not sure what to do next?

[eric281]

The Setup:

Cycled my tank, then once levels had been at 0 for a full week, bought my first fish for the tank, a black clown. Two weeks later I bought a Yellow Watchman Goby. Now after just about two more weeks, I bought three new frags Sunday. A small polyp of Ricordea, a 2 head candy cane coral, and a baseball sized piece of LR with a few mushrooms on it. I didn't QT anything when putting it in the tank .

The Buildup:

Woke up Monday morning to see our Peppermint Shrimp had died. I immediately fished him out and did a 10% water change and headed to work. Later that night after work and softball practice I tested all my water parameters and my pH is down to 7.8 and the nitrates were up to 10ppm. Ammonia and Nitrites were at 0. I did another 10% water change.

The Nightmare?

Woke up this morning and when I turned the light on I saw my clownfish had white specks similar to salt sprinkles on him. As far as I know, this is Ich. I was quite upset about it, and my fiancee said she'd goto the LFS and figure out what was going on once she got off at 1. I read as much as I could about Ich treatments this morning and decided I should put together a QT tank and put both fish in it and go the Hyposalinity route. I came home at lunch and everything looks fine. No more spots on the clownfish. All the corals are more extended than ever. So everything went from fine at midnight to white specks at 8am, to clean at noon. Could I have been wrong about the diagnosis? What steps should I take to make sure it is actually gone? Also, I now definately want to setup a QT tank for new fish. I had ordered a Sixline Wrasse and it should be here tomorrow. Is there a safe way to get a QT tank setup for him before he gets here? I now realize that I was pretty dumb for not doing it before and want to take as many precautions as possible. Thanks for all the help I know I'll get.

Eric

 

[kraze3]

Ok Im gonna be that guy, but you shouldnt be ordering new fish until you can figure out what is wrong with your current fish. But enough on that.

First off here are some links of diseased fish for reference pics
http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=127010

Ich is only visible during one stage in its life cycle. it then drops off into the substrate to reproduce. It is possible that your fish is still infected and you cannot see it. its also possible you saw the ich and it is now reproducing

Take a look at the pics above and see if the ich pics look like hwta you saw. If so I would treat all fish in the tank with hypo for 6-8 weeks. While they ar ebeing treated you can watch your wrasse in its QT tank. Leaving your main display fishless for that time will cause the ich to die off due to lack of hosts. Personally I would not put the wrasse into the main display and I would not add with the other fish until treatment is over.

here is a link on QT that may help
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/index.php

I had to setup my QT in a hurry, I used water from my main display and monitored all params at least twice a day doing water changes as needed. it worked for me but it was a little work.

Sorry if I came off harsh before but ordering new fish while you may have a sick display just doesnt seem smart to me. In this hobby nothing can be rushed and only bad things happen fast. Good Luck! Please ask any other Q's you may have, theres many helpful people on this site that can help you out

and

[welcome]

 

[Sk8r]

Here's a plan: you need to qt that new guy...at least have him in for observation...and you have to let that main tank lie fallow for 6 weeks to let the ich die out. Get the cheapest plastic tank you can at PetSmart, set him up, and then as the other fish finish their hypo course, unite them in the larger qt. Second and less desirable choice: go ahead and put him into hypo, too, but acclimate him very carefully and test salinity meticulously.

Let your main tank sit and use the time to get that water back to proper quality. You should be: 0,0,0 on ammonia, nitrite, nitrate; 1.024 on salinity, 8.3 to 11 on alkalinity, 400-420 on calcium, and 1200-1300 on magnesium. That should give you a ph of 8.3, and a stable one at that. I'm giving you the params for coral-keeping, of course, and if you hit that water quality your fish will thrive, too, not least because it will tend to be stable: I suspect you might have had a decline in alk due to those frags---

You might also consider a uv sterilizer if you don't plan to need pods for a mandarin or the like, and you're going to keep a clown, which is a moderate susceptible fish. That will reduce the incidence of ich. I think it's ok with corals: I don't have one, and you should ask.
I also keep fish in with my corals, and don't have problems, but I have my buffer in with my topoff water, 10 tsp in a 5 gallon reservoir, because my tank uses 2 tsp buffer a day and uses 1 gallon of topoff a day, and that addition is automatic. That only leaves the calcium to add. The least expensive topoff is at www.autotopoff.com, less than 70 dollars now. I think if you had had that topoff buffered, you might not have had this cascade: the clown probably broke out in ich because he was carrying it, and it will break out during periods of stress. Hopefully your qt and treatment will do in the ich parasite altogether, and you won't have it occur again.

 

[eric281]

I obviously did not order a fish while I had a sick display. When I ordered, it was part of a group order and my display had been tremendous up to that point. Got my qt's setup yesterday. I'll be fine.