I made the mistake of not quarantining my tank because I thought it was pointless. I wouldn’t quarantine inverts or corals for 76 days…so I thought diseases and parasites were guaranteed.
I have an 80 watt uv sterilizer (for 600 gallons) in my 250 gallon tank. I run 5 micron filter socks (although I think they stretched out by now and probably won’t filter anymore parasites).
I haven’t lost a fish yet, but my tangs get ich and drop it off, then get reinfected a few weeks later. And the cycle continues. Right now it looks like one of my fish had a reaction from flukes and I see another fish scratching against rocks.
Quarantine is not possible because I have around 30 fish (most small but some are quite large). There’s no way to tear down the tank and have multiple setups of quarantine. I really can’t afford to waste 76 days of babysitting these fish. I know I will have a massive die off from ammonia or reduced appetite from meds. It happened before when I tried to quarantine.
So it seems I’m stuck on management. I cannot remove any fish for dips or treatments without tearing down the tank. Should I run a diatom filter? What are my best options for parasite management? I don’t have Velvet because my fish would have died already. I’m thinking ich, flukes. Fish poops are not white nor stringy which rules out worms.
I have an 80 watt uv sterilizer (for 600 gallons) in my 250 gallon tank. I run 5 micron filter socks (although I think they stretched out by now and probably won’t filter anymore parasites).
I haven’t lost a fish yet, but my tangs get ich and drop it off, then get reinfected a few weeks later. And the cycle continues. Right now it looks like one of my fish had a reaction from flukes and I see another fish scratching against rocks.
Quarantine is not possible because I have around 30 fish (most small but some are quite large). There’s no way to tear down the tank and have multiple setups of quarantine. I really can’t afford to waste 76 days of babysitting these fish. I know I will have a massive die off from ammonia or reduced appetite from meds. It happened before when I tried to quarantine.
So it seems I’m stuck on management. I cannot remove any fish for dips or treatments without tearing down the tank. Should I run a diatom filter? What are my best options for parasite management? I don’t have Velvet because my fish would have died already. I’m thinking ich, flukes. Fish poops are not white nor stringy which rules out worms.