Treating display tank with live rock in it?

CJ11

New member
I made the cardinal mistake of putting a fish straight to my display tank. :debi: I have talked with a few people on here to help me through what was wrong with my heniochus butterfly fish but, it had passed after what seems to be marine ich. I have read some things on here about treating your display tank but I just want to make sure I am getting this right. I am ok with letting my tank sit fishless for 8-10 weeks from what I read. Do I need to do any water changes? Drop the salinity? Do anyting to the live rock thats in the tank? Raise the temp? I am perfectly ok with letting set empty for this to "cure". I know I tried to cut out the quaratine tank step but will not do that again. Any help getting on the right track would be appreciated.
 
Sorry about your loss and experience.

Regarding the fallow period -- no need to change anything else, just remove fish... easy as that.

Best to wait 12 weeks in total. The concern is the cyst life cycle stage (Tomite) which can take up to 72 days to hatch. Plus a little buffer, 12 weeks is pretty much guaranteed.

what QT method are you planning on for fish going forward?
 
Regarding the fallow period -- no need to change anything else, just remove fish... easy as that.

Best to wait 12 weeks in total. The concern is the cyst life cycle stage (Tomite) which can take up to 72 days to hatch. Plus a little buffer, 12 weeks is pretty much guaranteed.

+1 Be sure to continue feeding corals/inverts (if you have them). Or if not, a tiny pinch of flake food every 2-3 days will keep your bacterial levels going (in the absence of fish poop which does the same).
 
Thanks for the advice so far, so I can leave my live rock in my main tank(75 gallon) and no water changes till I am ready to add fish again? I am planning on setting up a 10 gallon tank or a 20 with a hob filter, no substrate, and more than likely a powerhead. I have read I can just sit this up when I am ready to quarantine fish and just change the water in frequently. I am looking to do only 2 or 3 fish total but I could kick myself for skipping the quaratine tank.
 
Definitely leave the LR in the main. Most of us have learned the hard way that quarantine is the only way to go. Your set up looks good depending on the size of the fish you are going to quarantine. Not to inundate you but I would advise getting a good quarantine protocol and obtaining some common meds in the event a disease presents itself.
 
Not to inundate you but I would advise getting a good quarantine protocol and obtaining some common meds in the event a disease presents itself.

Will def do that.

Thank you to all who have helped, def glad I found this message board, everyone has been really great! :beer:
 
I think qt is a must and something most of us have learned the hard way.
If you haven't done so, I would suggest reading the stickies on the different qt treatments for ich. Lots of good info there.
I would suggest doing tank transfer method and have some Prime on hand to deal with any ammonia spikes. If you chose to use copper, make sure you do NOT use prime or any other ammonia remover.
Also some meds that I try to keep around just in case during qt: Prazipro, furan2 (or some kind of antibiotics), cupramine & formalin.
good luck.
 
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