Ich in 6 week old tank, awesome!

[bigtankbigfish]

went to bed last night, all was great. Get up 2day, my rabbitfish and puffer are completely covered in ich. Tank has only been up 6 weeks or so. I have also in this tank a SFE, coral beauty, CC star and 2 damsels. None of them show signs of ich.
I took out the rabbit and puffer and put them in 25 gallon QT. Added fresh water to start hypo.
MY question is should I just start doing hypo on the DT now too since ich has been found now on 2 fish. Or should I just hypo those with ich and keep an eye on the DT for now. I cant fit anymore fish in my QT. Also what temp should my QT be?
THis hobby makes me sick some times, the amount of money and the amount of headache just dont add up.

 

[bigtankbigfish]

note I have a crap load of LR Im gonna lose if I hypo the main tank, also live argonite.

 

[deejeff442]

your other fish will certainly get the ich.
dont think eels get it might be wrong.
you need to put all the fish in the qt and hypo and leave the dt for 6 weeks .
i am in the same boat now.but i didnt add any new fish so i dont know how the ich came in.
but i took out the 300 lbs of rock and coppered the dt.my fish are too big for my qt to fit them all.
i have 2 more weeks for the lr then i can finally put it back together.
i know it sucks but to save the fish it needs to be done.
you must have put one of the two fish in recently to get the ich so fast.
a qt before the fish go into the dt is a must these days.
if you hypo the dt with the lr you will have an ammonia spike that could kill the fish.
i would remove the lr and inverts and hypo the dt.
how deep of a sand bed do you have?
if only 1-2 inch hypo is ok ,i wouldnt worry about killing the ls it will come back after the lr is replaced.
good luck

 

[cranberry]

Originally Posted by deejeff442
http:///forum/post/3068123
but i didnt add any new fish so i dont know how the ich came in.
Did you treat the fish for ich before putting them in the DT? Copper? Hypo? If you didn't, the ich came in on your original fish but in low enough numbers that you couldn't see it.
I'm not saying everyone should treat their fish before putting them in the DT... was just saying how they got in there.

 

[nycbob]

if its fowlr, u can try one of those ick medication, as long as it doesnt hv copper in it. take out the cc star in case the medication is harmful to inverts.

 

[deejeff442]

cranberry,
i added a couple fis about 6 months before the breakout.
i got my achilles and had a 33 gallon qt but when he arrived at the airport he is 8 inches long so i put him in the dt.
6 months is a long time for ich to have a full blown outbreak so i dont think he was it.
but i was trying to track it down and i put 3 corals in there and i think although it is rare they brought it in.
i now took all the corals out of my 225 fowlr and put them in my 90 reef.
the 90 has no fish now just corals,lr and shrimp.
i want to get the 90 all stocked with inverts and corals before i add fish.
i have a 33 and 55 gallon tank for my lr so it is all working out good.
cant wait to put the rock back in the 225.then i will use the 55 for a qt.
also want to put a peacock mantis in the 33.
glad i have alot of room.
you can bet your right arm i will qt everything i get from now on including all fish,corals and inverts.

 

[cranberry]

Ich can live on your fish unnoticed for a loooong time. 6 months is not too long. I have fish who have been living with ich for over a year. Every now and then I see a couple of specs on their eye. Mostly I'll notice a dot or 2 when I'm taking macro pictures. I do it quite often to look for parasites on my fish where my type of fish can be particular prone to having them. You can totally miss it if the ich is hanging out in the gills. But I guarantee you, without a doubt, ich can last much much much longer than 6 months without detection or a big outbreak.
QTing doesn't cure it, only treatment does. You can QT all you want but unless you intervene the ich will still travel with the fish into the DT.

 

[deejeff442]

gotta,
well since all my fish and tank are being coppered for 5 weeks and the lr is being alone for 7 weeks there wont be any ich left in that system.
i will hypo any new fish i buy from now on and qt all corals and inverts for 6 weeks. i am not going through this mess again if i can help it.
i did hypo on the fish the first time around and when i raised the salt it came back twice as bad a couple days later so i decided to remove the 300+ lbs of lr again and copper.

 

[cranberry]

I was SO surprised when I missed it on my volitan for 2 years. Then the skimmer messed up and the water quality took a dive bomb and then he was covered. Luckily he recovered nicely.

 

[deejeff442]

ich is just a pain.
but its just another part of the hobbie that keeps it interesting.
i lost two fish to the ich my purple cromis and my tusk but,the tusk never seemed right from when i got him.
just need to look at an empty tank with the fish for a couple more weeks.
then i can get some fish in the qt for my 90 gallon.
i need to make a post for suggestions on fish for the 90 reef i really have only gotten large fish and dont know much about the little ones like blennies and gobies.

 

[bigtankbigfish]

my sand bed is only 1-2 inches. SO u guys think I should put the sick puffer and sick rabbit back in to the DT and take out some rock and and the CC STAR. And then hypo the DT.
But ill still have a ton of rock in the tank, wont my ammonia raise up when i lower the salinity

 

[deejeff442]

yea if you leave the rock in it will cause ammonia.
cant you take out the rock and put it in a tote for 6 weeks?
i did my qt was no where near big eneough for all my fish.
i did leave around 25 lbs of lr in the tank and the ammonia went to .25 and i have 350 gallons in the system.
i just kept up on water changes.
i also have around 1-2 inches of sand .
you can also get a chemical for help on an ammonia spike but i have never used it but alot of people say it works great.
i just figured the fish would be alot less stressed in the dt
it seems to be working i hav'nt lost a fish from the ich ,i did lose a tusk to lympho though but thats a different story.
good luck.
i was 50/50 on which way to go just like you.

 

[bigtankbigfish]

I can probably make this work. I can take out all my LR and put in 2 rubbermaids with small heaters and a powerhead. THen just put the rest of the fish back in to DT and start hypo.
someone said eels cant get ich? is this true, if so screw it im just gonna keep my SFE and get a zebra and just have 2 eels. Thats would be awesome to never worry about ich, without ich this hobby would be a breeze

 

[deejeff442]

come on man this hobbie would be boring if it was easy

sounds like you have a good plan .
good luck .
and 6 weeks feels like forever .

 

[penske38]

Don't know if you have a sterilizer or not, but I would not attempt to keep saltwater fish without one. A good sterilizer setup on your tank will go a long way. I used to have problems with ich outbreak all the time and actually thought about giving up the hobby because of it. I bought a Gamma UV Sterilizer and now I have a healthy tank (thank God).
Also, I found a product called Prazipro, that I used before I got the sterilizer, which is great too. It helps to rid the tank of ich, without negatively impacting live rock, biological filtration, corals, etc. I had much success with this product.

 

[deejeff442]

your gunna open up a big can of worms .
personally all a uv is good for is clear water if there is ich in the tank it wont get all of it so if the fish get stressed and ich starts up if it is in the tank the uv wont keep up with it before it gets to the fish ,after all the ich multiplys in the sand and lr where the uv is useless.
also there has never been a product proven to rid the tank of ich that is reef safe.
they might help a bit but wont be a cure.

 

[bigtankbigfish]

Alright, I actually didnt do what i said I was gonna do. I still have the 2 ich fish in a 20 gallon rubbermaid with brand new LS and all new Saltwater. I wantd to see what happened in my DT to the other fish before i took out 100 pounds of LR and went that route. I have not even started hypo on the fish yet but my rabbit fish looks back to 100% he has no white spots and is readily eating like crazy. The puffer on the other hand is still messed up.
Can I fresh water dip the rabbit and put him back in the dt? Or is this a fake-out by the ich and theyre coming back? My Fish in the DT are as follows SFE, coral beauty, 2 blue damsels. None of the fish showed signs of outbreak before or now.

 

[bigtankbigfish]

Originally Posted by penske38
http:///forum/post/3068683
Don't know if you have a sterilizer or not, but I would not attempt to keep saltwater fish without one. A good sterilizer setup on your tank will go a long way. I used to have problems with ich outbreak all the time and actually thought about giving up the hobby because of it. I bought a Gamma UV Sterilizer and now I have a healthy tank (thank God).
Also, I found a product called Prazipro, that I used before I got the sterilizer, which is great too. It helps to rid the tank of ich, without negatively impacting live rock, biological filtration, corals, etc. I had much success with this product.
Hey thanks for the info, I dont have a sump, I run 2 canisters and a HOB skimmer. Do they make HOB sterilizers?
Also I will look into getting Prazipro to treat the fish in QT.

 

[deejeff442]

with the life cycle of ich it probably wont show on the other fish untill it falls off the first infected fish drops to the ground and multiplies then goes water bound and then you will see it on the other fish.
usually 6-8 days.
but when it comes back it will be worse because each spec of ich will produce 100-200 more.
you put the foxface in a tank qt with no ich so the foxface probably had the ich for 6-8 days right?
the ich dropped off into the qt to multiply.
since it was in the first round of it there wasnt any in the water yet.
i would start to hypo the puffer before the ich can go waterbourne.
no copper on puffers.

 

[bigtankbigfish]

Bad news. Puffer didnt make it through first night of hypo. THis is so depressing, my girl is devasted that was her fish.

I lowered the salinity to 1.20. Im doing 3 points every other day until .09. THe rabbit fish still is alive and going hard with no visible ich at all. But I know the QT is infected so he will probably have it worse in a few days. My DT is still healthy. The fish are thriving with no signs of ich, Im gonna let it mellow out for a few weeks. I think you were right deejeff, if u remove the infected fish immediately before the ichs drops your DT is safe. At least I hope this is the case, time will tell. No more new fish until they go through hypo. Im setting up a 45 in my bedroom to be my new QT since its kinda stressful to have a 5 inch rabbit fish, he is not a foxface hes like blueish green with white spots, in a 20 gallon rubbermaid.
The good news is I cleaned the heck outta my reef tank last night and it looks great. I made more room for new frags.