So I got Ich, time for my plan of attack.

[mikeyVR4]

Well not me personally but my fish do. Noticed the Blue Hippo has specs all over it just overnight and I placed him in the QT tank.

I am dosing Kordon Ich Attack in both tanks but I now have a new plan. Please let me know if you guys think its good.

1.) Buying 40G QT tank with Aquaclear Filter.
2.) Medicine: Copper Power
3.) Salinity: Gradually dropping to 1.020 from 1.025
4.) Increasing Temperatures from 77 degrees to 80-82 degrees slowly.
5.) Adding all fish: Blue Hippo, Yellow Tang, 2 Clowns, Royal Gramma, Wrasse, Coral Beauty to 40G tank.
*Please not the blue hippo is only fish showing signs*
6.) Air Stone with Powerhead in QT.
7.) UV sterlizer for QT tank after the signs of ich has gone away.

I am planning on keeping the fish in the QT for 2 months. I will be buying some 3" PVC pipe for the QT tank so fish can hide/sleep in small tunnels.

I know someone will be asking for parameters:

1.025
Ph 8.3
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10ppm
Calcium 420
Phosphate .05
Mag 1380

Please let me know what you guys think.

Thanks.

 

[Mrscribbled]

How do you plan on establishing the new filter?


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[TX..r33f]

Sorry to hear. Copper can be hard on the fish some times. And if u you but copper in your main tank and it had corals thats not good. but as far as the qt it sounds good. just remember no sand or rocks in it. Also did you put a new fish in that u didnt qt?

 

[mikeyVR4]

How do you plan on establishing the new filter?


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Im actually going to add 38g of water from the main tank. I used to have a filter in the fuge but I used it for another treatment in the past and threw it out.

I will be using an air stone with it and checking water parameters every few days.

Sorry to hear. Copper can be hard on the fish some times. And if u you but copper in your main tank and it had corals thats not good. but as far as the qt it sounds good. just remember no sand or rocks in it. Also did you put a new fish in that u didnt qt?

Thanks. Yeah I will be adding only PVC pipe at the bottom to give the fish some sort of escape when they sleep or want to be alone.

Yeah I got sloppy and just added two fish in the tank. But before that, I noticed the blue tang scratching itself on the rocks. Wasn't until now that I know it was probably scratching Ich at the time. Overall, I will be adding them in shortly. Just painted the 40g tank and it should be dry in this 110 heat outside.

 

[freefallen4key]

are you qt them for two months to let the ich die out of your tank before returning the fish? how do you get those peramiters ? the guys at the lfs just sold me and told me to use the test strips... but it just shoes colors not numbers

 

[Mrscribbled]

Water does not cycle, you will need established filter media wuth cultured bacteria, have a bottle of instant ocean bio spira or Dr. Tims on hand, I've used these countless times. An ammonia alert badge is a good idea since most test kits give a false reading with copper. 12 weeks fallow is best.


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[MrTuskfish]

No reason to drop salinity or raise temp; neither will help treatment. UV may help a little, but don't expect it to cure ich. UV really isn't worth the time to maintain it, IMO & IME. You don't need to test nitrate, cal, phos, or mag in a QT.

I also agree with Mrscribbled above; ammonia is going to be a big enemy. An AquaClear (remove the carbon) with one of the bacteria starters will help with ammonia; but it takes time to get the media seeded, have plenty of water ready for WCs.

 

[mikeyVR4]

are you qt them for two months to let the ich die out of your tank before returning the fish? how do you get those peramiters ? the guys at the lfs just sold me and told me to use the test strips... but it just shoes colors not numbers

Yes. I am planning on keeping the fish in the 40G QT tank for 2 months so the Ich in the main tank can die from starvation by not having a host. I have the basic API tests for Ph, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate & I use Salifert Tests for Calcium, Phosphate, Magnesium, etc.

Water does not cycle, you will need established filter media wuth cultured bacteria, have a bottle of instant ocean bio spira or Dr. Tims on hand, I've used these countless times. An ammonia alert badge is a good idea since most test kits give a false reading with copper. 12 weeks fallow is best.


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Awesome thanks for the suggestions! I may just use a filter media from the LFS since they have some establish sponges. I am not worried about any bad diseases since I will be using Copper Power in a few minutes here. I do need to get one of those Ammonia strips just to make sure I do not have any spikes. Thanks!

Oh...and I am planning on doing weekly water changes and replenishing any copper I take out.

No reason to drop salinity or raise temp; neither will help treatment. UV may help a little, but don't expect it to cure ich. UV really isn't worth the time to maintain it, IMO & IME. You don't need to test nitrate, cal, phos, or mag in a QT.

I also agree with Mrscribbled above; ammonia is going to be a big enemy. An AquaClear (remove the carbon) with one of the bacteria starters will help with ammonia; but it takes time to get the media seeded, have plenty of water ready for WCs.

Thanks! Yeah I was corrected today about the salinity and raising the temps. Right now I am at 78 degrees. I think I have the heater already dialed in for the 40g.

As for the UV. I will be running that in my tank while the fish are out just to help speed up the process of ridding Ich. If there are any floating parasites they will be zapped.

Also, good info again with the ammonia tips. I did remove the carbon and filter from my Aquaclear 70 which I am using as another water-mover.

I will be doing some water changes weekly.

FYI - Here is my new QT tank. From a wimpy 10g to a monster 40g. Some of my fish are still a little shocked to the new tank but others are swimming .

 

[mikeyVR4]

Thanks everyone for helping. Please keep the insightful info coming! Never can learn enough.

 

[mikeyVR4]

Water does not cycle, you will need established filter media wuth cultured bacteria, have a bottle of instant ocean bio spira or Dr. Tims on hand, I've used these countless times. An ammonia alert badge is a good idea since most test kits give a false reading with copper. 12 weeks fallow is best.


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I have an additional question. I researched Instant Ocean's Bio Spira and curious on what exactly it does? It appears it balances Ammonia levels and Nitrates. Of course when the fish poop it starts the cycle. Is this product simply a way to help lower Ammonia and Nitrates within the water? If so, when I do water changes, would I need to add more?

I am assuming Bio Spira pretty much takes the place of LR within a normal tank. In this QT situation, of course we are to run it dry.

Thanks again.

Mike.

 

[mikeyVR4]

UPDATE:

So only after a few minutes my Blue Hippo is as happy as can be. In the small QT tank she would just hide under a small piece of live rock and was extremely pale. Now that I added all her friends to the bigger QT tank, she is swimming around, socializing, and eating seaweed from the clip.

Its amazing how social these fish really are. Her fins are all up and swimming around. Total 180 from earlier today.

 

[Mrscribbled]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mrscribbled

Water does not cycle, you will need established filter media wuth cultured bacteria, have a bottle of instant ocean bio spira or Dr. Tims on hand, I've used these countless times. An ammonia alert badge is a good idea since most test kits give a false reading with copper. 12 weeks fallow is best.


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I have an additional question. I researched Instant Ocean's Bio Spira and curious on what exactly it does? It appears it balances Ammonia levels and Nitrates. Of course when the fish poop it starts the cycle. Is this product simply a way to help lower Ammonia and Nitrates within the water? If so, when I do water changes, would I need to add more?

I am assuming Bio Spira pretty much takes the place of LR within a normal tank. In this QT situation, of course we are to run it dry.

Thanks again.

Mike.

Not sure if you fully understand the nitrogen cycle but Dr Tims and bio spira are the actual naturally occurring nitrobacter bacteria. They are the only two that work long term, others such as stability and microbacter7 are a different strain of bacteria not found in marine environments,


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[mikeyVR4]

Not sure if you fully understand the nitrogen cycle but Dr Tims and bio spira are the actual naturally occurring nitrobacter bacteria. They are the only two that work long term, others such as stability and microbacter7 are a different strain of bacteria not found in marine environments,


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I admit I do not. I will research further. I read on this forum that its recommended to do a fish-less cycle but unfortunately I had to work fast as Ich was showing its ugly face.


Do you think the Bio Spira would be pretty safe? Any lessons you can give regarding this product would be helpful. Not looking for a handout but trying to learn as much and as fast as I can to avoid the Ammonia spikes. I will be getting an Ammonia indicator strip today to put on the tank itself.

 

[gone fishin]

I would certainly keep an eye on the Ammonia. Your weekly WC plan may end up being a daily. So have plenty of Water on hand. Good luck you seem to have a decent plan going on.

 

[mikeyVR4]

I would certainly keep an eye on the Ammonia. Your weekly WC plan may end up being a daily. So have plenty of Water on hand. Good luck you seem to have a decent plan going on.

Thanks gone fishin . I forgot to buy a Salifert Copper tester so I will need to make sure I get that today to ensure my levels are good enough to kill off the parasite but not too high that it will harm the fish.

I will be looking into a Microbacteria additive also.

 

[Mrscribbled]

With copper power you will want 1.5 ppm copper, bio spira is completly fish safe. Add the same time the fish go in. Usually 48 hours the ammonia will read 0.


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[mikeyVR4]

With copper power you will want 1.5 ppm copper, bio spira is completly fish safe. Add the same time the fish go in. Usually 48 hours the ammonia will read 0.


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Thanks. BTW, the Copper Power says to use 2.5ppm...

 

[Mrscribbled]

Ah sorry, get that mixed up with coppersafe.


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[mikeyVR4]

^ No worries.

FYI for anyone using Copper Power. Use exactly what the instructions say and not by PPM. I used 11.4 teaspoons for a 38 gallon (instructions say 2 ounce for 40 gallons) and within the Salifert test I am reading about .9ppm.

I called my LFS and got two different answers from two different stores but I decided to remain at .9PPM since I used the exact amount of dose the copper power says. Something is off with Copper Band ppm recommendations. I'd rather have less copper than too much and burn my fish.

I also added 10 lbs. of Live Rock within my QT tank. There is much debate on to add LR or not but I did for my biological filtration. I also added the filter / LR rubble / Bio pellets to the Aqua Clear.

As of right now, my Ammonia shows "safe".

 

[Mrscribbled]

API copper test kits work good for chealated copper such as copper power and copper safe.


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