Velvet infection

[sf_kevin]

I've had my tank running just shy of a year, with no fatalities of any sort - I'm meticulous about water quality, changes, etc. About 3 weeks ago, I vacuumed out about a cup of substrate during weekly cleaning, and was told by the LFS to replenish it - which I did. 10 days later I lost my mandarin goby, followed one by one with every fish in the tank. Inverts and corals were unaffected.

Living Reefs board suggested it was stray voltage; I have since come to learn stray voltage isn't so much a problem as CURRENT - which I had no evidence of.

I believe the velvet infection was introduced via the substrate (Nature's Ocean Bio-Active Reef Sand and Reef Substrate). I hadn't introduced any livestock into the tank for many weeks (in fact, had been REMOVING xenia as it was muliplying too fast).

How long should I leave the tank free of fish before repopulating?

 

[justdiving]

2 months to be safe, 1 month if your feeling lucky and don't mind a re occurrence and then starting over.

I just recently went fallow clearing up ich, I'm nervous at 31 days fallow. I wish I had gone longer. Now I have new problem but hopefully it has been caught and treated proper.

Never trust the Store help. Listen, take the info in, but then research the hell out of it before you take the advice to heart.

I use just regular sand, the old stuff will populate the new stuff with live action. I used aragonite in my DT and the crap is leaving off a film on the surface, never had the trouble with regular sand.

My methods are crude at best, I am far from an expert on this, so use much caution when it comes to these contractible fatal diseases.

With as large as this site is, I am severely disappointed in the lack of help in the sick fish section. This is why I will offer my limited advice, That and when your fish are in trouble, any response is still better than none.

Look at the page views for topics in the sick section here, simply pathetic.

Good luck with your fishes, and you shall have time to find a nice mix of what to restock your tank with.

 

[sf_kevin]

Thanks for the reply - I too am flabbergasted at the lack of response on livingreefs to my problem and what to do going forward; clearly fish disease is a subject that's not understood... I ended up resorting to PRINTED BOOKS (!) to definitively diagnose Velvet - the boards and the other resources on the web just didn't have the info...

 

[kevin2000]

My 02

I doubt that disturbing the substrate would introduce amylo/velvet to yout tank ... that kind of disease comes from a recent introduction of fish not tank cleaning.

 

[Freed]

Hmmm, if the sand came out of someone's tank that had velvet in it recently then it could quite possible have come from there.

 

[sf_kevin]

No new fish - only thing new that was introduced in the last several weeks (almost 3 months, actually) was this bagged sand...

My research indicates the disease was velvet - but since velvet needs a fish host - it doesn't make alot of sense, unless the bagged sand was fresh from the collection site (expiration was for December 08). Here's something else to consider... the closer the fish lived to the sand, the sooner they died. First to go was the Mandarin Goby, closely followed by both engineer gobies... then on up the column.

 

[kevin2000]

As you have indicated .. velvet doesn't come in from bagged substrate. Perhaps some water changes are in order.

 

[justdiving]

The bagged sand may have contained something else, that weakened the fish and then the velvet that was in your tank may have established stronger colonies.

That is unless you are absolutely sure you didn't have it on something else earlier.

 

[sf_kevin]

Don't know how I could have had it on anything else; every fish in the tank had been there for months (last fish added was in November). As it relates to water changes...Water parameters are extraordinary - I do a 10% water change every week - and since the tank cycled have never had a test that indicated anything except ideal (Nitrates consistently at Zero; use RO/DI water, test the RO/DI with a TDS Meter (comes out at .001 PPM)... I've even go so far as to purchase second test kits because I'm a skeptical sort...

 

[kevin2000]

Std "bagged sand" is sent through a steam process which basically sterilizes it - never heard of anyone who had a disease oriented problem associated with purchasing commercial sand.

 

[sf_kevin]

The sand I used was "live" - Nature's Ocean Bio-Active Reef Sand and Reef Substrate -