Is my soft coral dying??? Help!

C

catmcgrath

New member
Help please. I have a small tank (29 gallons) and I recently added 2 new fish (one clownfish, and a coral beauty angelfish) giving me only 3 fish total (a neon goby, and the two new fish) and 1 yellow coral banded shrimp. After adding the fish about 2 days later I noticed little white spots on them so I went to my local fish store and talked to the owner who recomended that I use Kent Marine's Expert Series Rx-P Parasite Treatment. He told me that this would be safe for my coral and by the end of the 7th dose (one dose every other day) I should not see the ich.

I have only given 2 does of this med. The fish are definetelly getting better but as of today my coral seems to have lost it's normal pink color and turned ash in color and wilted. Is the med. affecting my coral, do they normaly do is once and a while, or is something else the cause??? Here is a picture to help you understand:

112870jse_100_1693.jpg



I tested my tank and these are the reading I received:
Nitrate - 0
Ammonia - 0.4
Nitrite - 0
Ph - 8.3
Specific Gravity - 1.021
Phosphate - less than 0.2 (my test only goes that low)
Calcium - 365

I am using ESV B-Ionic Calcium Buffer System every other day.

I love my tank and am really worried.

Thank you so much for your help,
Catherine
 
IMO, none of the ich treatmens are reefsafe, and should be done outside your main tank (in QT tank perhaps). Your best bet is to perform series of huge water changes.

I noticed that your SG is low... try slowly bringing it up to 1.026 (corals like it this way)
 
I agree. When i first started i made the mistake of trying to treat the main tank for ick and it just about killed all my corals and anemone. Start a Quarantine tank to treat the fish. Good luck
 
Thanks, for the help. I feel so defeted with this whole mess. Saltyreeftank said that I should start a quarantine tank. I have a 10 gallon tank in storage that I can clean up and start, but isn't that going to be to small to put the 3 fish in? What about the stress to the fish, wouldn't that make them sicker? Also, what would I need to put in the quarantine tank (filter, powerhead, skimmer, heater, live rock), becuase if I need all of those things, I don't have them. If that is the case if there another solution?
Thanks for your help and for being patient with me.
 
Your ammonia should be 0 as well. You appear to be starting a small cycle in your main. That would likely effect the xenia.

This article may be of interest to you: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-12/sp/index.php

If all your fish are small, they may be ok in a 10. If the angel is larger try getting a 20 gal. for QT. They should only be around $20 at a LFS.

Also, are you testing your alkalinity?
 
for QT you'd need heater, and some sort of bio-filter. An inexpensive sponge filter would work. Throw sponge in your tank or your sump 4 days in advance (seeding it), so nitrifying bacteria populates it. Then install everything in your QT. An ammonia alert is also nice thing to have there. Use tank's water to minimize stress to fish. You may also put some PVC tubes on the bottom for the fish to hide. After feeding siphone all uneaten food from bottom (BB works great). If you use any medication in this tank, throw sponge away after treatment. Never use it again.
 
I have not been testing for alkalinity. I was told that the test was expensive and as long as I made sure I used both parts to the ESV B-Ionic Calcium Buffer System that I would not need to worry about the alkalinity. Am I receiving the wrong advice?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6513283#post6513283 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by catmcgrath
I have not been testing for alkalinity. I was told that the test was expensive and as long as I made sure I used both parts to the ESV B-Ionic Calcium Buffer System that I would not need to worry about the alkalinity. Am I receiving the wrong advice?
Click to expand...

I would say not the best of advice IMO, you shouldn't dose anything you can't test. Alk test kits are not much different in costs in comparison to other test kits.
 
CHECK YOU IODINE LEVELS IT MAY BE LOW MY ZENIAS LOOKED LIKE THAT BEFORE I FIXED MY IODINE LEVELS...NOW I CANT GET THEM TO STOP GROWING
 
As of tonight I have done a partial water change to the main tank and put the carbon filters back in the hanging filter, and my coral slowly looks to be getting some pink color back but is still wilted. Hopefully by tomorrow morning, they will be looking better.

Okay, I have started to set up my QT to move my fish to, but I am new to this and a really lost. I have a 10 gallon tank that is set up with mostly the main tank's water, a small hanging filter, heater, and an indcandecent 50 watt light fixture. I have read quite a bit from other posts and some people say to lower the sg to 1.009, others say to treat with copper. What works better? How do you treat with copper? Some people have talked about feeding pellets with garlic, what are pellets? Should I still use the ich medicine in the QT or just do one of the other options. I feel so lost. I just want my fish and tank to get better. I plan on researching this, but I just need help now so that my fish and tank can get better. Please help me with this? Thanks!
 
As of tonight I have done a partial water change to the main tank and put the carbon filters back in the hanging filter, and my coral slowly looks to be getting some pink color back but is still wilted. Hopefully by tomorrow morning, they will be looking better.

Okay, I have started to set up my QT to move my fish to, but I am new to this and a really lost. I have a 10 gallon tank that is set up with mostly the main tank's water, a small hanging filter, heater, and an indcandecent 50 watt light fixture. I have read quite a bit from other posts and some people say to lower the sg to 1.009, others say to treat with copper. What works better? How do you treat with copper? Some people have talked about feeding pellets with garlic, what are pellets? Should I still use the ich medicine in the QT or just do one of the other options. I feel so lost. I just want my fish and tank to get better. I plan on researching this, but I just need help now so that my fish and tank can get better. Please help me with this? Thanks!
 
As of tonight I have done a partial water change to the main tank and put the carbon filters back in the hanging filter, and my coral slowly looks to be getting some pink color back but is still wilted. Hopefully by tomorrow morning, they will be looking better.

Okay, I have started to set up my QT to move my fish to, but I am new to this and a really lost. I have a 10 gallon tank that is set up with mostly the main tank's water, a small hanging filter, heater, and an indcandecent 50 watt light fixture. I have read quite a bit from other posts and some people say to lower the sg to 1.009, others say to treat with copper. What works better? How do you treat with copper? Some people have talked about feeding pellets with garlic, what are pellets? Should I still use the ich medicine in the QT or just do one of the other options. I feel so lost. I just want my fish and tank to get better. I plan on researching this, but I just need help now so that my fish and tank can get better. Please help me with this? Thanks!
 
Sounds good. Did you take sponges or something from the main tank? That would act as your bio filter. You can use hypo as your treatment, but I would slowly lower the salinity with the fish in the tank. You will need a refractometer to do hypo.
 
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