FlashJordan
New member
I've bitten the bullet and am 2 weeks into having my DT fallow. This may get long, I'm trying to make sure I do this right, so I appreciate you reading. I'll just say what I've done, please correct me if it's wrong!
A little bit of background on my set up. It's been running for about a year and a half now. I keep SG around 1.025 (checked with a hydrometer), and the temp's around 78F. My parameters are all fine, though I do not check them as often as I should. For filtration, I use 70lbs LR and 20lbs LS, a protein skimmer, bio-balls in sump, a filter sock, and a makeshift fuge in my HOB overflow. I've never had a "crash" so to speak, but I've lost a royal gramma, a mimic lemonpeel and a kole tang over the course of the last year, all of which had salt grain-like white spots on their bodies (ich, undoubtedly). The fish I currently have are a pair of maroon clowns, a blue damsel, a cleaner goby and a mandarin, none of which have ever displayed signs of ich.
To begin, I acquired two additional tanks, a 30g (one of those Aqueon all-in-ones with a hob media filter) and a 10g nano. I filled them both with water from my ich-infested DT. I placed 4 of my 5 fish (not the mandarin) in the bare bottom 30g with some PVC, a powerhead, a heater, thermometer, and ammonia badge. In the nano, I placed my smaller coral frags on LR and the mandarin. The DT has my cleaner shrimp, hermits, snails, starfish, LR, LS, and my "crappy" coral (xenias, polyps).
All living inhabitants have adjusted to the move and are eating well. I'm doing ~10% water changes every week on the 30g and the nano, as well as using a turkey baster to clean up the uneaten food on the bottom of the tank every other day or so. I may do a 20% change on the DT next week, but as it has almost zero bioload and is running massive filtration, I'm not too worried about its levels.
My plan is this: continue with fallow for 8 more weeks. In that time, I will re-aquascape and eventually move the corals back in (not sure when I can put the mandy back in the DT). When there are 4 weeks left, I will treat the 30g and the fish inside with cupramine. After that, everyone should be clean and happy and ready to reintroduce to the main tank, right? Let's hope.
Then, I will have learned my lesson to always QT and preventative treat!
Please tell me the flaws in this procedure (I know they're there), at least how I can make it better so that I'm 100% sure to not have to do it again. My concerns are 1.) the LR and coral in the nano with the mandarin will be in water that came from my infected tank. Now, I've heard that mandys are resistant to ich, and since there's no sandbed in the nano, I should be ok since that water will have been "fallow" for 10 weeks too, right? 2.) Do I need to do anything to the treated fish to make sure they don't bring copper into my DT and kill my coral? 3.) I know I can't use cupramine on the mandarin, but is there another method just in case?
Thank you so much for reading this. I tried to do as much homework on this as possible before pulling the trigger, but I guess I just need some reassurance.
Fingers crossed!
A little bit of background on my set up. It's been running for about a year and a half now. I keep SG around 1.025 (checked with a hydrometer), and the temp's around 78F. My parameters are all fine, though I do not check them as often as I should. For filtration, I use 70lbs LR and 20lbs LS, a protein skimmer, bio-balls in sump, a filter sock, and a makeshift fuge in my HOB overflow. I've never had a "crash" so to speak, but I've lost a royal gramma, a mimic lemonpeel and a kole tang over the course of the last year, all of which had salt grain-like white spots on their bodies (ich, undoubtedly). The fish I currently have are a pair of maroon clowns, a blue damsel, a cleaner goby and a mandarin, none of which have ever displayed signs of ich.
To begin, I acquired two additional tanks, a 30g (one of those Aqueon all-in-ones with a hob media filter) and a 10g nano. I filled them both with water from my ich-infested DT. I placed 4 of my 5 fish (not the mandarin) in the bare bottom 30g with some PVC, a powerhead, a heater, thermometer, and ammonia badge. In the nano, I placed my smaller coral frags on LR and the mandarin. The DT has my cleaner shrimp, hermits, snails, starfish, LR, LS, and my "crappy" coral (xenias, polyps).
All living inhabitants have adjusted to the move and are eating well. I'm doing ~10% water changes every week on the 30g and the nano, as well as using a turkey baster to clean up the uneaten food on the bottom of the tank every other day or so. I may do a 20% change on the DT next week, but as it has almost zero bioload and is running massive filtration, I'm not too worried about its levels.
My plan is this: continue with fallow for 8 more weeks. In that time, I will re-aquascape and eventually move the corals back in (not sure when I can put the mandy back in the DT). When there are 4 weeks left, I will treat the 30g and the fish inside with cupramine. After that, everyone should be clean and happy and ready to reintroduce to the main tank, right? Let's hope.
Then, I will have learned my lesson to always QT and preventative treat!
Please tell me the flaws in this procedure (I know they're there), at least how I can make it better so that I'm 100% sure to not have to do it again. My concerns are 1.) the LR and coral in the nano with the mandarin will be in water that came from my infected tank. Now, I've heard that mandys are resistant to ich, and since there's no sandbed in the nano, I should be ok since that water will have been "fallow" for 10 weeks too, right? 2.) Do I need to do anything to the treated fish to make sure they don't bring copper into my DT and kill my coral? 3.) I know I can't use cupramine on the mandarin, but is there another method just in case?
Thank you so much for reading this. I tried to do as much homework on this as possible before pulling the trigger, but I guess I just need some reassurance.
Fingers crossed!
