Ich, I think

[chatwell]

Before I start, let me just tell you I am brand-spankin-new at this, so please bear with me. From what I've read on this BB and in the book I've got, I think I have ich. It looks like salt sprinkled over a few of my fish. I set up my tank the first week of January and just had live rock and a few fish. I added more fish a few weeks ago. I have a 110 gal tank, trickle filter, Berlin protein skimmer, 60 lbs live rock, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 starfish, 1 anenome, 3 dozen snails, 3 clown fish, 1 damsel, 1 jawfish, 1 hawkfish, 1 royal gramma. All of my readings are in the right ranges. Everyone's eating fine, but the royal gramma (who has it the worst) is starting to rub up against the rock. I dont have a quarantine tank set up - I bought the stuff for one today. My question is - can I use the water from my main tank to set up the Q tank so that I can start this hyposalinity thing? Also, my tank stays about 80 degrees because of the power compacts, and my fish guy told me that ich can't live in 81 degrees. Is that right? He told me just to bump the temp up a couple of degrees. Should I or is that bad? That sounds bad to me. I'm sorry if I haven't given enough info, but I'm trying! Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[stupid_naso]

As far as I know, I don't think ich will die in temp 81 F. However, it will die in specific gravity/ salinity 1.009 .
Just set the q tank, you can use your water from your main tank, and also probably if you have some sort of filter sponge/ cartridge full of baterias, put that in your new q tank, that might help you speed up your q tank cycle.
IMO you need to cycle your q tank completely before you can put any fish in there. Put some lr or damsel or even dead shrimp to help the cycle (Carrie1429). As soon as the cycle is done, take out those things out, and your q tank is ready to go. While you're doing that, feed your fishes garlic (liquid garlic, get it from health store or groceries) soaked food, just for the heck of it and let your shrimp work.
As far as q tank goes, IMO you cannot do hypo right away, esp. with an uncycled q tank. Other might say different, but that's my opinion.
And about heating up your tank, NO. That accidently happened to me once and that damn heater killed my cleaner shrimp and my anemone, so the answer is NO. Besides I don't think it will help kill the ich.
I hope that helps... Good luck...
sebae_the_clown

 

[chatwell]

Cool, thanks. So apparently ich doesn't kill very quickly if I can wait till my q tank cycles before I put the fish in and treat with hyposalinity? I'm sure that's a stupid question, but I'm new at this!!
I'll start with garlic today, if I can find some here in po-dunk Texas. I looked at two different stores last night and came up empty handed.
Thanks a bunch!

 

[ebeckels]

First off...that is an enormous amount of fish for such a new tank. How did you cycle this tank? The reason you have ich is because you added way to many fish in such a small time. You should maybe have 1 or 2 fish right now assuming ur tank is completely cycled... I would not have a starfish in such a new tank. What type of starfish is it? 81 degrees will definitely NOT kill Ich. plenty of tanks are kept at 81 and their fish get ich...best thing to do is do hypo on these fish in ur Hosp. tank when you get that up and running. do a search here for help with the hosp. tank and actually doing hypo....when ur fish are healthier I'd consider sending most of them back to the LFS for credit. just remember....slow down. make sure the tank is completely cycled...for more info on that do a search here...Good Luck!

 

[wrassecal]

alot of ich outbreaks! Hope your fish do all right. I started garlic on mine yesterday and I'm getting a q tank going.