Ich Issue, I have lost too many fish Please Help!!

[Kunal Patel]

Hi
About two months ago I converted my 120 gallon African Cichlid tank in to a Saltwater tank. For about a month and a half I was having issues getting my tank to cycle so I got a Wet Dry filter and converted into a refugium. At the time I had quite a few fish in the tank, (Kole Tang, Yellow Tang, Snowflake Eel, Hypo Tang, Lion Fish, Harlequin Tusk Wrasse, Singapore angel & Trigger). During the cycling process I noticed my Hypo Tang got Ich along with my Harlequin Tusk Wrasse, so I raised the temperature to 84 degrees and used Paraguard by Seachem. Between that time my tank finally cycled. Once cycled, I notice more of my fish getting ich, and I lost my lionfish, kole tang, Harlequin Tusk Wrasse, Singapore angel & Blue Throat Trigger. After that I decide not to add anymore fish for a few weeks, for those weeks I only had a Trigger, Yellow Tang, Snowflake Eel & Hypo Tang. I noticed that my Hypo Tang was doing my better and no signs of Ich. I dropped the temperature to 75 and stopped the Paraguard treatment for a week and no signs of Ich. I figured that the Ich is gone now, I was wrong. I added another Lionfish and a Foxface. They were fine for a couple days, after I put them in my tank, I noticed a few spots on my Foxface and much more on my Lionfish. I have been doing research and I tried a copper treatment since I have a fish only tank. I lost another Lionfish, but seems like my other fish are doing just fine, but they do have a few spots on them. I am not sure what I can do to remove the Ich from my tank, I know it is laying dormant in my tank until I add something new. I feed my only fish frozen food and gralic. I have also tried a quarantine tank. Please help!

 

[beth]

You are adding way too many fish for that size tank. Is your tank fish only, live rock?? Best practice is to add fish slowly to a new tank, and you basically over stocked on a new tank. Also, for SW, it is best to also use quarantine for all new fish to avoid exactly what occurred in your tank.

Let us know what type of setup you have?

 

[Kunal Patel]

Well Currently what I have left in my tank is a Trigger Fish, Yellow Tang, Fox Face, Hypo Tang and Snowflake Eel, with a few Hermit crabs. My current setup is two wave makers for water movement, I also have a sump with a wet/dry filter (EShopps WD-200CS) with bio balls, SeaChem Matrix and Purigen and one compartment of that is my refugium, I also have a Cascade 1500 canister filter on it with carbon ammonia and nitrate pads and also have Seachem Phosguard. I have a protein skimmer (SeaClone SCPS-100). I had an extra Marineland C360 Canister on it but took it out when I put the sump in, should I put it back into the tank?

 

[Kristin1234]

That's a lot of big fish, which have big poops.

A lot of bio load.

Ich doesn't kill overnight, I'm thinking something else is up. Ich maybe a issue but there is another hiding. Post your tank stats.

I know that every 3 months or so my tang will have a white spot show up and I dose my tank with herbtana for 2 weeks and he will be clear for another 3 months. It's not a permanent fix, but not works for me and it doesn't progress and get worse. It was recommended to me by another aquariast and works for him as well. Plus it is safe to use with the inverts.

Did you dose you display tank with copper??

 

[Kristin1234]

Do you have live rock?

 

[Kristin1234]

Have you tested the ammonia?

 

[Kunal Patel]

Yes, I have close to 40 lbs of live rock in both my tank and sump, also about 100lbs of live sand. Most of my fish are still small, no more than 5 inches except the snowflake eel who is about 12. I had my local fish store test my water, all is good except for phosphates which are high and thats why I am seeing algae growth but I have Phosguard to reduce it. They said my Nitrates were elevated, but not enough to effect my fish, and I could add fish if I wanted too, but opted not too.

 

[Kunal Patel]

No Ammonia or Nitrites in the tank.

 

[Kristin1234]

In a 120 tank you need close to 120 pounds of live rock.

5" is not very small lol.

Do you have inverts?

 

[Kristin1234]

The tangs, Fox face and trigger have a huge bio load.

Idk about the eel, but if I had to guess, with how they eat, they also have a big bio load.

 

[Kunal Patel]

I would say the Eel and the Trigger eat the most and mostly Frozen Krill the others are on mostly frozen veggies, I do have some hermit crab in there and cleaner shrimp in the sump. I guess I should put that extra Marineland C360 canister on the tank to help with the bio load, any suggestions on the media, or what else I can do.

 

[lmforbis]

Ich doesn't go away it will be I your tank until you let the tank go without fish for 74 days. Para guard won't help. Because your tank is very over stocked, the fish are always going to be stressed which makes it inevitable that they will succumb sooner rather than later to the parasite.
I would get a good book on saltwater aquariums and do more research before you buy any more fish

 

[beth]

You need to treat the ich. Since you don't have a quarantine, your best bet would be treating in tank, and removing most of your live rock. You can leave a few very small pieces to help keep a natural filter in your tank duing the treatment process. I'd recommend hyposalinity for treatment. You can remove the rock to a rubbermaid with a good pump for circulation and a heater. Just remember to continue to feed the rock during treatment.

I'm posting the hyposalinity treatment guide here.

https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/c/index.php/articles/content/100

 

[Kunal Patel]

So it seems like I have the Ich at bay, I dont see any on my fish, I know that does not mean its gone, but I noticed a big change after I feed the fish with a ginger and gralic mix. I always did garlic but I also read ginger helps. I will be doing a water change, so hopefully by keeping this up I will rid my tank of Ich. I am curious to know how many fish can I stock in my tank, currently I have a Hippo and Yellow Tang, Fox Face, Trigger and Snowflake Eel. I would like to add maybe 1 or 2 more fish if possible but it will be a while before I add any. I really was interested in adding a Bamboo Shark but I have been advised against it. When I do my next water change I plan on adding an extra canister filter (Marineland C360) I have laying around with the bioload. Before I add any my fish I will also add more live rock to the tank. I would like to get another lionfish in the future, but I would like some input on what kind of fish I can add to my tank with my current set up if any, so I can plan my tank around that. My current filtration will is a wet/dry with a refugium, and a cascade 1500 canister, I will be adding a Marineland C360 canister in couple of days, I have two C360s if I can fix the broken one i can add that too and have a total of 3 canisters and a wet/dry as my filtration, I also have a protein skimmer on the tank.
This is my 120 tank, unfortunately I don't have the lion fish anymore, and my snowflake is hiding.

 

[beth]

The type of filtration you are using is very likely to result in high nitrates to your system. Better to rely on natural filters such as live rock and live sand, rather then filters that will not export nitrates.

Also, ich is not at bay really. Ich life cycle includes two stages where the parasite is not on the fish but free within the aquaria. You can try doing large water changes daily but the only sure way to address this now is aggressively. I would seriously consider setting up a quarantine tank for future fish additions, else you will frequently have this kind of problem with the addition of new fish.

I would recommend that you begin reading and researching about keeping marine aquaria. This forum is a good choice to keep visiting. Also, you may benefit from an overall excellent resource book, "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist." A wealth of info presented in a very readable and informative way.

 

[bang guy]

so hopefully by keeping this up I will rid my tank of Ich.

This will not happen. What will happen is that the fish can continue to fend off the majority of the parasites as long as they are not stressed. One day something will stress a fish. That is when you will see a bloom in the parasites.

Please heed Beth, she definitely know what she is talking about.

 

[Kunal Patel]

I am setting up a quarantine tank, should set it up as a hyposalinity setup?

 

[lmforbis]

You need to start at the same salinity as the tank the fish are coming from. Once the fish are in QT you can slowly lower salinity To 1.009 over several days. You also need to watch pH and ammonia. With hypo you can use products like Prime to help detox ammonia. I also keep an ammonia badge on my QT tank.

 

[beth]

I am setting up a quarantine tank, should set it up as a hyposalinity setup?

Honestly, that is very if-y. A newly set up QT will not be able to sustain all the fish you have since it is not cycled, and won't be that big. It may be best to place your rock and any inverts you have in a separate container, and then hypo the main tank with your fish in there.

Do you have a refractometer? You need this, and its the best instrument to measure salinity so it will be quite usable every time you do water changes.

 

[Kunal Patel]

I am setting up a quarantine tank to combat the ich and I was looking into getting RO/DI water for my aquarium, because I have been using tap water and maybe a major factor in why I got ich, also I have tried many things to reduce phosphate, I do have algae growth in my tank that I am afraid will go out of control if I can't reduce the phosphates. I tried Seachem Phosguard and it hasn't reduce the phosphates in my tank. My question is that can I use purified drinking water, that has been through reverse osmosis from my local grocery store in my tank. I am having a hard time finding the RO/DI water from a pet store for the use in aquariums.