New ht/qt has ich already?!?!

[GoTRiCe19]

Well here is my story.

I have three tanks setup now. Tank One is a 30 gallon. No fish shows signs of ich but did have ich in that tank last year. Went fish less for 8 weeks and hypo the fish in a 20 long. Lost a couple of fish in the process and added what was left. Never had any ich outbreak or sign.

Tank 2 is a 40 breeder setup 2 months ago. Had ich also due to a fuzzy lion I took a chance with. Now it's been fish less for 5 weeks.

Tank 3 is my new ht/qt now since I don't want to lose any more fish to ich. I setup with PVC, skimmer, hob filer with carbon filter floss. 2 power head but I did add 1 inch on dry sand. Cycle for a week with ghost feeding. Added 2 damsel from tank 1. I'm in my third week and today for some reason one damsel show signs of ich. Where did it come from? Tank 1? I did used old filter floss to help cycle the ht/qt. maybe I had ich in tank 1 but fish never show sign. Maybe cross contaminate from tank 2.

Now I want to hypo my qt/ht. but I have sand. Not much life since its only been 3 weeks. How bad would it be to hypo with my new sand? I know I will get some die off but is it worth it to pull all the sand to do bare bottom or deal with the die off.

 

[HumbleFish]

I would stay the course on tank 2 - go fallow for another 4-5 weeks, and then that tank should be Ich free.

Whether or not tank 1 is still infected; hard to say. 8 weeks fallow should have been long enough (the odds were greatly in your favor), but there's always the possibility it was not (most on here recommend 10+ weeks now).

The ? is: Were the damsels from tank 1 already infected when put into tank 3, or did you somehow cross contaminate from tank 2? How many fish are left in tank 1?

 

[GoTRiCe19]

Tank 1 has 5 fish. 2 clowns. 2 chromis. 1 damsal. No signs of ich. My ? Now is hypo in my ht/qt. but with 3 week old sand would that be a problem?

 

[HumbleFish]

Tank 1 has 5 fish. 2 clowns. 2 chromis. 1 damsal. No signs of ich. My ? Now is hypo in my ht/qt. but with 3 week old sand would that be a problem?

Honestly, I would re-think the way you're doing this QT. I would go bare-bottom; all you really need is a heater and circulation. I need to take a pic of my QT the next time I've got it up & running, but in the meantime look here.

As far as cycling your QT goes, MrTusk offers some very good advice below:

In regards to Qt cycling; I've done this for years. Get a HOB filter; I really like Aqua-Clear, they have a big sponge and last forever. Don't use the carbon or ceramic noodles that come with the filter. Also, have some extra sponges on hand, they're cheap. Keep a sponge in the flow somewhere in your DT. When you need a QT or HT, just use the sponge that has been in your main system in your QT filter---the QT will be instantly cycled. When done, toss the sponge and keep a new one ready in your main system.
BTW, Cupramine copper, used in a QT,will not destroy a bio-filter.

 

[HumbleFish]

Just to add: You really don't want to look at a QT as a permanent thing. It's something you setup & breakdown as needed. Using a "seeded" sponge in a HOB powerfilter gives you that kind of flexibility. Because trust me, it's only a matter of time before you encounter some kind of "Typhoid Mary" disease in QT that you won't be able to completely identify or successfully treat. In that scenario, the last thing you'll want to do is add more fish while whatever it is that killed the previous fish might still be active in QT. You'll want to just break the QT down, sterilize it top to bottom, and start over from scratch. Knowing you've got a seeded sponge stewing in the DT makes it so easy to do; because you know you can re-setup your QT in about an hr, cycled & all.