The tale of the 75 gallon and the 12

[ArchDemon]

Well, I set up a 75 gallon tank and threw a lot of rock in it, and got it set up within 2 weeks or so. I started a fish collection, and everything seemed fine until I got THE ICH. Well, I didn't know until it was too late, and I lose everything except for two fire gobies. Anyway, I've been treating with RxP for about 3 weeks now, and added a neon purple...ah crap I can't remember what it's called, but it's solid purple and you can only have one of that kind in the tank...anyway, it died (it was a test-fish, after all) and I got another one which has been living for about a week.

Now I have a clown fish in there, and he's doing alright, although he has the ich spots over him (they're gone from the fire gobies, go figure). Now I'm not THAT worried about the big tank, because I figure even if everything dies, I'll just let the ich starve. Is there anything I can do to help the buggers? I can't take out the coral and rock and treat with anything invert-harmful. This is because I have about $40 worth of fish in there, and I'd probably kill about $200+ in new growing coral and inverts if I transferred them anywhere.


Ok, with that done, I just got a 12g NanoCube for a Q-tank in case a fish gets sick, and to monitor new fish (shoulda done that earlier) but the ballast apparently sucks, and the light flickers on and immediately off every two minutes or so. When the light is on, everything is fine. What can I do about this problem, and where can I order new ballasts?


I think that's it, hopefully you guys can recommend something in both situations. Thanks!

 

[bertoni]

The Nano-Cube sounds DOA, and I'd return it. In your situation, I'd move all the fish out of the display tank and into a hospital tank. There, you can treat them for ich and get rid of that pest. After 608 weeks, the display tank will be clear of ich. This thread has pointers to two article on ich down near the bottom:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=166836

 

[ArchDemon]

Would the nanocube really be DOA or can't I just replace a simple ballast or something silly like that. I'd really like to not have to fart with an entire new system.

Secondly, the NanoCube IS the hospital tank that I'm getting set up, so my question is before I can get this NanoCube set up, what can I do to further help my fish in the main tank?

Thanks.

 

[bertoni]

Well, there's no real evidence that anything you can do is going to help much. You could try adding some cleaner shrimp, if you like them, and sometimes people do add UV to try to kill the free-swimming phase.

Ballasts tend to be a bit expensive, as a portion of the tank size, I think. You could ask in the equipment forum for help on finding a new one, I guess.

You could just skip the lamp altogether if you just want a hospital tank, although it'd be nice to be able to quarantine corals in the future.