Ich treatment - Advice

[benny blanco]

Ich has finally reached my 135 gallon FOWLR tank. I recently switched from a canister filter, to a sump with a skimmer. Up to that point, no major problems, water quality was less than perfect, but no visable sickness or disease on my fish. Since the switch, I have lost 5 fish (including 3 Chromis, which I thought to be some of my most hardy fish.) Now my tangs all have ich visable on their fins and body, my hippo also has a cloudy eye and I see him being next to go if I don't apply some sort of treatment. All my fish are still eating regularly, but I anticipate more losses without some action on my part.
My questions...Should I transfer out all my LR and inverts and treat DT with copper to help with the ich? I have about a 4 inch bed of LS and crushed coral and I'm thinking HYPO won't work. Any other suggestions...I don't want to watch my fish suffer without trying something to help them.
I do not have a QT tank set up at the moment, what size would be advisable for the future?

 

[beth]

Hypo should work as long as you have a reliable means of measuring salinity. In my view, that really is your best option. Copper in the display will only make the situation worse.
Also, crushed coral is a poor choice of substrate.

 

[benny blanco]

Thanks Beth, I didn't realize crushed coral would be a bad choice. I have heard since it is pourous it can house residue from previous treatments. I did add 6 bags of LS during intial setup and LFS said crushed coral would act as natural filtration, similar to LR, once established (not sure if that is true).

 

[beth]

The other problem with cc is that it is not hospitable to sandbed micro inverts. CC has very sharp edges, that literally guts small micro-organisms. If you have ever handled a piece of dead coral, you'd know what I mean.
Of course, most hobbyists are trying to encourage the proliferation of micro-organisms because they provide a natural biological means of maintaining the tank.
Also, cc has larger particle sizes resulting in detritus getting trapped and not effectively breaking down; that sandbed micro-organisms can't populate the sandbed to provide a natural cleaning process compounds the issue. This frequently results in high nitrates.

 

[locoyo386]

Originally Posted by Benny Blanco
http:///forum/post/3072091
Ich has finally reached my 135 gallon FOWLR tank. I recently switched from a canister filter, to a sump with a skimmer. Up to that point, no major problems, water quality was less than perfect, but no visable sickness or disease on my fish. Since the switch, I have lost 5 fish (including 3 Chromis, which I thought to be some of my most hardy fish.) Now my tangs all have ich visable on their fins and body, my hippo also has a cloudy eye and I see him being next to go if I don't apply some sort of treatment. All my fish are still eating regularly, but I anticipate more losses without some action on my part.
My questions...Should I transfer out all my LR and inverts and treat DT with copper to help with the ich? I have about a 4 inch bed of LS and crushed coral and I'm thinking HYPO won't work. Any other suggestions...I don't want to watch my fish suffer without trying something to help them.
I do not have a QT tank set up at the moment, what size would be advisable for the future? %%
Just curious, what part of Cali are you from? Also, how long have you had your tank and when was the last time you added anything live (fish, inverts, rock, sand ect.). Were the skimmer and sump used, if so where they currently running when you got them? If so, did you cleaned them really well (sterilized them) before you added them to your tank?
Also on the QT size, depends on what size fish you want to Q and how many you want to do at one time. For tangs I would recomend a 55 gallon or bigger.

 

[marcosboza94]

My blue hippo had that same cloudy eye and they told me to soap his food in zoecon. Well i did and after the second day my hippos eye wasent cloudy anymore but now it has ick just my luck.