Ick

[piccasotrigger]

Since starting up my tank last november i i have really struggled. I have been keeping freshwater the last couple years, but did keep saltwater about 4 years ago. From what i remembered of saltwater it was easy,+, I kept lions triggers puffers eels etc and had no problems. I was a young kid with really no money so i didnt have the best equipment but i had very few losses. Since starting up this new tank though it has been a completely diffent story. I started off getting cutesy with it trying to get tangs and butterfly etc. When that wasnt working i got hardier stuff triggers puffers etc that still didnt work. I since then cleared the tank of anyfish i had only stars snails and live rock and sand in there for 6 weeks. I have a 55 gallon with 2 xp3s and a marineland 400. I tried introducing a baby dogface puffer and a small snowflake moray 2 days ago, and the next day i noticed the dogface had ick. I put them both in quarintine but am getting so frustrated with this, I have way more than enough filteration, I have lots of live rock and sand, and my test are good 0 ammonia 0 nitrites about 30 nitrate. Why does this problem persist i love fish but am really getting tired off buying fish just to lose them,not to mention spending a small fortune on a empty piece of glass for the last year. Thank you for any reply and please dont comment on the tank being to small i understand a dogface needs 100 gallons and when the time comes ill make the neccesary move. but im looking for the problem here and its not the 3inch dogface was to big for the 55 gallon.

 

[nicetry]

Are you quarantining your fish before you put them in the main tank? If not, they are likely infected upon purchase and the parasite is simply continuing it's life cycle. Sounds like youhave a Q tank, but you need to use it before adding fish to your display. A minimum of three weeks to observe for pathogens and treat as needed.
Question; what are you doing to treat the sick fish?

 

[piccasotrigger]

I now have the 2 fish in a 10 gallon qt with 2 whisper 10s running and am treating them with copper. Another question what would be a good strong filter to put in my qt i dont think those whispers will hold with a puffer and eel. Im not worried about the tank size because they are both really small and have room to stay away from each other but am worried about lack of filteration. I think the emperor 400 from the dt would be over doing it huh? Will garlic soaked krill help them recover faster and how often should i do water changes on this tank.thanks

 

[nicetry]

Your filtration is adequate. Please read the FAQ's on hyposalinity at the top of this forum. Copper is not a good treatment for puffers. Copper increases mucous production and puffers already excrete a lot of mucous to begin with. Hyposalinity is the preferred treatment and is safer than copper. Water changes should be done frequently in a small tank. I would change out two gallons every three days. What kind of copper are you using and how are you measuring it.

 

[piccasotrigger]

So i have them both in qt and am using coppersafe. I took out 4 gallons today and added 4 gallons of instant ocean.It looked good for awhile but then got extremely cloudy. Im not sure what is going on i can only guess it is new tank syndrom, seeing as how i just set the qt back up 3 days ago,but the water i used to start off was 10 gallons from the display. So i would assume that has all the beneficial bacteria needed? What does everyone else do? do you leave your qts up all the time or only when needed.

 

[geridoc]

i used to start off was 10 gallons from the display. So i would assume that has all the beneficial bacteria needed?
Bad assumption - there are relatively few bacteria in the water column. You will have to watch the nitrogenous waste levels in the tank. If ammonia goes up, get some Amquel Plus, and use it as directed on the bottle. It will reduce the toxicity of the ammonia-nitrite that you might be seeing.

 

[piccasotrigger]

So is there anyway to speed up the nitrogen cycle? I have amquel + so thats probably helping them, but they need to be in there for 6 weeks.I dont know if they can surivive that long in dirty water.

 

[geridoc]

Amquel + doesn't remove the ammonia - it converts it to a form that doesn't bind with the hemoglobin in fish blood, so it isn't so toxic. That form of ammonia, however, is still metabolized by the bacteria, so the tank will cycle. You can put some gravel in the qt to add bacteria, and the tank will cycle while the fish are protected by Amquel. Good luck.