Oh Dear .....help please

[finntyla]

I will keep this post as short as poss but i really need some informed help.

4 months ago i had a wipeout due to an unquarantined puffer.It only took 3 days to lose all my fish in a 250 gal with a 40 gal sump.Due to bad advice i used a reef 'friendly' ich cure which didnt do anything but tbh the fish were gone before i could complete its duration.

I was gutted and upon research i am still thinking the outbreak was brook but the symptoms of the disease showed signs velvet and ich as well.

I was considering calling it a day but my wife reminded me how much i had spent over the years on this hobby and didnt have me down as a quitter !.

Ok ,so the way forward was to fallow the display tank and get a small quarantine tank and follow the procedures to the letter from this forum.

So the qt was mature and i was 4 weeks into the fallow period i purchased a black trigger ,de-wormed and monitored him very closely.

6 weeks into the fallow the dam quarantine tank cracked .
Now,in hindsight, there was better ways i could have dealt with this but at that moment i put the trig into the display.......within 2 days he was covered with spots.

Still trying to cut a cut a long story short i got another qt, put the trig back and coppered with cupramine ,which he recovered ,and waited 9 weeks before putting him back into the DT 2 days ago.

I awoke this morning to a beautifull durgon covered in spots,i cant believe it,9 weeks and the DT is still infected.

I have really had enough so my only option as i can tell is to remove as much LR from the DT and nuke it with cupramine and go completely FO afterwards (there are a few softies that i can remove).

If anyone sees a better option then please tell me as i am at the end of my tether and am thinking drastic measures are required.

I love this hobby and have kept marines for 20 years and have never had the problems i am encountering now......please help!!

Jerry

 

[b0bab0ey]

Hi Jerry,

Like you, I've been at this a long time and like you, diseases have really zapped a lot of the fun out of the hobby for me. Unfortunately, it seems sometimes going fallow for 9 weeks just isn't enough. I've read many posts like yours and even sometimes going fallow seems to fail for people at 10, 11, 12 weeks, etc. I don't know if there's a new resilient strain of Ich out there or what.

Unfortunately, your only options now are trying going fallow again, nuking it with cupramine and going FO, or just breaking the tank completely down and starting over. I'm sure the latter doesn't sound like much fun with a 250 gal. If you decide to go fallow again, I'd give it 3 or 4 months. Good luck!

 

[finntyla]

Thanks for the reply bob.

The only way forward that i can see is too nuke the tank and be content with my trigs.....they are my passion afterall but i like to see movement and 'scenery' aka the softies.

I dont think i could cope with another 3-4 month fallow only to fail again and anyway the durgon is too large for the qt now anyways so with a heavy heart im in countdown to cupramine.

Thx again

jerry

 

[b0bab0ey]

Thanks for the reply bob.

The only way forward that i can see is too nuke the tank and be content with my trigs.....they are my passion afterall but i like to see movement and 'scenery' aka the softies.

I dont think i could cope with another 3-4 month fallow only to fail again and anyway the durgon is too large for the qt now anyways so with a heavy heart im in countdown to cupramine.

Thx again

jerry

Another option I just thought of: Do hypo in the DT.

Assuming you have Ich, this will treat both the tank & the fish in the DT. And while it will kill any coral/invert that's in the tank right now, it gives you the option of having them again down the road.

A few downsides though: IMO, hypo is not 100% for treating Ich. It's also quite tedious and you'll need a perfectly calibrated refractometer to do it. Just another option to consider!