Qt tanks

[mattieg429]

Hey like alot other others I've contracted ich in my display tank. I do have a qt tank I will be setting up and keeping my infected fish in (most likely all just in case). I think I'm leaning towards dropping the salinity in the qt tank down to 1.01 to get it off of the fish. How do I acclimate the fish to the low levels in the qt tank... or do I use display tank water and slowly drop the salinity. If so how fast or slow do I do this? How long does the qt tank stay at a low salinity? And how do I acclimate the fish to go back into my display tank after they are ready to go back home. If I understand 2 -3 months will be needed in qt to make sure my display is rid of the parasite. I'm pretty sure I understand the quarantine tank process...it's just getting the fish used to low salinity and how long to keep them there at low salinity and how to get them used to regular salinity when the time is ready. Thanks in advance! I've been in this hobby for 3 years with small practice tanks and never had an ich problem this big but i just started my 155 gallon up in august and I'm borderline ready to give up but I simply cannot give up since this hobby is simply awesome.

 

[Spar]

There are some stickies on how to administer hyposalinity (the 1.010 you are referring to), start there to make sure you have all the info you need. Main thing to keep in mind is that fish are quite tolerant to decreasing in salinity, while they are quite sensitive to increases in it. So you can go fairly quick downward, but will want to raise it as slow as you can (over a week or more if you have time). When I did hypo, i drip acclimated my fish over 2 hours from 1.025 to 1.009, and they always seemed fine; however you really should do this over a couple day period.

As you will read in the sticky, do note that some strains of Ich are hypo-resistant, meaning it won't get rid of it even at 1.008 (the lowest you want/can to take your fish to). Copper may be your best bet, dependent on the type of fish (some react poorly). Or even the best of the best would be to have a bunch of Tank Transfer Method (TTM) tanks setup... but depending on how many fish you have, might be $$$ and quite time consuming... read up on that method for any new fish though.

For your DT, you will need to keep it fallow (fishless) for 12 weeks to ensure Ich completes it life cycle and dies off (read the stickies on the life cycle to understand why...).

Fish will need to stay in the hypo for at least 30 days (aim for 1.008-1.009, not 1.010). Then raise the salinity (slowly as discussed) and keep them in there until your DT has run its fallow course.

May have skipped some of your Q's, so feel free to keep pushing for answers as necessary. Good luck and good job on going the QT route (now and going forward anyway )!

 

[snorvich]

What he said above.