to a smaller tank (I only have 5 juveniles) and turned their 20 gal tank into a hospital tank. I have captured the tang finally! by plugging up his cave with a frag plug and a piece of live rock and have moved everyone to the hospital tank.

Copper treatment starts tomorrow. My plan is to clear my beloved clown and goby of ich and return them to the tank they love. The Tang must find a new home in a very very large tank. All feedback is welcome! If you live near me and can adopt a juvenile tang, please let me know.

I will post more as the saga progresses.

 

[TeenyTank]

I received my Cupramine and copper test kit today, dosed the tank per MFR directions. My YW Goby was not happy at all but the tang didn't seem to mind, still eating like a pig. I got my DT almost back to perfect. Now I guess it's just test and wait, test and wait.

The temperature is soaring here so I have to blow a fan across the surface to keep the HT cooled down so that is also a challenge.

 

[Benar]

Make sure you leave the 20 fish less for at least 8+ weeks! Good luck, and listen to the Internet not your LFS

 

[TeenyTank]

Make sure you leave the 20 fish less for at least 8+ weeks! Good luck, and listen to the Internet not your LFS

Thanks Benar, The DT will go fishless for 10 weeks. I hate to take the tang back to the same LFS! After what he's been through, he deserves a good home. Hope someone close can take him.

 

[TeenyTank]

That was a close one!

That was a close one!

I'll call this day 0. I have raised the copper slowly to 0.5 ppm this morning.

Yesterday was really rough. For me, not my fish. I really dodged a bullet! I tested for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate the night before. I got a reading of .25 for ammonia, 0 nitrite and about 5 nitrate. Now, I have well seeded sponge in the HOB and I should not see ammonia at all but the 0 nitrite and the low nitrate reading made me nervous. This looks to me like I'm beginning a brand new cycle! ( Half the water in the QT is from the main tank, so the nitrate is from there and it has not risen at all since before I put the fish in).

So I go and search "Cupramine kills biological filter" Basically I find out from the Seachem forum that my ammonia test kit cannot distinguish ammonia from the amine based complex present in Cupramine and will give me a false high reading. Great! Good to know. But then I read that since Prime and other ammonia removers is a reducing agent it can change the Cupramine from the safe Cu2+ to a very toxic Cu+ form and it should not be used because it could kill my fish! OhMyGosh! Do ya think they coulda put this little tidbit on the label!?!?! They don't even mention this in the online instructions, which I read before beginning dosage or the article PDF for Cupramine. Sheesh!

I use Prime to help my fishes slime coat and "Prime® detoxifies nitrite and nitrate, allowing the biofilter to more efficiently remove them." So I use it whenever I change water. I added a full dosage to the QT when I finished filling it up! OH MY GOSH! Luckily it ran for more than 24 hours before I received my Cupramine so the Prime components dissipated.


http://www.seachem.com/support/forums/showthread.php?t=3880

http://www.seachem.com/support/forums/showthread.php?t=3756

All the fish seem to be doing fine, the PB Tang looks better already, still flashing quite a bit though.

 

[TeenyTank]

Ammonia now reading >1, everyone looks great and eating pretty good. Blueu Regal Tank is acting really happy, puffing out his fins.

 

[pktech]

FWIW - petco is running a $1.00 p gallon sale now - maybe p/u a 55?? I don't think ich will ever go away because of the stress / environment...

 

[TeenyTank]

Well, I am back to continue sharing my saga. I went on a camping trip last weekend and haven't had the chance to log on and fill you all in. Everything is going well, all fish look happy. The tang has not displayed any ich spots that I can see this week but he did come down with a fluffy white spot on his side that must be fungal or parasitic. He was trying to flash it off. Hopefully the next medication I use after all copper is gone will do the trick, if not I'll have to treat for bacterial. I am also planning on doing a prazi/metro treatment in case there are any worms I don't know about.

FWIW - petco is running a $1.00 p gallon sale now - maybe p/u a 55?? I don't think ich will ever go away because of the stress / environment...

Thanks PK, but If I bought a 55 gallon tank, my husband would probably divorce me! Once my 20 gallon has gone fishless for 10+ weeks, there will be no ich if I've done everything right. The tang will not go back into the DT, I will find a new home for him one way or another as soon as his treatment is complete and he looks completely healed.

 

[mbingha]

FWIW - petco is running a $1.00 p gallon sale now - maybe p/u a 55?? I don't think ich will ever go away because of the stress / environment...

This is a horrible myth. If the tank is fallow for 10 weeks, and all fish are treated, ich WILL NOT come back. It's a parasite that can't magically appear in your tank. It can be there and not rear its ugly head, but if you take proper precautions you most certainly can have an ich free system. If you have an ich free system, no amount of stress/poor water quality will ever bring ich back.

 

[TeenyTank]

This is a horrible myth. If the tank is fallow for 10 weeks, and all fish are treated, ich WILL NOT come back. It's a parasite that can't magically appear in your tank. It can be there and not rear its ugly head, but if you take proper precautions you most certainly can have an ich free system. If you have an ich free system, no amount of stress/poor water quality will ever bring ich back.

+1 :thumbsup:

 

[TeenyTank]

Well, it seems the tang has taken a turn for the worse. He is still active and piggish, but when I got home today, he had white spots all over! They aren't salt sized, and they are kind of fluffy. a lot on his right fin. How on earth could this show up in less than 24 hours? Anyway, I haven't seen him flashing but he is totally pulling up to the sixline wrasse and the wrass is picking at him about 1/2 the time.

Any opinions on whether this could be Nymphocystis or maybe another parasite based on the wrasse going for it? I'll try again to post pics tomorrow. Other fish look fine except yellow watchman goby has one small white spot on his side. Thanks for any input!

 

[TeenyTank]

Well, I'm at week 7 and all is well. Tang looks beautiful and after treating with General Cure I have seen no more fluffy spots. His fins are filling back in and he puffs them up again. Sure wish I had 185 gallon tank! He is such a beautiful fish. 3 more weeks and I can put all my other fish back in the DT. Tang is going back to the store.

 

[Deinonych]

Glad to hear everything is going well. I am only in week 3 of my fallow/treatment period, but all of my fish are doing well. I'll be glad to have everyone back in the DT where they belong.

 

[TeenyTank]

Glad to hear everything is going well. I am only in week 3 of my fallow/treatment period, but all of my fish are doing well. I'll be glad to have everyone back in the DT where they belong.

Thanks. I hope yours goes well too. I still have to figure out how to QT inverts and corals to eliminate ich on them.

 

[TeenyTank]

I almost forgot to share my near disaster! One morning I stepped in a puddle while packing my lunch. I finally figured out that my QT sprung a leak! OH NO! Not this! Not NOW. My fish had to spend the day in a 5 gallon bucket! Hubby found a good replacement 20 gal rectangular tank and I mixed 15 gallons of water that day! What a fiasco. It could have been worse I guess, I might have come home to a half empty tank and a burned out HOB. Yesterday, I noticed what seems to be pyramid snails on my astreas......That sixline really does his work in there and now he's sorely missed.

 

[Deinonych]

Thanks. I hope yours goes well too. I still have to figure out how to QT inverts and corals to eliminate ich on them.

Thanks! As far as invert quarantine, I'm going to use one of my two QT/HTs for corals once I'm finished stocking my DT with fish. Only thing I need to add is appropriate lighting, and a 2-bulb HO T5 fixture is around $100. I plan to quarantine all new corals for 11 weeks.

 

[TeenyTank]

On Sunday, It will be 10 weeks. I am afraid I lost Donny II, my sixline wrasse. I will miss him but am looking forward to Donny III. Cannot buy him until I have set up my 8 Gal nanocube as my QT. I will miss the beauty of the pacific blue tang but at least I know he's 100% healthy and clear of CI for the next owner. I realized my clownfish Doug will probably have to completely re-host with his mushrooms. Does anyone think he'll rush in and be stung? Will this be a problem?

 

[TeenyTank]

Tomorrow's the big day! I have the temp, PH and hardness spot on so I can transfer my fish directly. I'm really excited to have my DT back to normal and now Ich free.