Couple Urgent Questions

jacknjill

jacknjill

Active Member
Ok i have had an outbreak of ich. So i am now setting up a QT tank. I am going to go out and buy a 15-20 gallon tank. i looked through my box of extra parts and i found a maxi jet 200 powerhead and a mxai jet 400 powerhead. could i use these both or would they be too strong in a smaller tank? i found a thermal compact 50 watt heater that should work. and i found an old penguin filter that should work but needs a new bio wheel. my kole tang has ich badly, my yellow tang has now gotten some on his fins, my female tomato clown is getting some on her head. so im putting them all in there including the females partner. but what about my mandarin? he doesnt have ich but wont he starve in the qt with no rock to feed off? i need help asap!
 
jacknjill

jacknjill

Active Member
i know i did a couple days ago but i have only gotten one response and this forum gets more "traffic"
 
joker_ca

joker_ca

Active Member
their is a pretty good way to kill ich by Lowering the salinity to about 1.015 for at least a couple of weeks this helps to kill the parasite and doesnt seem to hurt the fish at all by lowering the salinity, also raising the temp helps out but make sure to oxygenate the water really good
 
jacknjill

jacknjill

Active Member
i thought it was 1.009. but anyways i think im gonna use copper. but i still dont know what to do with my mandarin. any suggestions? he doesnt seem to have ick on him :confused: :confused: :confused:
 
clarkiiclo

clarkiiclo

Active Member
Watch him for ick and if he gets it QT him too.
It takes a few weeks to kill the ick in the main tank.
 
6stokes

6stokes

Member
You're not going to need the bio wheel if your using copper. It will kill everything on it, so don't bother. You'll have to find some live food that the mandarin will accept if he hosts the ick. He may not though, so don't worry about it until he does. I believe the ick cycle is 6 weeks though. So, your main tank needs to go that long without a fishy host and your fish in QT need to stay put for 6 weeks. You need to get a copper test kit and do at least weekly water changes.
 
jacknjill

jacknjill

Active Member
ok, so no bio wheel. good less money lol. the problem is when i feed my fish, the mandarin hides so i dont know how im gonna try to give him frozen food. what if during the whole 6 week qt he doesnt show any signs of ich? can i put the fish back in? or will the ich pop up again? going to go and get a copper test kit today and the copper medicine. (also the tank)
 
madison

madison

Member
JacknJill ~ Do a search under my name and read the thread about ICK...It will take you through my ordeal with my Powder Blue, QT, Hypo and even cleaner shrimps.
Beth walked me thru probably the best process to combat ICK when ICK is already on your fish. ICK will always be in your water...it will attack your fish when they are weak.
Also check out the sticky about ICK on the top of the diseased forum.
Beware of copper since that will kill everything in your tank and copper will never leave your tank (in the seams of the glue)
Good luck! ICK is not a good thing...but if you don't make the mistakes that I did...it can be a easy fix!
 
6stokes

6stokes

Member
Yes, if the ick doesn't host anything for 6 weeks, it's gone. Not sure if you'll get the mandarin to eat frozen food, but if you do, you're real lucky.
 
jacknjill

jacknjill

Active Member
i know thats what im worried about. should i just leave the bio wheel off of the filter? someone in an above post said that it will just absorb the medicine.
 
6stokes

6stokes

Member
Yes, just leave it off. You don't want carbon or anything else for that matter. You can keep mechanical going such as a filter pad, but nothing else.
 
fishy1

fishy1

Member
Oh no! :eek:
Okay, I don't know how far along in your set-up you are, but I looked at all of my powerheads and they all have different numbers, but I found the Penguin powerhead hotline phone number for you. It's (800) 322-1266 M-F 8-5 Pacific time. For now, I'd go with the smaller for a tank that size.
You should put all of your fish in the treatment tank! Some have it internally and do not show it externally. I wouldn't take that chance, especially if all your other fish have it.
There is also a food you can buy to treat the fish internally. The one I bought is called Anti-Parasite, for internal parasites. As far as I'm concerned, the more treatment the better. It's a dry food and was only about $2- and you feed it to them 3 days in a row, then skip 4 days, etc. for a month. I left each tank seperate for a month to ensure all the ich eggs were gone in the big tank and the parasite was definately gone from the fish.
I used Sea Cure for my last outbreak and everything lived, just get them in there!
Don't forget you need to keep the old sand, water and some of your cheaper ornaments in with your fish so they feel safe. You cannot put anything you use back into your main tank, so keep it simple.
Good luck!
Fishy1 :happyfish
 
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