Ich Frustration

gammarho55 · Apr 7, 2019

So, I'm about done. I've had a couple of tanks now- a Red Sea 130D and now a Red Sea 425XL- in which I've managed to get Ich in the tank. The first couple of times I can look myself square in the eye and know that I didn't do everything I could to make sure my fish were disease free before entering the DT. But this time was supposed to be different...
I broke down and bought a 30G quarantine tank, made sure I dosed copper power in the correct way and at the right levels (Hanna), and even kept the fish in QT wayyyy longer than I should have (about 3 1/2 months) just to make sure. I had a tomini and a bonded pair of black phantom clowns go into QT at the same time. Told myself they were gonna be the only ones for a while, as I didn't want to rush anything. I thought I saw a spot on the tang in the first couple of days, but then quickly went away. There weren't any further signs of any parasites or diseases after that.
But unfortunately, I think I have it again. Please take a look at the video I posted on youtube and help me verify what I already think it might be.
I told myself that if I did everything right this time, and still managed to get something in the tank, that I was gonna fold up shop. It's just so difficult to look my wife in the face, after all the money spent, headaches caused and enjoyment had that come with this hobby, and tell her that we're gonna have an empty box of water in our living room for another 3 months. Just don't know if I can do that again.
Thanks to everyone on this forum (especially HotRocks and Humblefish) for all the great write-ups on QT'ing fish that I've been trying to follow.
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http...TpXIhkYeM5UYnioM6ToWydJSSEJ0ulhlmSLppzCkqiUDg

Biocube32 · Apr 7, 2019

Sorry you are going through this. There was a tang thread recently on the front page that had a parasite that looked suspiciously like your video.

dwest · Apr 7, 2019

gammarho55 said:
So, I'm about done. I've had a couple of tanks now- a Red Sea 130D and now a Red Sea 425XL- in which I've managed to get Ich in the tank. The first couple of times I can look myself square in the eye and know that I didn't do everything I could to make sure my fish were disease free before entering the DT. But this time was supposed to be different...
I broke down and bought a 30G quarantine tank, made sure I dosed copper power in the correct way and at the right levels (Hanna), and even kept the fish in QT wayyyy longer than I should have (about 3 1/2 months) just to make sure. I had a tomini and a bonded pair of black phantom clowns go into QT at the same time. Told myself they were gonna be the only ones for a while, as I didn't want to rush anything. I thought I saw a spot on the tang in the first couple of days, but then quickly went away. There weren't any further signs of any parasites or diseases after that.
But unfortunately, I think I have it again. Please take a look at the video I posted on youtube and help me verify what I already think it might be.
I told myself that if I did everything right this time, and still managed to get something in the tank, that I was gonna fold up shop. It's just so difficult to look my wife in the face, after all the money spent, headaches caused and enjoyment had that come with this hobby, and tell her that we're gonna have an empty box of water in our living room for another 3 months. Just don't know if I can do that again.
Thanks to everyone on this forum (especially HotRocks and Humblefish) for all the great write-ups on QT'ing fish that I've been trying to follow.
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9io5L2noJUY&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2R_DMcXMclWRmsWPCvD5lWRq92rVX6VGfl_B-ldh4blg5iwju2dPNvBNA&h=AT3f1HVDkJHtvgdk2RzxXqLdX8JJv0G6QNcAdSEKtqbhOe3zyEO6-6jPlWt0sgU1PsJV-VA5wTd5KOKBIc63Xhj-88y6zZwJlxIDFTpXIhkYeM5UYnioM6ToWydJSSEJ0ulhlmSLppzCkqiUDg

Dang, sorry. Looks like ich or velvet to me. Did you really do a 3 month fallow period with with no fish and this happened? Did I read that right? Again, sorry.

gammarho55 · Apr 7, 2019

dwest said:
Dang, sorry. Looks like ich or velvet to me. Did you really do a 3 month fallow period with with no fish and this happened? Did I read that right? Again, sorry.

Yep, just so happened that the time I put the fish into QT was right before the holidays so there was never a good time to get them out and properly acclimated. I figured better safe than sorry, but I guess I was wrong.

gammarho55 · Apr 7, 2019

Biocube32 said:
Sorry you are going through this. There was a tang thread recently on the front page that had a parasite that looked suspiciously like your video.

I'll go searching for it. Got my fingers crossed for something else. Thanks!

gammarho55 · Apr 8, 2019

Anyone else? #reefsquad

4FordFamily · Apr 8, 2019

Well that does look like velvet or ich to me, I agree.

For me, I cross-contaminated repeatedly during quarantine. Here are some errors I learned the hard way with treating fish that led to reinfection:

1) Leaving a fish in the sump (I had no idea my tiny watchman goby had survived I assumed it dead when it vanished, but discovered it in my sump after my "fallow" period... oops!)
2) Cross-contamination -- I've done this with fish food, nets, hoses for water changes, and even my arm.
3) Adding fish during quarantine (not a full 30 days or 14 then transfer)
4) Not testing copper levels often enough (honestly I recommend 2.0PPM because we had velvet make it through at 1.75 just recently in observation).
5) Adding inverts/coral/rock or anything else without running it fallow

It's stressful, but once you accept the new rules and play accordingly, it is a lot less stressful.

What level of copper did you use? I think @HotRocks and I are changing the stickies to 2.0PPM because velvet made it through Copper Power and 1.75PPM this last run at our house on a large batch.

Sorry for the trouble, as you can see by my list above, I made all the mistakes in the book, one of many reasons we have good advice here -- others can learn from our mistakes!

dwest · Apr 8, 2019

4FordFamily said:
Well that does look like velvet or ich to me, I agree.

For me, I cross-contaminated repeatedly during quarantine. Here are some errors I learned the hard way with treating fish that led to reinfection:

1) Leaving a fish in the sump (I had no idea my tiny watchman goby had survived I assumed it dead when it vanished, but discovered it in my sump after my "fallow" period... oops!)
2) Cross-contamination -- I've done this with fish food, nets, hoses for water changes, and even my arm.
3) Adding fish during quarantine (not a full 30 days or 14 then transfer)
4) Not testing copper levels often enough (honestly I recommend 2.0PPM because we had velvet make it through at 1.75 just recently in observation).
5) Adding inverts/coral/rock or anything else without running it fallow

It's stressful, but once you accept the new rules and play accordingly, it is a lot less stressful.

What level of copper did you use? I think @HotRocks and I are changing the stickies to 2.0PPM because velvet made it through Copper Power and 1.75PPM this last run at our house on a large batch.

Sorry for the trouble, as you can see by my list above, I made all the mistakes in the book, one of many reasons we have good advice here -- others can learn from our mistakes!

Velvet making through 1.75 ppm is big news!

gammarho55 · Apr 8, 2019

4FordFamily said:
Well that does look like velvet or ich to me, I agree.

For me, I cross-contaminated repeatedly during quarantine. Here are some errors I learned the hard way with treating fish that led to reinfection:

1) Leaving a fish in the sump (I had no idea my tiny watchman goby had survived I assumed it dead when it vanished, but discovered it in my sump after my "fallow" period... oops!)
2) Cross-contamination -- I've done this with fish food, nets, hoses for water changes, and even my arm.
3) Adding fish during quarantine (not a full 30 days or 14 then transfer)
4) Not testing copper levels often enough (honestly I recommend 2.0PPM because we had velvet make it through at 1.75 just recently in observation).
5) Adding inverts/coral/rock or anything else without running it fallow

It's stressful, but once you accept the new rules and play accordingly, it is a lot less stressful.

What level of copper did you use? I think @HotRocks and I are changing the stickies to 2.0PPM because velvet made it through Copper Power and 1.75PPM this last run at our house on a large batch.

Sorry for the trouble, as you can see by my list above, I made all the mistakes in the book, one of many reasons we have good advice here -- others can learn from our mistakes!

Yep, followed a pretty strict QT process and went way longer than what I need to.
1) Had zero fish in the tank/sump
2) Bought all new stuff for the QT tank as I knew it couldn't be used back and forth with the DT
3) Only had the 3 fish in QT and added at same time
4) Ran most of the time spent in QT was at 1.67 according to my Hanna checker, but bumped it up to 1.98 as I wanted to be as close to the 2.0 as possible.
5) Nothing else got added during this time. The coral I had in the tank were already not doing great without nitrates/phosphates from the fish and their feedings, so I didn't want to add coral just to see it crash.

Thanks for the reply.