ICH on Kole Tang

[jacknjill]

My kole tang a few days ago suddenly became very pale (like a cream color) and was swimmming around crazily and breathing hard, occasionally laying down on his side. All water levels were fine. So we did a frehwater dip and he seemed fine but had some little marks on his side that looked like scrapes from the rocks, which we assumed was from catching him. But his color came back and he was fine for two days. Now he is pale again anad ich has broken out. So, we have to go out and buy a QT tank, we have a spare heater, and i was wondering if i could buy one of those freshwater tanks with the light and plastic hood and use the freshwater filter that comes with it. would that be ok? also what treatment would you say works best? hyposalinity or copper. i only have a plastic hydrometer and i thought that refractometer's were expensive. how much would one cost? sorry for all the questions but ive never done this before.

 

[beth]

Jill, QTs are pretty easy to set up. I use a 20 gal long with an eclipse hood. I also have an added powerhead and a heater.
Try taking a look at the FAQ Thread at the top of the forum for info on setting up a QT as well ich. There are posts in there that will basically give you all the info you need.
If you have ich in the tank, all fish need to be treated. Hyposalinity is the choice treatment, especially when threating tangs. However, you need a refactrometer or a quality glass hydrometer.

 

[jacknjill]

ok i did some digging and i found some stuff. i hava an extra maxi jet 400 and a maxi jet 200. should i use these or would they be too strong for a 15-20 gallon tank? i have a small thermal compact 50 watt heater that i think will work. i also found an old penguin filter that should work but i have to get a new bio wheel and there is tons of coraline to scrape off. any suggestions on getting this off? i will cover the bottom of the tank with black construction paper and ill be buying the tank tomorrow. but NOW my yellow tang has ich on his fins, the kole tang is covered in ich, and i think my female tomato clown is getting some on her head. what will happen if i put my yellow tang, kole tang, tomato clown pair (im assuming i have to put her partner in also) ? wont this be a too heavy bio load? my other question is that i have a mandarin. should i throw hm in there too? wont he starve from having no rock to feed off of? what is your opinion: how effective is copper treatment? how much would a refractometer of a glass hydrometer cost?

 

[jacknjill]

bump

 

[jacknjill]

nobody?

 

[jacknjill]

do you know anything about treatments that could cure ich that are reef safe?

 

[beth]

Did you set up the QT? What you suggested sounded good. Please take a look at the detailed posts in the FAQ Thread which gives suggestions about QT and how to set it up.
Do you have a refractometer so you can treat your fish with hyposlainity? How many fish do you have? I'm assuming you have LR? Please refresh my member about what you system is like.

 

[jacknjill]

yeah i set up the QT with a 10 gallon tank. i put the filter and heater on but im not sure im gonna put a powerhead on since its so small of a tank. i have a yellow tang, kole tang, pair of tomato clowns, and a mandarin. im just leaving the mandarin in the dusplay tank because hell starve in the QT. i added the copper and will put the fish in tomorrow. can i just sacrifice a piece of live rock from my tank and put it in there?
my system is a bak pak 2 skimmer, hot magnum filter, couple powerheads, live rock & sand, corals, snails and hermits, anenomes. 55 gallons

 

[beth]

JJ, that tank is too small for all those fish. And, tangs, in all honesty, do not usually fare all that well with copper.
Can you do hyposalinity? What kind of display tank do you have? Is it LR or corals?

 

[jacknjill]

my display tank has a lot of different corals such as bubble coral, mushrooms, hammer corals, zoo polyps, candy cane, and some other things. what size QT should i use?

 

[jacknjill]

what about my mandarin?

 

[beth]

What are all your fish, and their size? To save money, you can get a larger square rubbermaid from Walmart/Kmart, that is tank like in shape. For a few bucks, you can setup a makeshift QT that is at least 30 gals or more. Why don't you try that.
The mandarin may have escaped ich as they are less prone to contract the parasite. That is is not 100%. You can leave him in the display for now and see what happens just because they are so hard to feed outside of the display. Is he eating prepared foods?
For a refractometer you are going to pay around $50 and likely will have to order it. If you get a good quality glass hydromter, not a swingarm plastic, then you may well be fine with that to do hyposalinity, though an investment in a refractomer will not be wasted. It is the most precise instrument we use to measure salinity in this hobby and with reef environments precise salinity is very important. In any case, swing arm hydromters are so inaccurate, that I consider them dangereous, as do many other hobbyists.
Use 100% water from your display to set up your QT and you can add some sand from the display to the QT. If you want to throw in peice of sacrifical LR, you can, but you can't use it again if you are going to use copper as a treatment. In an uncycled QT, I think you will have a lot of difficulty managing a tank that requrires copper maintenance.

 

[dominican]

Sorry to interrupt, but JacknJill, what kind of fish (tang?) is that on your profile?

 

[dominican]

I mean I realize your profile says Powder blue tang, but that's not like any pbt I've seen anywhere. Just curious, thanks....

 

[dominican]

Just read the actual thread. JacknJill, I had the same problem (consider that it could be temp fluctuation related stress, unless you introduced ich with a new addition). I bit the bullet, pulled out my surviving affected fish and did hypo. IT WORKS. QT - 1.009 for 4-6 weeks. HUGE pain in the ass, but I very regretfully lost some of my favorite fish by wasting time trying other methods. Just my two cents.
Regards,
Dominican

 

[jacknjill]

its an adult blue tang. powder blue tang is my ranking for the number of posts i have.
i used water from my display.
female tomato: about 5 1/2 in ( she about 7 years old)
Male tomato: little less than 2 in
Kole: about 2 1/2 in
Yellow: about 3 in
update, fish are in QT with copper, kole is laying on side breathing extremely hard. i doubt he will make it. other fish are fine

 

[jacknjill]

also, i didnt put in a powerhead since it is so small a tank and it is a maxi jet 200. would this be too strong? tell me because i dont want to put it in until i know for sure. on my penguin filter, i took all the carbon out and now its just a regular filter witha bio wheel. i also have a heater running

 

[beth]

Copper can be rough on tangs. What brand are you using and are you using a copper test kit?

 

[jacknjill]

yes i am using a copper test kit. im using this stuff called copper power. the kole tang is dead, which i expected because he has been doing bad for a while. the ammonia is very high in the QT tank and i cant get it down. its like between 1.5 and 3 and has been for a day. we changed about 60% of the water and it is the same.

 

[jacknjill]

its weird though because even though we changed over half of the water, the copper level stayed the same even thoug h we didnt add any more