Ich....ugh

[jkelaghan]

Well my new red sea 525 has been running for almost 3 months and now looks like i will lose my fish. My tank had 2 clown's, 1 yellow watchman, 1 bi color, 1 lawnmower, 1 yellow and 1 powder brown. So far here is what happened:
Yellow watchman jumped to his death
few days later Powder brown started scratching but only for one day...then i noticed some spots on fins two days later...
Had the lawnmower for 4 days and he started just lying around on sand not moving much
Yesterday found lawnmower dead in a cave in the rock and the Powder brown was in the same cave and would not come out.
I took out the dead lawnmower and saw that the brown was covered in Ich. I was able to remove the brown as he was not moving much.
Now i have the yellow tang, bi color blenny and 2 clowns. Not sure if they will survive this and/or if its better if they die so that i can wait and have the ich die off.
My understanding is that as long as there are fish the tank will have Ich......if that is true can i ever get more fish if the clowns dont die?
I have coral so can't add copper. UGH

 

[DungSl1nger]

I assume you do not have a quarantine set up?

 

[Twitchy]

If it was me I'd pick up a 20 gal Long (petco had them for like $20 last week locally) a cheap sponge filter (paid $6 for my last one) air pump, some copper power, a copper test kit and some prime. a couple of PVC fittings for fish hiding spots. you can usually get out for under $45 in total if you know where to look, even cheaper if you have some of the stuff... (walmart has a lot of cheap tank stuffs) Set up a quick QT tank. copper power is easy to use, and compatible with prime. Prime is awesome for keeping ammonia, and nitrites from becoming toxic to your fish. Set it up somewhere in your house temporarily , and play the waiting game. Best part it you will have the stuff later if you ever need to QT again.

As far as the tank having ich with remaining fish... Ich management is also a thing, the fish who survive and get better, will be resistant to that strain, and as long as you don't put ich sensitive fish in the system you may never see it again, it really comes down to the types of fish you hope to keep, and if you are willing to "manage" the parasite.
This is a good read on the topic ich eradication vs ich management