ick, going fallow and things I was told. want opinions....

[4FordFamily]

Good read paul. For me, velvet acts as Ebola where ich was never a concern. :shrug:

 

[JVH]

Thank you one and all for all your comments and suggestions I appreciate and respect everyone's opinion here! I do realize what works for some may not work for everyone.. Problem is everything is trial and error with a newbie.. I was enjoying my tank and everything was going perfectly I knew I was going to Qt new fish eventually I knew there was a chance I can come down with a disease I wasn't expecting it to happen so soon ( stupid me!) did and is just turned everything upside down! And to make matters worse I lost 2 fish !
Now I have another problem I have a nitrite spike! I can tell you the wind has been knocked out of my sails! I did a 20% water change last night and helped very little so I added prime since it was an emergency to try and neutralize the situation but it didn't seem to help so I will do like a 50% water change tonight in hopes to get my levels back to normal..
Tossed turned in bed had bad dreams about giant fish in my living room flooding and my floor collapsing! This has been way more than I bargained for and I know now I'm not cut out for the upgrade I was planning...
I don't mind the maintenance I don't mind the water changes I love the chemistry and the testing and love everything about it but this ick issue now the toxicity levels of my tank are too much! Watching fish suffer is not something I want to do.. now I want to get my remaining fish healthy back in the original display tank in a couple of weeks and haveThank you one and all for all your comments and suggestions I appreciate and respect everyone's opinion here! I do realize what works for some enough work for everyone.. Problem is everything is trial and error with a newbie.. I was enjoying my time and everything was going perfectly I knew I was going to Corentine new fish eventually I knew there was a chance I can come down with the disease I wasn't expecting it to happen when I did and is just turned everything upside down! And to make matters worse I lost 2 fish !
Now I have another problem I have a nitrite spike! I can tell you the wind has been knocked out of my sails! I did a 20% water change last night and helped very little so I will do like a 50% water change tonight in hopes to get my levels back to normal.. Tossed turned in bed had bad dreams about giant fish in my living room flooding and my floor collapsing! This has been way more than I bargained for and I know now I'm not cut out for the upgrade I was planning... I don't mind the maintenance I don't mind the water changes I love the chemistry and the testing and love everything about it but this ick issue now the toxicity levels of my tank are too much! Watching fish suffer is not something Anyone wants to deal with horse but I am a huge animal lover and I'm sick to my stomach over this!
now I want to get my remaining fish healthy back in the original display tank in a couple of weeks and have a successful 29 gallon reef tank like I started out with! I will be happy if I can accomplish that much..
a successful 29 gallon reef tank like I started out with! I will be happy if I can accomplish that much..

 

[JVH]

I really don't want to get involved in an ich thread because of the arguments, but (and I know I am going to regret this) I agree with your LFS for the most part. When you take advice from someone, look at their tanks and their successes. If his tank looks healthy and the fish are years old, he probably knows what he is talking about and doesn't go by rumors. Yes, of course ich can kill all your fish in a couple of days. Everyone knows that. But many very old tanks (such as mine and maybe your LFS) don't have any problems with ich and never will. Not in a few years, or ten years, I mean never. We also all know the life cycle and that copper kills ich. If you just throw fish in a tank and feed flakes, pellets and go about your business, the fish will probably die of ich. That's not how to do it. But so many people don't listen, or don't want to learn the entire story before saying that you must quarantine or else. There is much more to it than that and I have been keeping fish for 60+ years so I learned a little about them. Fish evolved with ich and are perfectly able to eliminate it from their bodies and stay even healthier than if they never met ich. My 24 year old fish have never had ich and will never get it. I add mud, snails, amphipods, crabs and small fish from the ocean and buy from all different LFSs all the time. My reef is 44 years old and there has not been ich in there for probably 35 years. That's when I learned the secret. But I have written about it many, many times and am tired of people calling me lucky (or just nuts) So learn all you can, but try to learn from people who have healthy, spawning fish for 10, 15, or 20 years with no problems. There are many ways to do this and many arguments about it. Sorry to screw up your thread. Have fun and good luck with your fish.

Thanks for your input! I now have a bigger more serious issue.. Just posted I don't know if you saw it yet my my nitrite levels we're off the chart last night I did a water cange and did some prime and managed to get it down some but they are still high I will do another WC tonight I'm going to try and do 50% I was testing every three or four days my qt tank.. Then a rookie mistake! My one test paper had the very slightest color to it and I didn't test until the evening with the liquid test kit..
Because...We were on our way out of the house for the entire day on a long trip and I assumed everybody would be okay until I came home! And when I tested with the API kit nitrite was off the charts!

Because I wasn't home I didn't get to observe my fish but when I came home and started looking at them and realized there was something happening! Again rookie mistake! I should've stayed home didn't think things can change so drastically so soon! Now I am paying for it and I'm really sick to my stomach over this mess... Seen my clown flutter like a hummingbird makes me want to throw up! Now I am at work again and can't do anything but I will leave early and by 4 o'clock have them in 50% better water and I hope my levels will be better.. After my water change last night I added some prime since the levels didn't change much and I will say the fish seemed much calmer and more relaxed. And I hope my fish will still be alive when I get home..
As I said in my post the wind has been knocked out of my sales for sure! My upgrade is certainly put on hold..
Got to work on what I have! Thank you for your comments earlier amazing that your tank has been up and running for so long. Love to see some pictures

 

[JVH]

About the 72 day thing... that comes from one strain of ich which was discovered in a single study. To my knowledge, it has never been encountered again. The vast majority of the time, ich completes its life cycle in 2-4 weeks. So, that lines up with conventional QT protocols.

For corals/inverts, it would be best to place them in a fishless frag tank for 72 days. This is probably overkill (I personally only QT my corals/inverts for 4-6 weeks), but 72 days takes into account the Colorni and Burgess (1997) study, where it took theronts between 3-72 days to emerge from a group of tomonts. Tomonts are what can encyst upon corals/inverts and have the longest stage of ich's life cycle.

A fish infected with ich is only carrying the trophont stage, which typically spends 3-7 days feeding on a fish before dropping off. Knowing this, you can use TTM to treat a fish with ich or for prophylactic QT. TTM only takes 13 days to complete and more info can be found here: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-diagnosis/192655-tank-transfer-method.html

Thanks for all your input and advice I'm learning by trial and error and it stinks I don't know if you saw my post but I am having an issue with nitrite now..
Some rookie mistakes and learning and reading everything to set up a tank apparently wasn't enough I wasn't counting on everybody coming down with a disease so soon. Guess that was my first mistake

 

[Humblefish]

JVH High nitrites in your DT? What is the ammonia reading? How long has this tank been setup?

 

[JVH]

JVH High nitrites in your DT? What is the ammonia reading? How long has this tank been setup?

No! Sorry I was not being clear high nitrite in the quarantine tank with the sick fish!
I have an ammonia badge.. And it seemed okay.. I did a quick dipl test in the morning before I left for the day and sometimes they're hard to read because the colors ever so slightly seem off... I knew I couldn't do anything this we had to leave so I put a little bit of prime in hopes that that would help neutralize everything and when I came home it was off the charts!! Did a water change last night late with all the water that I had available... Will do another change today I'm going to try and do about a 50% water change in hopes to bring the level back to normal I posted something on this thread with a little more detail about what happened.. Very frustrated! Most importantly I feel awful for the fish.
My display tank is fallow with shrimp and inverts everybody doing well coral thriving and all levels are perfect! I almost wanted to put the fish back in the display tank! But then we're going to start with the ankle over again because it's only been two weeks.... Any thoughts on what else I can do besides water change?

 

[Humblefish]

Is copper still present in the QT with the high nitrites?

 

[JVH]

Is copper still present in the QT with the high nitrites?

Unfortunately my test did not arrive yet another mistake! I should've just picked one up! Should arrive today but I did add the appropriate amount of copper to the new water after I did the water change.. Matched the salinity and temperature

 

[Humblefish]

Unfortunately my test did not arrive yet another mistake! I should've just picked one up! Should arrive today but I did add the appropriate amount of copper to the new water after I did the water change.. Matched the salinity and temperature

If copper is present in the water, you will get false positives when testing for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, etc. Using most powder or liquid test kits (I believe Seachem ammonia test kit claims to still work even in the presence of Cupramine.) I rely solely upon the Seachem ammonia alert badge when treating with copper.

 

[JVH]

If copper is present in the water, you will get false positives when testing for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, etc. Using most powder or liquid test kits (I believe Seachem ammonia test kit claims to still work even in the presence of Cupramine.) I rely solely upon the Seachem ammonia alert badge when treating with copper.

My nitrite have have been showing no color change and all of a sudden it is and my fish are in distress similar symptoms from what I've read about nitrite being high... I do have the badge.. Still in the yellow range of appropriate numbers.. Going to do another water change tonight and hope for the best I am at a loss

 

[Humblefish]

My nitrite have have been showing no color change and all of a sudden it is and my fish are in distress similar symptoms from what I've read about nitrite being high... I do have the badge.. Still in the yellow range of appropriate numbers.. Going to do another water change tonight and hope for the best I am at a loss

Nitrites and nitrates have no effect on fish, except possibly at insanely high levels. However, even a little bit of ammonia is detrimental for fish.