Where do I go from here?

[Jpcrash1]

Very bad week because of a stupid mistake. I brought a blue tang in my tank without quarantine. The tang had ich and I lost all my fish . My question is, if leave my tank empty except for a couple of corals for a couple of months will ich die off? How do I keep my bio filter alive with a empty 3 month old tank?

Ps. I plan on setting up a quarantine tank while dt is empty.Thanks petco! Went back to store and the whole tank he came out of had ich and there were still selling them!

 

[juanmanuelsanch]

You should go fallow (no fish) for 90 days, yes you can have corals, inverts, etc. Just no fish and no new additions to the tank.

The bio filter should be fine, you can add a pinch of food every other day just to keep it.

And yes, set up a quarantine for everything (including corals, inverts, etc)

 

[Tripod1404]

Yes, If you keep your tank fish-less for at least 6-8 weeks, ich will die off. But first make sure it is ich. Ich generally do not wipe a tank in 1 week. It might be another disease like Velvet or brooks. Guidelines for each are different.

About the bio filter, you can ghost feed your tank or just feed your corals more frequently. You can also keep shrimps, crabs, snails etc and feed those if you want something to look inside the tank.

 

[Sk8r]

Yep. Qt---and watch your alkalinity: develop habit of keeping a test logbook, and you'll learn a lot about your tank. Corals do grow and change pretty fast in good conditions. Let us know what kind of coral and we can advise you on water conditions. The good news is, once fish do return, the coral will be part of your filtration.

 

[Ryan Darilek]

Sigh... That really sucks man, sorry to hear this. Ich requires a host (fish) to survive and without them present, they say the parasite will die within 8 weeks. A faster option would be to move your corals to the QT and then treat the DT aggressively.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[\Clownfish/]

Same thing happened to me when I purchased a fish from them. I QT though because I don't trust their husbandry. I'm guessing you could leave it empty for a month or two. QT all fish though before transferring to DT.

 

[Jpcrash1]

Should I keep doing water changes without any fish? Thanks for replies.

 

[Lsufan]

I would do a search on a couple of different deadly fish diseases to make sure that it was infact ich that u had. It is possible but ich rarely wipes out a whole tank that quickly. Going fallow should take care of whatever it was u had but I would make sure u determine what u actually had so u know u are doing the best treatment for that disease.

If incase it was ich I would go 10 weeks fallow to make sure it is gone. I would rather go a couple of extra weeks then to rush fish in the tank after 6 or so weeks & have to start over because that strain of ich was still holding on.

I wouldn't worry about doing regular water changes but it will depend on the corals u have & what u are putting into the tank. If it's only a couple of hardy corals I probably wouldn't worry about water changes much. Maybe do one around week 5 then another one before u start adding fish.

The bacteria will probably be ok but with it being such a young tank u may want to add a small amount of food a couple times a week. If the corals u have are lps & take meaty foods, I would just feed them some mysis a couple times a week and that should also help in keeping the bacteria population up

 

[monkeysee1]

Should I keep doing water changes without any fish? Thanks for replies.

Yes! Do weekly large water changes even though your tank is now fallow. Don't forget - you're taking some of the parasite out each time you do this in addition to it dying off due to lack of fish.

Feed your corals regularly as you normally would!

 

[Jpcrash1]

The blue tang had white spots all over it ,so I am assuming it is ich. All the fish fish were fine till untill I introduced him. I will be going fallow for awhile to kill the ich and I need a break. This relaxing hobby has become stressfull lol. I feel really bad for the fish I loss and hope to stay away from blue tangs as long as I live!

 

[monkeysee1]

Thanks petco! Went back to store and the whole tank he came out of had ich and there were still selling them!

See, that's your first mistake right there. You went to PETCO!!
DON'T buy anything else from those clowns!
Go instead to BLUE ZOO or LIVE AQUARIA - and check out their Collector's Choice and DIVER'S Den sections for your livestock! It's high quality, healthy and pre-quarantined!
But I'm glad to hear you're getting a quarantine setup! Because EVERYTHING should be quarantined before it goes in your DT!

Keep the faith, my friend - DON'T GIVE UP!
Properly quarantining is the key to success in this hobby! You'll start having it - don't worry! :thumbsup:

 

[lg2725]

See, that's your first mistake right there. You went to PETCO!!
DON'T buy anything else from those clowns!
Go instead to BLUE ZOO or LIVE AQUARIA - and check out their Collector's Choice and DIVER'S Den sections for your livestock! It's high quality, healthy and pre-quarantined!
But I'm glad to hear you're getting a quarantine setup! Because EVERYTHING should be quarantined before it goes in your DT!

Keep the faith, my friend - DON'T GIVE UP!
Properly quarantining is the key to success in this hobby! You'll start having it - don't worry! :thumbsup:

Agree about most Petco locations but even buying from LIVEAQUARIA and DIVERS DEN we should all still QT. It's up to us to protect our tanks.