Huge Mistake -- Ich

[scoobydoo]

I made a few HUGE mistakes setting up a saltwater tank before finding this board and now my display tank has ICH.
I bought a coral beauty a few weeks ago which exposed my tank to ICH. The cb died, along with a yellow tang, and this morning my clown (my first fish). I noticed the ICH two weeks ago and without a QT I medicated the display tank first with Kent RX P and when I didn't see any improvement after a week switched to Chem-Marin Stop Parasites. I thought that was taking care of the ICH but apparently not. I only have a perc clown, yellow-tail damsel and scotter blennie remaining in the tank, along with inverts and crabs. What is my next step? If I remove the fish and place them in a QT, how long do they stay there? Do I treat them with copper in the QT? How do I make sure the ICH is out of my display tank?
Thanks. I appreciate all the help.

 

[razoreqx]

The display needs to be empty for at least 6 weeks min
Beth did a great job of putting some "stickys" on QT and treatments in the "disease" forum.. I would check that out..

 

[beth]

Scooby, sorry to hear your troubles. Is your tank FOWLR or reef?
I am thinking that it may be better to move LR into a temporary holding container, such as a rubbermaid, rather than trying to QT all those fish.
Are you planning to do hyposalinity at this point? And, if so, what do you have to measure salinity?

 

[scoobydoo]

Beth, I've started reading through your "sticky" on QT and Hypo. I have about 20 lbs of live rock, cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, chocolate chip starfish, bristle starfish, green hermit crab, porcelin crab and a bunch of hermits. I also have a haitan anemone that I think will not make it through the weekend. I have a hydrometer (?) that measures salt. I'm not sure what I plan on doing right now. My options are: (1) do QT with hypo; (2) do QT with copper treatment or (3) continue to treat the display tank with Chem-Marin Stop Parasite and hope it works. The only fish I have is a Perc. Clown, Scooter Blenny and Yellow-tail damsel. I think my scooter will starve in QT and probably can't catch the damsel (ever wonder why DAMN is part of that name!!!). I only have a 29 gallon eclipse system (1st mistake). I really thought it was getting better until the clown was dead this morning. I'm really confused and frustrated now, so I'm really not sure what to do. I was so mad this morning I was thinking of switching back to Freshwater. Have had a FW for 2 years, no problems...

 

[beth]

Well, the only viable treatments for ich are copper and hyposalinity. Hyposalinity is the safest treatment. The treatments are hit and miss with effectiveness at best.
Bit the bullet and setup a QT. You can do it for under $100 using a 20 gal long tank.