Marine Velvet or Ich? Blue tang, help wanted! Pics inside

[HumbleFish]

would this work if i just transfered the water and fish from the 30 gal qt to a 10 temporarily, and then fully clean the 30 gal, make up a whole new batch of hyposalinity water, get all the parameters to match up, and then transfer the fish back to the 30? so they'll basically be in completely new water.

That would work, but in order for TT to be successful (in your case) you'd need to do a total of 5 transfers. Day 1 (for you) would begin the day you put all your fish in that 10 gal. You would then need to transfer them to a new tank on the mornings of Day 4, Day 7, Day 10 and finally Day 13 (done).

It is imperative that the tank and all equipment be thoroughly sanitized in-between transfers. I clean everything in a 10:1 f/w:vinegar solution immediately, and then let it all air dry until the morning I need it. Also, you'll need to keep a close eye on ammonia (but you can use ammonia reducers with TT), and TT is only useful to eradicate Ich - not Velvet. I've never done TT in hypo conditions, but I don't see any reason why you can't.

 

[Sixstringmayhem]

i think i might give this a shot, thanks humblefish

 

[snake42490]

Yup no problem! Humblefish is spot on with cleaning the crap out of stuff. And make sure that you don't cross contaminate water... Yeah it's very unlikely that a parasite will hitch along, BUT it could happen. By doing those two methods, you are increasing your odds of successfully beating it. Plus it saves money on salt haha. Just be sure that you bring the salinity up slowly! No more than .03 per day. Sudden change in osmotic pressure can dehydrate and deplete the water of O2. They will adjust fine though over time!

I wouldn't be worried about a 10 gallon tank , that is usually the biggest sized QT I ever use haha. A lot of the time when I am doing TTM I just use 5 gallon buckets and throw a filter on the side of it. I save my 10 gallon tank for the last transfer so I can see how the fish looks!


Let your equipment dry!!! 24 hours is recommended, but I am sure most everything is killed within a couple hours of being dried out. Tear apart your filters, Those magnets in hob filters keep water down there that has always scared me to death.

Another trick I do is put a space heater in front of the equipment and cover up a little area with that inside. It easily gets over 100 degrees and dries stuff out very fast! I know a lot of parasites die in extreme heat!

 

[Sixstringmayhem]

That is a good idea snake,

Im currently cleaning out a 10 gal tank i had setup with freshwater about a year ago i never rinsed it out so i gave it a good rinse and its sitting with a powerhead and a capful of bleach.

going to rinse it out tomorrow and let air dry for a day then do the tank transfer method.

Im thinking about setting up my QT in my bathroom instead of my room this time since water changes will be 10x easier and less trafficking to keep the fish's stress down.

ill prob use my gf's hair dryer to nuke the filter haha

 

[acasp4]

Hey guys,

So i noticed a few white spots on my blue tang when i first got him home in the Display tank, (didnt quarantine him) so then decided to start a hypo-salinity treatment on the tang along with my two very small clowns ( the only other fish i have), in a 30 gal QT tank, i've been lowering the Salinity for the past week, the first 48 hours in not a single spot was to be found on any of them, but within the last day and a half the blue tang has completely broken out worse than ever. i feel so bad for him.
the clowns are showing no signs of anything

my specific gravity has just reached 1.009 today.

They are all eating, but the tang seems very uncomfortable.
This is my first time dealing with a saltwater parasite and im assuming its ich but someone said it could be velvet too?

just wanted a some second opinions, if it is velvet, hyposalinity will do nothing for it.

and if its ich, should i give him a quick freshwater dip?

Thank!

ps. sorry for yet another post on ich

Afew white spots...... holy crap he covered. Ich attack works best I think 100% organic you'll notice a 180 difference in a day or two

 

[Sixstringmayhem]

hey guys thanks for all the help,

he's almost completely spot free today, just a few left.

my question is, can the ich parasite survive hyposalinity at 1.008?

in other words, should i still go ahead with the tank transfer?

 

[Sixstringmayhem]

well i went ahead with the tank transfer, into another tank of 1.008 water.

tang still had a few spots im hoping they come off in the transfer tank.

he's also very stressed out from the move, lost a lot of his color

 

[sleepydoc]

Well, the guy's had a bit of stress lately...

 

[Reefnation.Jon]

The ich parasite can live on the fish for up to 7 days. It is recommended to do tank tranfer for no less than 8 days with two day transfers or 12 days with 3 day transfers. If you use new water, and sterilized ( dried, bleached ) equipment for every transfer this is an almost 100% successful method to eliminate ich from the fish.

Your tank will still need to be falllow for 8-12 weeks.