Cobalt 45 with ICK

[GoTakeANap]

Hello everyone. This tank has been running for about 4 months now. No coral or inverts in the tank period. Just a small hippo tang, clown, watchmen goby and a pink streak wrasse. Custom built scape and sand on the bottom. I added the hippo that is less than a inch in size to this tank to grow up before adding it to my main display tank and was bought as quarantined as the previous 3 fish were as well with no issues. Hippo has ick on its body and the other 3 fish show no signs.

Can I treat this tank with a copper since it does not have any coral or inverts in it and get rid of this problem and then run carbon for a weeks and eventually turn it into a reef tank with inverts or once I put copper treatment in, I will never be able to use this system as a reef tank with inverts? Any advice? Setting up a hospital tank is not an option at this point unfortunately.

What are my options?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello everyone. This tank has been running for about 4 months now. No coral or inverts in the tank period. Just a small hippo tang, clown, watchmen goby and a pink streak wrasse. Custom built scape and sand on the bottom. I added the hippo that is less than a inch in size to this tank to grow up before adding it to my main display tank and was bought as quarantined as the previous 3 fish were as well with no issues. Hippo has ick on its body and the other 3 fish show no signs.

Can I treat this tank with a copper since it does not have any coral or inverts in it and get rid of this problem and then run carbon for a weeks and eventually turn it into a reef tank with inverts or once I put copper treatment in, I will never be able to use this system as a reef tank with inverts? Any advice? Setting up a hospital tank is not an option at this point unfortunately.

What are my options?

The first thing I think you need to do is to try and confirm that this is actually ich. When I hear that only a blue tang has spots and none of the other fish does, that can mean the tang just has mucus plugs. These are caused by stress. Unfortunately, ich can be the cause of these plugs, but there are other, non-deadly causes as well.

If you can post a clear video of the fish, I might be able to confirm for you.

If you are confident that it is ich, your better option would be to run the tank with hyposalinity. The benefit here is that if you use copper, some of that will absorb into the rocks. With hyposalinity, that isn't an issue.

Here is a post I wrote about the technique:

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2021 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[GoTakeANap]

I’ll try and get a video or photo for u to see it. The hippo is rubbing against the rocks constantly but isn’t covered in it. Had ick in a tank about 10 years ago and it looks the same.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’ll try and get a video or photo for u to see it. The hippo is rubbing against the rocks constantly but isn’t covered in it. Had ick in a tank about 10 years ago and it looks the same.

Please post under white lighting and run video at least 25-30 seconds.
Agree on Hyposalinity (1.009) versus copper. Carbomn will decease it- not totally remove. Cuprisorb removes copper quite well but any traces remaining can cause an issue with mainly future coral.