Wiping out a quarantine tank

[Seadogs]

I just had a Coral Beauty and a Percula Clown in quarantine together. I had LR in it and checked the water daily. Well, the Coral Beauty would hide down in the rock and only dart out for feeding. One night, I got a good look at him and saw he had a heavy dose of Ich. (It looked just like FW Ich.) The next morning, he was dead, and the clown (who had looked fine before) had the spots. So, I dropped the salinity over a couple of days to 1.010 and raised the temp to 80. He got better and the water tested great. He started eating really well and after close inspection, he looked clear of ich and brightly colored. The next day, he was very pale (almost blotchy) and looked like he had powder on him. (I suspect Velvet). He was swimming poorly and gasping. I tried a FW and Methylene Blue dip. He got to the point of laying in the sand with his gills red and puffed out and he was sort of getting stiff so I euthinized him. (Poor little guy, I didn't like to see him suffer )

After all that, my question is this: Seemingly two diseases in a tank with good water parameters. (Ammonia-0 Nitrite-0 Nitrate-10 Salinity-1.024 normally) within the period of about 3 weeks. Should I strip the tank (I don't mind doing so, it's only a 30 gal.) and bleach everything in it? Then how long before I can start it up again?

Any advice would be very helpful. I don't mind doing whatever it takes.

 

[mikersx02]

why did you put live rock in the QT? You want NOTHING pourous in the tank.


If you are worried about your fish stressing from a lack of places to hide- put a big piece of PVC tubing in there for them.

I had great luck killing ich with copper treatment. Hypo takes time to get the fish down to 1.010- i dont like risking my fish while waiting for the salinity to dip low enough.

 

[Seadogs]

I took the LR out as soon as I saw the Ich. Since then, there is just some argonite sand in the tank.

 

[mikersx02]

no sand- no nothing in the QT tank.... bare glass- filters, pvc pipe, and heater.... thats where your mistake was.

 

[Steven Pro]

If you wait 6 weeks both parasites will die without a fish host. Alternatively, you can sterilize everything with bleach.

I am curious, where did you place that piece of liverock that you remove from the quarantine tank? It could have easily transfered those diseases to where ever it went.

 

[Seadogs]

Mikersx02.- I was thinking about going bare after this. They were the first fish to go into QT. There is alot of info on tank set up but not much on QT set up. And what I found on it was mixed info. Sand-yes and Sand-no. LR-yes and LR-no. Kinda confusing. Thanks for the input. I will go bare from now on.

Steven Pro- LR went away. It was leftover from my main tank and pretty much just base rock anyways. If I use bleach, can I put it in the tank now, let everything run for a day or two, then tear it down and rinse everything? How long should I wait to set up again and get it up and running? Thank you very much for the info.

 

[zens]

you can drop the sg down to 1.009 all at once. I just finished doing it with some lineatus wrasse and a blue line angel. just make
sure the pH is the same. I actually go down to 1.008 just to give room for error. I wouldn't mess with the temp. keep it at whatever temperature your display is.

 

[Steven Pro]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7068324#post7068324 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Seadogs
There is alot of info on tank set up but not much on QT set up. And what I found on it was mixed info. Sand-yes and Sand-no. LR-yes and LR-no. Kinda confusing.

Here is my take on quarantine tanks,
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/index.php

 

[Seadogs]

Perfect! Thanks!

Steven Pro- Any info on the bleaching process?

 

[Steven Pro]

If you bleach or completely dry your setup, it could be ready in a day.

 

[Seadogs]

Great!!!! I'll do it. Thank you very much!