QT tank for ich.

[Onyx percula]

Hi guys, i had recently posted that i had a little bit of ich in my tank and it was affecting some of my tangs but they had been ok with it and eating for over a month now so i just let it go but now one of my little onyx clowns has a bit of ich and him i want to take no chances with, i want to set up a little 10 Gallon tank my friend has and put water from my tank in there so i dont have to cycle it and dose the tank with copper and put the little guy in there, would this work and succsesfuly take care of the ich, and since i am using the water from my tank i should not have to cycle the tank correct? and also should i use a small piece of live rock from my display tank and put it in there for him? how long would it take for the ich to go away and i can put him back in the display, should i keep the salinity in the QT tank around .19? any ideas or suggestions on how to take care of the problem are welcomed.

 

[D to the P]

Using a hospital tank is a great idea.

Using copper is a great way to get rid of the ich on the fish.

You should let the tank cycle a little bit before you put the fish in, but using tank water is a good idea and should help expedite the process.

No substrate, No live rock. I would use a piece of PVC pipe. Reason being is you don't want to give the ich a place to encyst (read up on it's life cycle for more info on that). The fish will be able to hide in the PVC and keep its stress down.

Putting only the clown in the hospital will only remove the ich off of the clownfish that it has NOW. Putting it back into a fish tank that definitely has ich means that it can get it again. And all of your other fish will still be at risk. The only way to get the ich out mostly once and for all is to:
A) Leave the tank fish less for 6-8 weeks
B) Treat the aquarium with hypo-salinity.

Now, it looks like you have a mixed reef going on in there, so putting copper in the DT is really bad idea, and doing hyposalinity in there will also kill your corals. That leaves the option of fishless for 6-8 weeks. I know it sounds like a pain, and it will be, but if you want the ich to stop, its the best way.
Quality of life also has to be taken into account. Water quality has to be at a premium, and so does food quality. Some people have luck marinating their food in garlic before feeding. It's worth a try if you don't already. You'll also want to look into vitamin supplements like Selcom or Vitachem to enhance the food if you don't already do that. Most fish, as you've seen, can fight it off, but if you want to get it all out of the tank- 8 weeks fishless. Also, make sure you quarantine all of your fish for at least 2 weeks before putting them into your DT. That' a great way of making sure no ich gets IN to the system. Good luck with whatever route you decide.

 

[Onyx percula]

Well as of right now i dont have any corals in my tank just fish and crabs for cleaning crew, i havent used to the copper because they told me once u, use it on the tank u cant ever put corals in that tank again because the copper get stuck to the rock and what not, but i have lower the salt down from .26 to .19 to see if this helps the fish fight of the ich, i know that ich lays eggs in the fishes throats and the water is thinner at lower salinity levels so this should help the fish breath eassier i suppose and maybe fight off the ich, and since i dont have any corals this should be ok right? how much do i have to lower the salt to in my DT to go hyposalinity, ive read before .9 but isnt that insane and will kill the fish?

 

[D to the P]

http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/hyposalinity.html

.9 is as low as you can go, .12 is as high as you should go. MAKE SURE YOU USE A REFRACTOMETER if you're going to do hypo. Swing arm hydrometers are not nearly accurate enough for your fish to be safe.

I agree that copper is a bad idea in a DT.

 

[Onyx percula]

Thing that worries me about the hyposalinity is that it says that you cannot have live rock in the tank or it will kill the live bacteria as well.

 

[D to the P]

From that link:

"Where do you treat?

The first choice you must make is whether to treat in the main display tank or in a quarantine tank. The main display tank can be treated if it is "Fish Only" and contains no invertebrates or live rock. The live rock itself will survive the treatment, but any invertebrates living on and in it will be killed. If the tank is truly "Fish Only" treating the tanks is probably the best option as there will be less stress to the inhabitants and it helps you to eliminate the "Ich" in the main tank.

If the main display tank is "Fish Only With Live Rock", it may be possible to move the live rock to another tank and treat the main tank, but in most cases and when the tank is "Reef" tank, removing the fish to a quarantine tank is the only option.

When a quarantine tank is to be used, it is wise to fill the quarantine tank with water from the main tank when the fish to be treated are moved. This will help reduce the stress of the move and alleviate the acclimation process. It may still be necessary to acclimate the fish if time has passed from when the water was transferred and the fish are transferred. "

So, IMO your best bet is to treat the DT. I would remove some of the live rock and put it in another tank or bin with a pump and do water changes on it regularly. Then do hypo in the DT. Most of the macro stuff on the rock might die, but it'll still function as a biological filter in a lesser extent.

And this really is about whether or not you want the ich to be gone in the system (although I'm not in any way claiming it's 100%, as some people believe ich can sometimes survive hypo, and even other treatments). The only ways I can think of for you to have less problems with ich in the future are fish less, or hypo. But do some more research on it if you're not sure. There's plenty of good threads that have been started on this topic. At the very least I would treat the clown externally from the DT with either hypo or copper. I just think it might not serve much of a purpose if you already know ich is in the system because it is likely that it will just pick ich up again.

Give this thread a bump tomorrow and see if any other RC members have an opinion on it.

But also think about why the clown might have gotten ich. Something had/has to be stressing him. Water parameters, bullying fish, etc. These things will have to be situated as well.

 

[D to the P]

Unless of course you can get a bigger QT than a 10 gallon. It'll depend on the fish, but you might be able to set up a 30 gallon or so and get away with having the fish in there for 6-8 weeks.

That way your live rock isn't effected, and all the fish will be treated.

I don't mean to go back and forth between options, I'm just thinking about the live rock aspect of it that you brought up.

 

[Stuart60611]

If you do not have any coral or inverts and either base rock or not very live rock, you can do hypo in the display without any major die off. I am doing right now, and so far so good.