Current Status: Any suggestions

newreef1 · Jun 9, 2022

Hey guys, a lot of you guys helped me when my fish were infected with ICH and gave me all sorts of ideas and tips on what to do. So here’s an update and if you guys have any other suggestions, ideas, tips Id love to hear it. So my fish with ICH have been quarantined with Copper and in the QT for about 5 weeks now. They’re doing well and I don’t see any more spots or faint white marks where spots were anymore so I think it’s time to move them into the DT. The DT around the same time was struggling with the green/brown algae or dinos I think, it covered the sand, glass and stuff but wasn’t stringy or slimy. I had decided to turn off the lights for a few days and that helped control them. I ended up keeping the lights off for three weeks as the tank is already in a decently naturally lit spot and the fish were doing fine. since I also haven’t done a water change, ammonia, nitrates and all look fine. I’m planning on doing a water change tomorrow or this weekend. I have around 60-70 gallons salt water mixed, I have a 200 gallon tank. Once I do the water change I plan to take the fish from the QT, maybe do a quick freshwater dip in a bucket to remove any copper on them and then move them to the DT. I didn’t want to use carbon to remove the cooper as I have two tangs who I think the copper has already affected their color and also since I don’t plan on reusing the same water. I’ll disinfect and use new water for QTing new fish next time. I have a siphon and purchased a long hose which I hope to put in my bathroom sink so I don’t have to carry gallons of water to and from the tank, not sure if the long length of hose will work with the siphoning, fingers crossed. Although thinking for the first time to manually siphon in 5 gallon buckets so I can mark my tank 5 gallon increments so I’m the future I have idea of how many gallons I removed. I will sift the sand, scrub the glass, and try to move any debri off the rocks prior to water change. So that’s the plan, what do you guys think? Any ideas or suggestions? I’m also thinking of cleaning my sump, the return chamber has some debri on the bottom. Any tips or ideas that help you guys or would make my life easy is appreciated! Thanks I’m advance!

Rtaylor · Jun 9, 2022

Might want to get some bottled bacteria since the tank has been empty so long it likely has had a decrease in nitrifying bacteria.

bnord · Jun 9, 2022

Agree with above and what I. like to does get 2 types of bottled bac and add them 3-4 days apart - to add to the diversity
Reefbuilders suggests adding a couple of hardy corals to bring in more heathy bacteria - I have done that to no ill effect

Amelanchier · Jun 9, 2022

If I understand your timeline correctly I’d wait to put your fish back in the display tank. The ich lifecycle involves phases where the parasites are not on the fish, but are in the tank. It takes 76 days for ich to die out in a display tank once all fish have been removed. If you put your fish back in the display tank they can just get ich again.

That said there’s always the possibility of bringing ich in on anything wet (coral, snails, whatever) so unless you also QT anything else wet for 76 days in the future there’s no guarantee you’ll avoid ich in the future.

Personally I’d keep fish out of the display tank for a full 76 days since right now you *know* it has ich, and for the future read up on humblefish’s ich management vs ich eradication to decide how you’ll handle risk in the future. If you google “humblefish ich eradication ich management” you should find information in order to make informed choices

sixty_reefer · Jun 9, 2022

Are you ghost feeding the tank wile your fish on quarantine?

newreef1 · Jun 9, 2022

newreef1 said:
Hey guys, a lot of you guys helped me when my fish were infected with ICH and gave me all sorts of ideas and tips on what to do. So here’s an update and if you guys have any other suggestions, ideas, tips Id love to hear it. So my fish with ICH have been quarantined with Copper and in the QT for about 5 weeks now. They’re doing well and I don’t see any more spots or faint white marks where spots were anymore so I think it’s time to move them into the DT. The DT around the same time was struggling with the green/brown algae or dinos I think, it covered the sand, glass and stuff but wasn’t stringy or slimy. I had decided to turn off the lights for a few days and that helped control them. I ended up keeping the lights off for three weeks as the tank is already in a decently naturally lit spot and the fish were doing fine. since I also haven’t done a water change, ammonia, nitrates and all look fine. I’m planning on doing a water change tomorrow or this weekend. I have around 60-70 gallons salt water mixed, I have a 200 gallon tank. Once I do the water change I plan to take the fish from the QT, maybe do a quick freshwater dip in a bucket to remove any copper on them and then move them to the DT. I didn’t want to use carbon to remove the cooper as I have two tangs who I think the copper has already affected their color and also since I don’t plan on reusing the same water. I’ll disinfect and use new water for QTing new fish next time. I have a siphon and purchased a long hose which I hope to put in my bathroom sink so I don’t have to carry gallons of water to and from the tank, not sure if the long length of hose will work with the siphoning, fingers crossed. Although thinking for the first time to manually siphon in 5 gallon buckets so I can mark my tank 5 gallon increments so I’m the future I have idea of how many gallons I removed. I will sift the sand, scrub the glass, and try to move any debri off the rocks prior to water change. So that’s the plan, what do you guys think? Any ideas or suggestions? I’m also thinking of cleaning my sump, the return chamber has some debri on the bottom. Any tips or ideas that help you guys or would make my life easy is appreciated! Thanks I’m advance!

Sorry guys I should’ve clarified. Only the new fish that had ICH are in the QT. My DT is doing fine with no ICH and I already have fish in there, a clown tang, two clownfish, two damsels, longnose hawk fish. They were also quarantined prior to placing in tank. So there is fish in the DT, it’s not empty. I do however have the Seachem bacteria which I can add some of post the water change.

newreef1 · Jun 9, 2022

bnord said:
Agree with above and what I. like to does get 2 types of bottled bac and add them 3-4 days apart - to add to the diversity
Reefbuilders suggests adding a couple of hardy corals to bring in more heathy bacteria - I have done that to no ill effect

What hardy corals do you recommend. I’d to like to start on corals but not sure if I’m ready to purchase the dosing machinery yet.

Amelanchier · Jun 9, 2022

newreef1 said:
Sorry guys I should’ve clarified. Only the new fish that had ICH are in the QT. My DT is doing fine with no ICH

Oh that’s great to hear.

As for corals/dosing: you only need to dose when your testing shows that your tank is steadily consuming more calcium and alkalinity than can (more or less) be replaced with water changes. So, even if you get stony corals you’ll have some amount of time before you need to figure out dosing. That said, you don’t need to dose calc and alk with soft corals. Are there any softies you like? What are you ultimately hoping to keep?