I'm terrified, please chime in

J

julie180

New member
To keep this short, I've been running fine for 8 years and now have ich in my 220 DT. Nothing you can say will be worse than my kicking myself for trusting a fellow reefer...
I have a rabbit fish, copper banded butterfly, flame angel, hex wrasse (flashing), kole tang(visible and flashing), falco hawk, and the offender, a starry blenny(flashing).

I have read about copper, TTM, doing nothing etc and don't know which way to go. I want to do the best things for my "family". I'm leaning toward copper and a 72 day fallow period but am so unsure and don't want to do the wrong thing.

I have a 180 gallon tank that is empty that I could use but just don't know.

ANY And ALL input appreciated.
 
I would say either look into TTM or hyposalinity. Usually i would reccomend copper but you seem to own a few species that are known to be sensitive to copper (angels,Wrasses etc.) and you seem to be very attached your fish
I personally am in the 3rd week of treating for ich with copper with a species considered sensitive to it (leopard wrasse.) but i ramped the dosage up slowy over the course of a few days. She's fine and at no time during the treatment showed any signs of distress but there's always a risk and i knew that and took my chances.

TTM will require a few smaller tanks (or even buckets or drums of appropriat size.) to transfer the fish into every 3 days for a duration of 12 days, 4 tranfers total. Cleaning the previously used tank entirely (Drain and scrub.) inbetween uses i believe. Somewhat stressful on the fish but more gentle than copper and more room for error than hyposalinity(With this method you hve to keep salinity at 1.008 i think, for 30 days, if it goes any higher at any point its no bueno make sure to use a properly calibrated refractometer or similar high grade salinity testing device and check multiple times daily.)
with the information you provided it seem's that both copper and TTM come with an extra Caveat that being that you have copper sensitive species and 1 extra tank.In this case i would recommend hyposalinty but be advised most experienced reefers here will say TTM is the most effective, and is, but seems impractical in your situation (unless you have some buckets or can get another 20 Gallon long or 2.) Although it has the perk of only taking 12 days to execute compared to the other methods taking at least 30(to be done properly)

and if i were in this situation myself i would do copper by ramping it up to .35 slowly over the course of a week. Keep in mind i also dosed my DT with copper(and im not FOWLR.) and almost no one here will recommend that. so more likely than not you fall in with the majority on opinions and would be concerned about your fish. But you seem between a rock and a hard place with so many fish and only 1 tank at hand to treat.

whatever method you choose be aware your going to have to leave your tank Fallow(fishless.) for at least 10 weeks (72 days) to be 100% sure ich is no longer in your tank.Hope this helps and good luck. you will get other well eduacted Opinions soon as the some of the more experienced reefers catch wind of this thread either soon or in the morning, I suggest you read the Stickies on this forum about ich and the various methods on treating this in the meantime, and then come to your own decision after hearing from a few others.
 
The other option would be chloroquine phosphate. You don't say reef or FOWLR, but if the latter you could treat in situ. FWIW, 'trusting a fellow reefer' has very little bearing on things one way or the other (unless said reefer foisted a known infected fish on you, then: tsk tsk tsk). Always QT. I have sold or traded fish many many times, and despite my confidence that my tank was (though not is) disease free, I always told the person getting one if my fish to QT them regardless.
 
Its a reef tank. I also forgot to mention that my rabbit fish is 10" so ttm could be a real challenge since I don't want to put him in something to small.
 
For TT you could use a large Rubbermaid for the transfers. That should give the foxface a little room. I don't know if Petco is still having their $1 sale but that might be an option as well.
 
I'm leaning towards TTM. I'm sure there is a sticky somewhere but I have not yet found it. Can anyone point me to it?

Thanks all
 
Whats the recommended sterilization method?

Also, I have read several places that people prefer no net transfer? Whats the option? Small fish I can do by hand, but not a Rabbit or Tang.

Thanks for all the assistance.
 
a wash down with a vinegar/water solution or a weak bleach solution (i prefer not to use bleach). rinse, rinse, rinse, wipe down with a clean towel (or paper towels) and then let everything air dry for 48 hours.

as for transferring, you could use a plastic colander (like you strain spaghetti with). when i did transfers, i would catch my fish (they were small) in a net breeder, give them a quick dip in salt water and then straight into the next tank.
 
75 rubbermaid with 40 gallons of water... sg check, temp check ph is 8.5 in the qt and tank is 8.3 do i need to lower the qt or is it not enough to worry about?

Does it matter if I transfer fish now or should I wait until tomorrow AM?

The transfer is best done early am, does this mean that I need to keep a regular lighting schedule on the qt?

Would it be good to fw dip the tang since he is the worst, or should I just continue with the TTM with everyone?

Since everyone is eating well, I assume its best to give them a healthy feeding before removing from the DT. Am I correct?

Thanks again
 
More questions.
I obviously have 12 days in the TTM but what do I do after that since I need 10 weeks fallow on the DT. I have a 180 that I can use, but its empty and I can't "seed" it now that I have ich in my DT?

I have a 5 gallon bucket of sand that's still mostly wet, from the old tank, taken down a couple of weeks ago before the addition of the ich carrier. Would that be a good thing to help cycle a QT tank? The sand is still wet, but has gotten cold in the basement?

I am very attached to my fish and want to do whats best for them, but am also very worried about killing them.
 
add the fish now and count today as Day 1 (won't matter that it is less than 72 hours when you do your first transfer next). The time of day you do your transfers does not matter; all that matters is that you do the transfers around 72 hours or less apart.

The spare 180 will be perfect. You can seed it with some bacteria-in-a-bottle like Seachem Stability or similar (there are many products like this out there). Just keep an eye out on ammonia and dose Prime or AmQuel as necessary until the bacteria gets rolling along. Water changes will assist greatly as well.

I don't think you should reuse that sand for many reasons. Many organisms have died in it since then, which will cause you problems.

Keep the QT for the 10-12 weeks as simple as possible.
 
julie180 said:
75 rubbermaid with 40 gallons of water... sg check, temp check ph is 8.5 in the qt and tank is 8.3 do i need to lower the qt or is it not enough to worry about? No need to worry about that much of a difference in pH.

Does it matter if I transfer fish now or should I wait until tomorrow AM?

The transfer is best done early am, does this mean that I need to keep a regular lighting schedule on the qt?

Would it be good to fw dip the tang since he is the worst, or should I just continue with the TTM with everyone? FW dip not effective for ich. No need to put the fish through it.

Since everyone is eating well, I assume its best to give them a healthy feeding before removing from the DT. Am I correct? I would feed before moving them as well.

Thanks again
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

BigEZ77
Urgent Help Requested - Wrasses Won't Come Out - CB Blue Tang Arriving Today (NO QT)
Replies
8
Views
566
rrrrob
rrrrob
M
I had a 55 gallon Fish Only tank back in the 1980's and recently got back into this
Replies
8
Views
877
Drummer98
Drummer98
revclyburn
I think it's time
2 3
Replies
43
Views
4K
griss
griss
K
Yellow Tang QT
Replies
6
Views
1K
Kirino
K
E
Long time Reefer looking to start anew.
Replies
12
Views
3K
FOX-FACE fanboy….
FOX-FACE fanboy….
Back
Top