Learning the hard way...

[brithor]

So, been treating ich the wrong way for the past week using Ich Attack trying to buy time until I can get the QT up and running. Needless to say, think the water quality has been going downhill so last night I did a 15% water change as I planned to stop treatment and replace some of the media in my fluval canister filter (added carbon back - replaced 1 of the 2 biomax cartridges and added water polisher cloth). Yesterday I also added a product called Stress Coat which is supposed to help restore the slime coat and just be beneficial during times of stress like water changes, introducing to the tank, etc.
Well, this morning the tank was cloudy with a white film on the glass and my fish along with a cleaner shrimp are dead.

I haven't tested the water yet but plan to do that, was just curious if anyone else has had any bad experiences with either product. I assume the film on the glass was caused by the Stress Coat or maybe the biomax media change.

The Ich Attack was more brown in color and would temperarily discolor the water but hadn't previously left any white film.
The other question is, do you think I need to completely empty and clean the tank or just let it run for a couple months and keep up with normal maintenance assuming all the parameters are normal?
Add me to the proponents of a QT tank and not putting anything in your dt...Just had to learn the hard way.

 

[al mc]

Sorry for your loss. Tough to say whether it was the products used, the ICH, ammonia
spike (assuming your test shows high ammonia) or low oxygenation of the water.
Personally, I would completely clean out the tank and filtration system and restart with new water.

 

[brithor]

Thanks, looks like PH crashed - measured 7.8. Did measure some low levels of Ni, Na, and Ammonia but not to the extent that it would cause the die off. The water does still look a little cloudy though and I'm not sure why.
Guess I will do some large water changes and clean up and consider scrubbing everything down.

 

[sepulatian]

Welcome to the boards! A ph of 7.8 is fine, especialy if you have ammonia. The lower ph makes the ammonia less toxic to the fish. Did you over dose the medication? What kind of flow do you have in the tank?

 

[beth]

How do you plan to threat the fish? If your tank is strictly fish only, you can do hyposalinity in your display tank.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/127007/faqs-fish-diseases-treatments-quarantine-health-info#post_914798

 

[brithor]

Yeah, couldn't hypo my display since I have live rock and a clean up crew. The good news is that everything has pretty much cleared up and my clean up crew except for one hermit survived. Will just use this opportunity to get rid of the ich by waiting a month or two before adding anymore fish and fine tuning my acquascaping as I want to add another inch or two to my sand bed.
I will also have the QT up and running by the time I add fish and can properly acclimate them and hopefully prevent ich from ever getting back into my DT.