Advice on hypo PLEASE

[mproctor4]

A little back ground information first. I have a 120gal, with mostly fish and a few inverts and low light corals. The tank has been set up approximately 10 months. I used dry agronite, base rock, and about 40ish pounds of live rock. When I added a coral beauty a few months ago it had ick spots intermittently for about 6 weeks and then cleared up. All of the other fish have always appeared healthy and I feed with garlic every day. A couple weeks ago we basically had to take out all of the rock to catch a very ornery angel. Two days later about half of the fish had spots on them. They lasted about 1-2 days and cleared up.....all except my poor spiny box puffer who has just gotten worse and looks terrible.
I know I need to do a hypo salinity to get this out of the tank once and for all. My questions is: I truly don't have the space (or $$) for a QT tank that is large enough for all of my fish at once without stressing them out even more--especially the tangs. I'm sure just catching them would cause another outbreak. Everything I am reading says to take the fish out of the tank and treat them in QT. I am wondering if I could buy a large rubbermaid container with a power head and heater and put the live rock I bought along with my inverts and then hypo my main display tank. Hubbie has a tank I could put the corals in. Since the tank is only 10 months old I'm not sure how much of the base rock and agronite have been seeded. Even if I loose some of the beneficial bacteria, it still seems to me that it would be easier on the fish than moving them. Would I have ammonia spike during the hypo if there was some bacteria in the rocks?
Questions 2: I'm not sure my puffer will survive the week or so it may take for the hypo to start working. Is it worth the risk to give him a freshwater dip? He looks miserable and he wouldn't eat today for the first time.
Obviously I will need to set up a smaller, permanent QT before adding any new fish.
Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[pauloesco]

you can often pick up a couple or three tanks cheap on CL or yardsales -- anything from 10-55 gallons are usually available cheaply... and having something else that you know holds SW animals safely is probably not a bad idea to have on hand.
Read the wicki on Hypo and the other thread, "I'm going to start Hypo" before proceeding.

 

[pauloesco]

Modification.
If you put anything from yur Ick tank into hubby's tank, you can infect it.
You could use the DT as the q-tank, removing the LR and corals into another tank or food-grade container. I wouldn't use rubbermaid or sterlite, as both contain chemicals to retard mold, which reportedly leaches into the SW and will kill inverts. (it's designed to kill mold).
A FW dip is the same as a hypo treatment... it just doesn't last as long. Neither will kill the imbedded ectoparasite (ick) -- since the bug is imbedded in the skin and protected from the FW by the fish's own mucous. (this is proven fact). So, hypo works, because when the bug drops off the fish, it then can't survive the low salinity.
So, the reason that hypo takes a while to work is that you need to wait out the bug's life cycle -- off the fish to death or to die in SW without a fish host.

 

[mproctor4]

Thanks for the reply. Hubbies tank probably has it too.....one fish has been in both tanks and we share equipment, obviously that will have to stop. It is just so easy to do when we are both working on aquariums in the same room! I hadn't thought that through about putting the corals in his tank, I don't want to risk infecting mine again when I put the corals back in. We will need to hypo his tank at some point also.
The reason I am asking about the freshwater dip is because it is doubtful the puffer will make it long enough for the hypo to help him. I was thinking if he could survive a freshwater dip it might help him stay alive long enough for the hypo to help him. Does anyone have any ideas how puffers tolerate dips? The problem is his immune system is already really compromised and I'm afraid the risk is higher than just waiting for the hypo to kick in.
That is interesting about the Rubbermaid......it makes sense that they put a mold retardant on it. I had a homemade filter that I have used for 10 months made out of rubbermaid and I always mix my saltwater in a rubbermaid container. I may have been very lucky so far. I have been thinking about building a refugium, maybe sooner than I had planned.