Reef/Fish tank with Ich. How to treat?

[kiritf]

I tried to search as much as possible so I wasn't replicating a question. I have a 180 gallon, standard rectangular tank. Probably 130 lbs of live rock. A fair amount of coral, but smaller pieces that I just intend to let grow. I transplanted all of this from a 134g tank I had run for a year. I've been running the 180g for about 6 months.

I admit, I like my tangs by far and I transplanted 3 of them into the 180. I also have a watchment goby(about 5 inches), 5 mid to larger chromis, and a six-line. I added NO new fish to the new tank, but got an ich outbreak. I didn't do any of the sticky'd cures for the tangs because I can't catch them. I just used the standard off the shelf ich treatments. All tangs gone.

I waited about 2 months, completed the off the shelf treatment, and just kept the other fish and the coral going steady. They were all fine. Phosphates were running high (around .75-.85) I guess because I had some dead fish in the rock that were being disposed of. I have 3 cleaner shrimp and 2 fire, as well as a good amount of crabs and snails. Anyway, after the two months, I added 3 new tangs. They lasted about a week.

Please feel free to slap me or whatever. I'm just 40 and intend on keeping a healthy tank, so I just want to do whatever is right to make it so. It seems ich is in the tank. I read about dropping the salinity in a tank as a cure, but wouldn't that mess with my coral, inverts, and other fish? I'm kind of lost.

I'm reeding "The Reef Aquarium" right now by Delbeek/Sprung trying to learn as much as I can.

ps. I have a 55 gallon retro'd refugium. I have a Avast Marine CS3 cone skimmer, I run carbon, refugium in the middle with chaeto, sand, rock, and a 27w UV sterilizer.

Any help on getting on the right track would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Surf&turf]

Your best bet would be to catch all the fish and put in a separate quarantine and leave the 180 fallow for 8 weeks.

 

[Dmorty217]

You have to get another tank setup and catch all fish out and treat them with cupramine or Tank transfer method or chloroquine phosphate that you should only get from a veterinarian. You will then leave your current Disply tank fallow for 72 days to rid the tank of ich. I'm going thru this same thing right now

 

[sc50964]

Can you post some photos of your tank, aquascape, info about your maintenance routine, and location of your tank in the house?

 

[kiritf]

hey, thanks a lot for the information. It looks like I've got a nice 2+ month project on my hands.

sc50964. I'll do that tomorrow. I'd be happy to, especially if it can give you some more info to give some advice.

Right now maintenance-wise, I'm doing a 30 gallon WC every week (phosphates have gotten higher). I've been running some phosguard in addition lately to try to keep a handle on things.

I had to move my tank to my basement because we're going to sell our house and build a new one. It gets a lot of natural light, so it's not a dungeon. I have a canopy with three AI Vega's. They were significantly more powerful than my prior T's, so I've kept them turned down. I keep egg crate over everything as well to keep the fish from jumpin' and that helps diffuse the lights as well.