So I think this all started with the intro of our new blue hippo tang.. she came in and within a week started showing ich-like symptoms and quickly the powder brown and yellow tang go them too. We started treating the tank with PolypLab's Medic at 4 scoops per dose. Within a week the powder brown started looking way worse - with so many spots and some areas the spots looked like clusters. He wasn't moving as well as he normally did but still ate.. however he ended up passing shortly after. The next death was our mandarin a few days later.. he didn't seem ill to me but my fiance said she thought she noticed a few specs of white on his fins. He was eating well too but sadly he perished but like I said he didn't look ill. Then this weekend, our eldest member, Nemo (my 8yr old, then 6 year old, named the clown lol) passed away Saturday. Around the time the mandarin died, I noticed this guy looking like he was coated with something.. he looked a little lighter or like he had a film on him. The fins were also kind of tattered. Late Friday and early Saturday he looked like he was very lethargic and would even lay on the sand bed some times. His appetite had not been the same for a few days too. When I noticed his symptoms, I also noticed one of our designer Frostbite clowns didn't quite look the same either. The white scales had patchy areas around the dorsal and he would hide in the shadows a lot. His appetite wasn't quite the same either. He passed on Sunday after Nemo passed the day before. So in the span of a little over a week, we lost a powder brown, a mandarin, and two clowns. The live-stock that's survived so far are: Melanurus wrasse, flame hawk fish, fox face, yellow tang, one frostbite clown, one chromis, and the one who I think brought this all in, the blue hippo tang.
My fiance and I broke down our 20g AIO peninsula last night to turn it into a QT tank. We cleaned the tank out completely - taking out all sand and rock. We cleaned every equipment and mixed new salt. So now we have fresh salt water (35.0ppt), a pump, a wave pump and a heater. I need to get a filter sock, pvc pipes, air stone/pump, ammonia detector, copper (Looking for chelated copper), and a tester (probably Hanna). We think we know what we need to do - so here's the plan:
Remove all fish from DT (Reefer 350) and put into QT (IM 20 peninsula)
Run DT fallow for 80 days (there are a few pieces of coral and inverts in DT)
Run chelated copper in QT at 1.5-2.0 ppm for 30 days (slowly ramp up to therapeutic levels over 7 days)
Remove copper from QT via water changes (full tank) and activated carbon
Observe livestock in QT until fallow period of DT is done
Transfer fish into DT one by one over a few weeks - starting with smallest less aggressive fish
Does this all sound okay? I have a few questions still and would be so grateful if anyone can address these:
-During fallow of DT, would it be okay to introduce new rock work or change aquascape? I figured it would be easier with all the fish out.
-Should I continue running my skimmer and refugium in the DT? I know i'll be ghost-feeding so I would imagine filtration should stay the same? (I need to mention I am also experiencing a ULN issue now that had caused cyano and then dino.. 0.02ppm PO4 and almost 0 NO3)
-I'm choosing chelated copper because I have a melanurus wrasse - is this the right choice? Should he be able to withstand the therapeutic levels of copper along with his tank mates for 30 days?
-I'll have a tupperware filled with sand for the melanurus. Would this be an issue with the copper?
-I have some small pieces of Bio-Lux ceramic media - is this okay to keep in the QT with the copper treatment?
I know this is a long post so I am very sorry for that. We're just extremely nervous for our surviving livestock and we have never set up a QT before. Going forward we'll be QTing every fish - we just need to get past this current situation.
My fiance and I broke down our 20g AIO peninsula last night to turn it into a QT tank. We cleaned the tank out completely - taking out all sand and rock. We cleaned every equipment and mixed new salt. So now we have fresh salt water (35.0ppt), a pump, a wave pump and a heater. I need to get a filter sock, pvc pipes, air stone/pump, ammonia detector, copper (Looking for chelated copper), and a tester (probably Hanna). We think we know what we need to do - so here's the plan:
Remove all fish from DT (Reefer 350) and put into QT (IM 20 peninsula)
Run DT fallow for 80 days (there are a few pieces of coral and inverts in DT)
Run chelated copper in QT at 1.5-2.0 ppm for 30 days (slowly ramp up to therapeutic levels over 7 days)
Remove copper from QT via water changes (full tank) and activated carbon
Observe livestock in QT until fallow period of DT is done
Transfer fish into DT one by one over a few weeks - starting with smallest less aggressive fish
Does this all sound okay? I have a few questions still and would be so grateful if anyone can address these:
-During fallow of DT, would it be okay to introduce new rock work or change aquascape? I figured it would be easier with all the fish out.
-Should I continue running my skimmer and refugium in the DT? I know i'll be ghost-feeding so I would imagine filtration should stay the same? (I need to mention I am also experiencing a ULN issue now that had caused cyano and then dino.. 0.02ppm PO4 and almost 0 NO3)
-I'm choosing chelated copper because I have a melanurus wrasse - is this the right choice? Should he be able to withstand the therapeutic levels of copper along with his tank mates for 30 days?
-I'll have a tupperware filled with sand for the melanurus. Would this be an issue with the copper?
-I have some small pieces of Bio-Lux ceramic media - is this okay to keep in the QT with the copper treatment?
I know this is a long post so I am very sorry for that. We're just extremely nervous for our surviving livestock and we have never set up a QT before. Going forward we'll be QTing every fish - we just need to get past this current situation.
