help bought used tank now have ick

[aprilabaxter]

I purchased a 55 G tank 6 wks ago that had been circulating for 6 mos. I am totally new to saltwater and have a book I have been using "Your First Marine Aquarium." I started with 2 damsels a yellow tang and a peppermint shrimp. The Tang has ick (white spots, cloudy eyes) the shrimp looks fine. The damsels died. I have a guy at a local store helping me out with advice. I have been treating my tank 1 wk with something called organi-cure. Started with 55 drops every other day but my fish was getting worse so I have been giving him a treatment every 24 hrs. He does look a little better. Should I be doing something more? Changing out filters or water. My test kit says everything is O.K. I have an Emperor filter. Thanks for your help!

 

[col]

You say your test kit says everything is ok - what tests are you doing- are they the following, and if so what are the readings:
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Ph
SG
You purchased the tank second hand so I assume you emptied it and refilled it using new water right? If so, how long was it dry for?

 

[slick]

Sounds like your tank readings are not ok. My suggestion is take the tang back to the store before it dies. Did you use all the sand and rock from the previous set up? If so how long were they out of the water?

 

[aprilabaxter]

I purchased the tank and transported the water then refilled it with the same water, sand and live rock. I let it run for a week and a half then added a damsel. It died. So I bought a test kit. My ph was off so I got something called 8.2. Everything went fine so I thought I would get a tang. I have syphoning to clean the sand and change the water every other week 5 G. Then I lost the damsel and the tang go white spots. The guy at the pet store told me to use the organi-cure and you know the rest of the story. I called him today after reading up on this site and asked about hypo. He said take off 5 G and add in fresh water. Will this kill my live rock? I have taken off 5 G but not added the freshwater. Will read up more and hopefully hear from someone. I am ready to do something today.

 

[eng50]

The first thing to do is stop and regroup yourself. Come up with a plan and stick to it...You will get lots of advise and many solutions. The first thing to do is post your readings as requested above...
SG
AMM
Nitrate
Nitrite
Temp
Then we will go from there...
If you want to talk about it you can call 804-339-2984 and I will help you the best I can..Or continue here, many are very experienced and knowledgeable. Don't just do something just to do it, and don't just add this and that in hopes it will work. Most problems are solved with little chemical treatment...
HTH
Bill

 

[aprilabaxter]

Please keep in mind I just syphoned 5 G off the sand and stirred things up about 3-4 hrs. ago so tank hasn't settled. Don't know if that would chg. the numbers or not. Am I suppose to be testing for anything else? Do they just get oxygen from the filter? Sorry to sound so dumb but I don't know much and my book doesn't say.
Temp. 77
salt 1.025 (best I can tell, I have one of those floating themometers)
Ph 8.2
Nitrite .50
Nitrate 40

 

[aprilabaxter]

Thanks for the information. I will try to answer as many questions as I can. The tank has some kind of sand in the bottom and I moved the tank without taking it out. It looks like crushed oyster shells, it isn't fine like ocean sand. Does that mean something? The back glass is growing green stuff and I am told that is good. The filter has green stuff on the intake part in the water. I have been changing one filter (it has two) every 10 days. I didn't clean the filter out when I got it and I notice when I change the filter it stirs up and dumps out dirty looking water. Should I take it off the back and rinse it out? The tank only had shrimp in it when I saw it. I will go get a ten gallon tank and do the Q tank. My tang looks much better after the copper treatment. He is eating, has good color, but has little black dots instead of white ones. I have been syphoning the sand because it looks dirty with algae floaty stuff. I don't want a dirty looking tank. I am not overfeeding I don't think. Twice a day very small pinch of Total Color Marine, something the lfs guy said to feed. My ammonia was 1.0 yesterday, it has been at 0 until then. I just checked the wheels on the filter and the light was pushed back so hard against the outside of the filter that it prevented them from turning so I fixed that. Please keep in touch with me so I can follow a plan. I need advice. I guess next is the Q tank and then then Hypo the tang in it. The guy at the fish store said he would take him back and treat him for me but I think he would just treat him with the copper since that is all he recommends that I do.

 

[col]

You really want to think about giving the Tang back and starting over again, things have got off to a bad start.
Read more books and use the internet for research.

 

[robn70]

April,
I noticed that you had treated your tank with copper (as most lfs tend to tell you). This really isn't a good idea as it is next to impossible to get out of the tank and will be detramental to any inverts that you try to add in the fututre. I have learned this the hardway, ended up emptying the tank discarding the lr and substrate and still had traces of copper that was preventing me from keeping inverts alive as the copper will get into the silicon used to seal the tank. Not sure if there is a way to completely remove the traces of copper from the tank or not. Now after Purchasing a new larger tank I only user copper if needed in the QT tank. You will be able to get a lot of good advice from the reefes in the forums. I know that I have leard alot from reading the post here.