Have disease(s) - I 'bit the bullet' too!

[speg]

A few days ago bought a new clown fish.. clown had a disease and died the next day.. 3 days later 3 of my chromis died.. now my other fish are popping out with ich and scratching etc.. my coral beauty also has fin and tail rot along with ich.. i've been using melafix on the beauty in the actual tank because he had popeye and cloudeye and fin/tail rot.. but melafix obviously didnt help much.
So I bit the bullet and set up a QT tank yesterday (10 gallon with a wet/dry biowheel attached filter).. I needed to do a water change in my main tank so I took water from it and put in the QT.. today the LFS guy said that was a mistake.. he said I should only use fresh RO water in the QT. I have been giving them garlic soaked stuff since I noticed the problems.. I believe it is slowing the ich down.. but apparently thats all its doing for now.
My questions are:
1) What is the right way of setting up a QT tank? (water/what else to put in etc)
2) I have 3 chromis - a coral beauty - a yellow tang - a clown goby - can I put all of these in the 10 gallon QT together and treat for diseases without their being a problem?
3)I've been reading about that hyposalinity thingy to treat for ich.. if there is somewhere that fully explains this process and someone knows it i'd appreciate it if you could tell me... or explain to me here please =c)
4) what should I buy to treat the ich/fin rot?
I appreciate all help.. im very desperate to take care of this =c( I am almost discourged completely.

 

[speg]

ok so I read the post on this forum and got a lot of information about the qt tank and ich etc.. stuff I wish I had read WAY before I started the hobby... though nobody tells you that you should learn first! (at least LFS people dont). I could still use number 2 answered though.. :|

 

[itchy]

I just had the same problem. I had to put my fish in a 30 gal QT and I have to stay on top of the water quality. That is a lot of fish for a 10 gallon. It doesn't sound as though you have any other choice but to try...at least for the fish. Can you take the 10 gal back and buy a 20 at least? Most 20 to 30 gallon are not that much more than the 10!!! Just a suggestion. If you can not you are going to have a hard time keeping the water quality acceptable. Good Luck
BTW to keep the tang and beauty from fighting and stressing each other out maybe try to put some PVC piping or something for them to hide in, in the QT. Try not to get discouraged this hobby has its ups and downs but can be so rewarding. I had added all my fish and made sure they were healthy then went to corals and bam....we got ich. Nothing new to the tank so I can't figure out what happen or where the stress came from. Taking down everything to catch the fish was hell....I used words that made a sailor blush...

 

[bev]

I have had the same problem as you. I am definately not an expert at this but researched the hyposalinity on the web and found that you need you decrease the salt slowly down to 1.009 over a period of a few days. It says to really keep an eye on ph while doing this and to keep it this way for 7 days then start slowly raising it back up. The parasite cannot live in low salinity. It also says you must keep fish out of your tank for 30 days for the parasite to be killed in the main tank due to the life cycle. The person I spoke to at LFS said to use coppersafe in the qurantine as it will definately get rid of ich, however some fish cannot tolerate copper so you have to look into it before using. You also have to purchase a copper test kit to make sure copper levels are right for the tank (the guy didnt tell me this at lfs). I too used the melafix as fish had cloudy eye and fins rotting. Nothing I read on Ich listed these as signs of Ich, I found that out on here. Cant use copper in main tank if you have snails, stars, etc. As for the tank I purchased a long 20 gal, painted the bottom outside black as they say no substrate, to use pvc for decoration which give fish place to go. The guy here sold me a sponge filter to use which he uses in his pond setups, and a heater. They say lighting isnt necessary, however you need to be able to see your fish and of course a top is needed for those jumpers. Good luck