Need advice on adding coral after a tank reset

spearo0352 · Mar 21, 2022

I just recently had a crash of my 20g mixed reef and restarted the tank from scratch yesterday except for the biomedia which I am reusing in the hopes of skipping a major cycle. I also used some water from an established tank. In the meantime I have my clownfish, watchman goby, cuc and corals in my 10g quarantine tank. Normally I'd let my display sit with the lights off for a month or 2 to let the new rock cure but I noticed the fish in my quarantine have the dreaded white spots. I want to treat them but in order to do that I need to move my coral and cuc into the newly restarted display. Again, I am using my old biomedia and dumped some turbostart in for good measure but I'm still apprehensive about adding the corals this early (more concerned with algae growth and parameter wings than ammonia/nitrite). On the other hand I dont want to sacrifice my fish and keep them in the empty 10g any longer than they have to be.

Display params as of now
temp 78
ammonia/nitrite-0
nitrate-5ppm
po4-.02
salinity 1.025
ph 8
alk 9.4
calcium 450

MERKEY · Mar 21, 2022

Sounds like your fish have ich. Without pictures and more info we don't really know.

Even if you start over, when you use anything from that tank it will carry the parasite with it.

I'm sorry you are dealing with this.

We need some pictures of the fish to diagnose the parasite first.

Doctorgori · Mar 21, 2022

my 2 cents, hold off, treat the fish. You got the $ or room for a larger QT?

spearo0352 · Mar 21, 2022

I know that the fish have ich and I plan on treating the fish, the problem is in order to treat them I have to move my coral over to my display tank which has brand new rock in it. The crash was coral related since all my corals were dying over a period of about 3 weeks despite doing really well and growing prior to that. Sent out an icp, huge water changes, deep cleaned but nothing was working and there was really no explanation for the crash. Tank should be free of ich since I completely deep cleaned it and the only thing being reused is the biomedia pellets. Im not worried about the dt having ich though because the fish are in quarantine and its going to be under a fallow period. Dont really have the $$$ or space for a larger qt tank at the moment so the 10 gallon is the best I can do. Thankfully my lfs was willing to take care of my clownfish that was in the worst shape since the outbreak started before I had my qt fully up and running but as for the other clown and goby its on me to take care of them in the 10g.

MERKEY · Mar 21, 2022

spearo0352 said:
I plan on treating the fish, the problem is in order to treat them I have to move my coral over to my display tank which has brand new rock in it. The crash was coral related since all my corals were dying over a period of about 3 weeks. Tank should be free of ich since I completely deep cleaned it and the only thing being reused is the biomedia pellets. Im not worried about the dt having ich though because the fish are in quarantine and its going to be under a fallow period.

How are you treating?