What’s the treatment for bacterial infections in reef tank?

Jay Hemdal

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I wish I did hypo in QT…
I wish hypo was more effective against Amyloodinium, I still need to use copper to manage that issue....

Jay
 
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@Jay Hemdal

I just want to inform you: my fish don’t have flukes. I connected the dots and realized that my h202 dosing caused them to scratch. After stopping all h202 the fish almost immediately stopped scratching within that day and never again scratched.

I’m happy to say that all my problems in this thread resolved on their own. No more lympho on any of the fish. Yellow tang pooping very good. Fish gained healthy weight. No ich/velvet.

Foxface cleared up the bacterial infection on his own.

I couldn’t be happier.

I think all this caused from a mix of getting exposed to copper + the dino issues + not feeding enough.
 
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@Jay Hemdal

My black mollie always had white discoloration on some parts of its body. Now I’m seeing a weird white growth. What could this be?

The black mollie gets bullied by my clownfish and my Lamarck angel.



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Jay Hemdal

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@Jay Hemdal

My black mollie always had white discoloration on some parts of its body. Now I’m seeing a weird white growth. What could this be?

The black mollie gets bullied by my clownfish and my Lamarck angel.



007897A6-C5E8-4218-805D-340F60D184BC.jpeg
FB34CA0C-5A7A-4E04-9509-507EF4C0AE7B.jpeg
3CE2F4E4-3C74-4D5B-A8B4-B427D5D31C75.jpeg

The good and bad thing about mollies is that they show EVERYTHING in contrast to their black bodies. That’s why they work as ich tell tales. However, that also means they show every little scrape and bump.
I see what looks like some caudal fin damage and then the spot on its side.
Mollies are just not very adept at out swimming bullies or fighting back…..coral reef fish are much more adapted to this - especially more territorial fish like clowns (not really genicanthus though)
Jay
 
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The good and bad thing about mollies is that they show EVERYTHING in contrast to their black bodies. That’s why they work as ich tell tales. However, that also means they show every little scrape and bump.
I see what looks like some caudal fin damage and then the spot on its side.
Mollies are just not very adept at out swimming bullies or fighting back…..coral reef fish are much more adapted to this - especially more territorial fish like clowns (not really genicanthus though)
Jay
Thank you Jay.

The reason I asked this was because my blue tang and Moorish idol started getting similar spots as before. I’m wondering what this is? Is it ich? They looked clean for 2 weeks and now they got it again. I really have no clue what these spots are anymore.

The blue tang and the moorish idol are the only fish with these markings. I have a powder blue, naso, orange shoulder tang which don’t have anything like it.

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I did notice the blue tang asserting dominance over the powder blue tang today. And the moorish idol is also displaying territorial swiping at the blue tang. I just saw it right now with my own eyes as I’m typing this.

I am not seeing any physical contact between the fish. They are swiping the water between themselves, but it’s hard to say if they make contact while I’m not looking.

My main concern is diagnosing if those spots look like ich/velvet.

I ordered a UV sterilizer to kill the bacteria in water column to keep my tank more sanitary.
 

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I did notice the blue tang asserting dominance over the powder blue tang today. And the moorish idol is also displaying territorial swiping at the blue tang. I just saw it right now with my own eyes as I’m typing this.

I am not seeing any physical contact between the fish. They are swiping the water between themselves, but it’s hard to say if they make contact while I’m not looking.

My main concern is diagnosing if those spots look like ich/velvet.

I ordered a UV sterilizer to kill the bacteria in water column to keep my tank more sanitary.
Well, I think we can rule out velvet here, the symptoms of that start with rapid breathing, and the spots develop later on and are much smaller.

I can't rule out ich from the photographs - it doesn't look 100% like it, but as you know, photographs lose enough detail to make things difficult to ID. Sometimes, even in person, I can't 100% ID ich when it starts.

I've probably told you the one trick I use - watch the exact location of some of the spots (use a photo for reference). If the spots are in the same place 36 to 48 hours later, it probably isn't ich. Ich spots tend to move around on the fish and change in numbers (as the trophonts mature and drop off and new trophonts take their place).

So what ARE the spots? IDK. The mollies are almost assuredly bite marks or other damage. The moorish, not so much. Remember, the moorish probably has spots all over, but you can just see them better on the black stripe due to the contrast I had mentioned with the mollies.

Jay
 
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Ok. I have the pictures in this thread. I will see if they drop off within that time frame or not.
 

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Glad to hear stuff is looking better!

One thing i have learned about foxfaces, from this very same type of thing, is that their eyes react to bright/UV light. If you have lots of UV on your tank they will fog up and look kind of greenish. Like built in sunglasses.
 
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Glad to hear stuff is looking better!

One thing i have learned about foxfaces, from this very same type of thing, is that their eyes react to bright/UV light. If you have lots of UV on your tank they will fog up and look kind of greenish. Like built in sunglasses.
Cool! The foxface’s eyes look much better than before, but they are still too dark to see the details in. I agree with your assessment because most of the foxfaces online have the same look.
 

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Yes foxface tail does look better. Agree that's what I first though on mollie looks like flipped up or shedding scales. If you notice on blue tang it runs its lateral line maybe again mucus plug. Not sure about on idol either.
 
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@Jay Hemdal

I have ich in my tank. My yellow tang had 2 ich spots (one on each side) and the disappeared today. My powder blue tang appeared with a moderate amount of ich today and it was clear yesterday.

My solution is to implement my UV sterilizer with H202 in tank dosing.
 

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@Jay Hemdal

I have ich in my tank. My yellow tang had 2 ich spots (one on each side) and the disappeared today. My powder blue tang appeared with a moderate amount of ich today and it was clear yesterday.

My solution is to implement my UV sterilizer with H202 in tank dosing.
Since you are catching it early, that stands a better chance of working. What dose are you planning to use on the H2O2? Remember that peroxide is decomposed by organic material, but then that material is "consumed" leaving less for the peroxide to work on. At a tipping point, the unreacted peroxide levels can climb, harming invertebrates and fish.

I use low range peroxide test strips to guard against that issue. However, I just checked online and Amazon doesn't stock them anymore (Waterworks 0-5 ppm) All they have is 0-25ppm, and that may be too high of a range, I have not used that range:


Jay
 
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Since you are catching it early, that stands a better chance of working. What dose are you planning to use on the H2O2? Remember that peroxide is decomposed by organic material, but then that material is "consumed" leaving less for the peroxide to work on. At a tipping point, the unreacted peroxide levels can climb, harming invertebrates and fish.

I use low range peroxide test strips to guard against that issue. However, I just checked online and Amazon doesn't stock them anymore (Waterworks 0-5 ppm) All they have is 0-25ppm, and that may be too high of a range, I have not used that range:


Jay

I plan to use a 1ml:10 gallons at first. Twice a day.

I learned that UV boosts the h202 effectiveness.

Wow. Eradicating ich is very difficult. I’m really surprised I got it after all that work I put in.

I’m honestly so happy I have ich. My anxiety has gone away. It’s like, when you are so worried about something happening that you are becoming delusional and avoiding the fact even though it’s staring you right at the face. But then you finally come to terms with it and it’s not as bad as you though it would be.

I would much rather live with ich than be anxious about if I have it or not.

Fortunately, ich rarely kills. I’m happy I quarantined because most of the parasites are gone, so the fish can use all its reserves to fight the ich as much as possible. Using a UV and H202 will emulate how the ocean has ich in a diluted concentration.
 
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OR!!! I can do this!

Put ALL my corals and inverts in my coral QT and make my DT hyposalinity! This can actually work!

Which method should I go with?
 
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I have 2 options: Work on ich management. UV sterilizer, h202 dosing etc

OR: Remove all my corals and inverts and make my tank a hyposalinity treatment. I do not have marine velvet.

I would personally really enjoy doing the 2nd option, but I’m worried my family will judge me. They will probably say that no matter what I do I will always have ich…you’re spending too much time…always making changes…blah blah blah.

Doing the h202 and uv would be very discreet and nobody in my family will know that anything is happening. It’s like my little secret.

My family is very involved with my tank. They like to critic me a lot. That’s why I’m so self conscious of letting them know about ich. My mom said I will always have ich and she even placed a bet that it will come back after all my work…and she was right. :(
 
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Don’t worry about responding to this thread. I’m going to make a new one to get more responses and discussions.
 
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@Jay Hemdal

Im bringing this thread back alive. Here’s the update to catch you up:

I had ich in my tank after doing the copper/fallow so I removed all my corals and added copper into my DT.

I’m maintaining my copper around 2.35ppm-2.50ppm. It never gets higher nor lower than this range. I am dosing copper power and testing with Hannah copper HR.


Today is 8 days in my treatment. The fish looked pretty much 100% a few days ago.

2 days ago I had a bunch of bleached dry rocks (1:10) bleach for 3 days. I took a heater from my fish QT tank that was left to dry for 12 hours. I put the heater in the bucket with rocks and RODI water because I initially wanted to cycle the rocks separately, but decided on just adding the rocks into the tank.

Today I see a little tiny spot on my blue tang. I see a bigger spot on my black mollie, and I see a medium spot on my powder blue as well as some cuts? Looks like the powder blue is getting mildly swiped?

So…Did I introduce ich from my infected QT by letting the rocks sit with a heater for 20 minutes? Or is my ich strain resistant to copper?

All my shrimps are alive in my DT with copper. I’m so confused. I really don't know. Is it possible my ich is resistant? Or maybe my test kit is somehow faulty and copper is below therapeutic? I don’t see how it’s possible for ich to reinfect my fish if copper was therapeutic for 8 days. Even if I were to add an ich heater…my rocks were in full RODI water with some bleach remaining before I detoxified it with prime.

I don’t know what to do at this point.
 

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@Jay Hemdal

Im bringing this thread back alive. Here’s the update to catch you up:

I had ich in my tank after doing the copper/fallow so I removed all my corals and added copper into my DT.

I’m maintaining my copper around 2.35ppm-2.50ppm. It never gets higher nor lower than this range. I am dosing copper power and testing with Hannah copper HR.


Today is 8 days in my treatment. The fish looked pretty much 100% a few days ago.

2 days ago I had a bunch of bleached dry rocks (1:10) bleach for 3 days. I took a heater from my fish QT tank that was left to dry for 12 hours. I put the heater in the bucket with rocks and RODI water because I initially wanted to cycle the rocks separately, but decided on just adding the rocks into the tank.

Today I see a little tiny spot on my blue tang. I see a bigger spot on my black mollie, and I see a medium spot on my powder blue as well as some cuts? Looks like the powder blue is getting mildly swiped?

So…Did I introduce ich from my infected QT by letting the rocks sit with a heater for 20 minutes? Or is my ich strain resistant to copper?

All my shrimps are alive in my DT with copper. I’m so confused. I really don't know. Is it possible my ich is resistant? Or maybe my test kit is somehow faulty and copper is below therapeutic? I don’t see how it’s possible for ich to reinfect my fish if copper was therapeutic for 8 days. Even if I were to add an ich heater…my rocks were in full RODI water with some bleach remaining before I detoxified it with prime.

I don’t know what to do at this point.
Sorry - your copper treatment with the Hanna test should be spot on.

Letting a device dry for 12 hours with no other disinfection is not likely to be 100% effective - water could still be hiding under the knob, the suction cup brackets, etc. Soaking in FW and then drying for 24 hours is a better bet. Still, it isn't like the ich tomonts seek out places to hide, it is more or less random.

As you, white spots don't always mean ich. I've not heard of a copper resistant strain of Cryptocaryon in any studies, just rumors. Certainly bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics, but it takes multiple treatments, with the same antibiotic to create resistant strains. Copper is a toxin and less likely to create resistance. I do know that people have gone with higher doses with copper power in order to knock ich out, but that may be a function of the product, not the disease.

Jay
 
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