EMERGENCY

[Annelise]

I may have just killed my 10g reef tank. I noticed Ick on my new (2 days) juvenile 6line wrase, but my pygmy dwarf angelfish seemed fine. (its a grow out tank and I'm in the process of setting up a 30g reef tank). Anyways, without thinking, I knew I had Marineland Ick Remedy from when my 20l freshwater tank had ick, and poured the suggested amount in my reef tank. THEN I realized, omg what if this isn't invert safe.. and I don't think it is from reading other things but nothing is clear!!!!!!! Did I just kill my tank?! Water params are all great, as of right before the dosing. I have the 6 line, pygmy dwarf angle, peppermint shrimp, 2 trochus snails, 1 mexican something snail, 1 brittle star, 2 blue legged hermits, 1 scarlet hermit, 1 frogspawn head, gsp 'colony' a couple heads of pulsing xenia, some shrooms, and some coral I can't figure out the name of. Its sort of like a bigger zoanthid, but flow? I'm so stressed, help!!!

 

[Annelise]

Also, i realize the tank is overstocked, as I said, the new tank is being cycled and i acquired the fish on am 'emergency' basis i guess you could say? a friends tank crashed (literally crashed to the ground and shattered) they had to give away the remaining fish that survived, so I got 2 hermits, the brittle star, and the dwarf pygmy angelfish from that. The wrase was my decision because he is such a small fish, and I had a lot of isopods, so I figured he'd be good in there while the new tank is cycling.

 

[Annelise]

ALSO: active ingredients on the bottle: Victoria green, nitromersol

 

[Reab]

How far along in the cycle is the new tank?

 

[MSB123]

How far along in the cycle is the new tank?

#reefsquad

 

[MSB123]

@Humblefish @4FordFamily

 

[Annelise]

How far along in the cycle is the new tank?

Literally a day. there isn't even live rock in it yet

 

[MSB123]

Literally a day. there isn't even live rock in it yet

That’s a big issue.
Your fish will most likely die of ammonia.
My advice would be to do a 50% water change ASAP and then do another 50% in 12 hours.

 

[Annelise]

That’s a big issue.
Your fish will most likely die of ammonia.
My advice would be to do a 50% water change ASAP and then do another 50% in 12 hours.

The fish would die of ammonia because of the ick remedy??? I was really just concerned for my inverts

 

[Reab]

You could move into the new tank the moment you have some rock in there. Or at least a sponge. Somewhere for bacteria to collect. Then add some sort of bacteria, stability, turbostart, bio-spira, etc. I’ve started many tanks this way and they have all done well.

 

[Annelise]

You could move into the new tank the moment you have some rock in there. Or at least a sponge. Somewhere for bacteria to collect. Then add some sort of bacteria, stability, turbostart, bio-spira, etc. I’ve started many tanks this way and they have all done well.

Do you think one dose of this will really kill the whole tank?

 

[Reab]

Does the medication have copper?

 

[robert]

OOPS -

Victoria green is malachite and nitromersol is an organic mercury - not reef safe - so get your stuff out of it quickly.

The good news is that its a 10gal tank right? And you haven't added live rock yet - so that's fortunate - it could have been worse.

I would mix up a enough salt water to hold everything maybe 3-5 gallons worth - temperature match, and net move everything living into it as soon as I could.

I would then drain and rinse everything in the tank, refill with salt water, temperature match again and net move everything back into the tank. Go fast but no need to panic.

As far as ammonia and lack of cycle. Get a larger bottle of "seachem prime" (or "seachem safe") and dose for the tank volume as soon as you get the stock moved back in. If you don't have prime tonight - that's ok - the ammonia wont build that fast - tomorrow is fine.

Don't bother testing other than temp and salinity for a while - they wont read correctly and it will only scare you - but the prime really does work at neutralizing ammonia.

Dose prime every third day along with a 2 gallon water change. Keep an eye on your stock and feel free to add prime anytime anything looks amiss. I've used way more than recommended and never hurt anything with it.

Anything dead or clearly dying - remove immediately and get some GAC on the tank.

I've skipped cycle many times with livestock including corals, and you can manage your way through with prime -

I bet you come out better than you imagine...good luck.

 

[Reab]

Why waste time with the 10 gal. Just skip the cycle of the 30.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Get a bottle of biospira (Amazon has it next day delivery) you are going to build ammonia quick. Get water ready and dont be surpised if you have to do daily WC’s.

 

[Annelise]

Alright, I'm pretty scared about skipping the cycle on the 30g, lol. When I woke up this morning the tank actually looks really good. most of the coral was closed up, but they are every morning before i turn the lights on. I turned th light on and everything opened, looking just fine, and all the inverts are scooting along, plus the 6line's ich is almost gone! Did I just get lucky, or does it take time to kill?

 

[Annelise]

Also, once I get rid of the ice remedy, how should I continue treating the 6 line?

 

[jordan be]

I’m not really experienced enough to say this will work, but maybe put all the inverts, live rock, etc in the 30 that you have in the 10 along with the angelfish and keep the 6 line in the empty 10g until the ich is gone??

 

[SeaDweller]

If I were you, I'd probably give my livestock away as you're going to be in a constant QT situation until you have a cycled tank OR buy some established live rock from someone ASAP.

If it's ICH that your wrasse has, do not put it into your new system. You have a few methods to treat it
1) cupramine or copper
2) tank transfer

I've probably killed more fish than I want to ever imagine by following the "protocols" on reef central more than anything, ICH isn't THAT bad, if it's ICH.

But what you are doing isn't helping any of the animals you have, so yes do 100% water change, get some live rock and if you must keep your current livestock, then treat your situation as a QT situation where you constantly have to check for ammonia, as that will kill everything. Get an ammonia alert badge, and some Prime to detoxify the ammonia temporarily.

Personally, to me, not worth it but if you give away your stuff now you risk introducing what you may have into someone else's tank. This hobby is all about slow and steady, but at least you can probably buy some live rock and established sand from someone close to you. Good luck.

 

[Annelise]

Okay, I went to my lfs, and they had a lot of live rock that is already cycled and I also got live sand. Just put everything in the tank and waiting for the water to clear up. I put a good portion if my biomedia from the 10g in the 30g so I have that established bacteria as well, and it's all plastic. I also put activated charcoal in. The LR from my lfs is mined, then treated, from there they put it in a bacteria heavy system and wait for the LR to turn purple (The good purple algae, I forget what its called). They they cycle the rock again, and send it to my LFS where he puts all the rock in his system that he put ll the coral frags in (which has a good amount of fish, inverts, etc) So its very established rock, and I got 12lbs of it, and another 8lbs of dry rock to build up the rock work. I also put a very small amount of already decayed mysis shrimp (about enough to fit on the head of a dime) so the bacteria has something to eat before the fish are in there. How does this sound to you guys?? thoughts concerns?? Temp and salinity are the same in both 30g and 10g. about to test everything else to see where it stands. About to put a PH buffer in as well.