Major QT help needed

drtash

drtash

Member
I need help!!!
I have been quarantining my yellow tang, niger trigger and puffer now for 1 week. Originally I was QT'ing for presumed ICH. My yellow tang came down with popeye. I completed a 5 day course of erythromycin for popeye.. The popeye went away.
Been hypoing for 1 week.
10 gal tank
ph 8.0 use proper ph goes to 8.2
nitrates (-)
ammonium 1.0 -2.0 I have been doing daily 50% water changes. I for the life of me cant get the ammonium down. I have every been using AmQuel plus once a day.
spc gravity 1.009 (read by refractometer)
Now today I notice my Yellow tang has what i looks like is hemmorrhaging near his right fin.
Please help!!!
I have read beths column 2-3 times... read Fenner cover to cover and now reading another book on disease and marine life
 
drtash

drtash

Member
also forgot to mention a biofilter and powerhead.
Feeding a menu of krill, squid, shrimp , romain letuce, seaweed, all with garlic
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
That is quite a bio load in a 10 gallon qt. Those are messy fish, that is why the ammonia is not coming down. Did you cycle the qt before adding the fish? What does the hemorrhage look like on the tangs fin? Does it look like he could have been bitten by one of the other two fish?
 
rc1626

rc1626

Member
As Sepulatian said, that is quite a large bioload for that size tank. When you cycled the tank how did you do it? What type of biofilter are you running? Could be there is just not enough surface area for your filter to build bacteria to handle that bioload. Is it a bare bottom QT or do you have any substrate?
To get back to my earlier question regarding test kit type. Recently I went through a troublesome quarantining experience. My ammonia shot up so I dosed Amquel+ w/ w/ water changes and still no change in test kit readings (API test kit). I lost that particular fish because I was too late in getting the ammonia down. Also didn't help that I did not have the tank fully cycled. (never make that mistake again).
Anyway, I learn through my next experience of QTing that when using Amquel (+) certain ammonia test kit readings will come back as a false positive, API being one. I learned that ammonia can be broken down into 2 separate readings - free & total ammonia. Both are harmful to livestock but free ammonia is the real killer. Most test kits only measure total ammonia. I picked up a Seachem ammonia test kit which measures both to find out my free ammonia reading was almost 0. Meanwhile total ammonia was still reading 1.0. New fish was doing great. The amquel did it's job until my biofilter was able to catch up. Moral of the story - when using Amquel, Ammolock, etc. make sure you can measure both free and total ammonia or you may get duped into thinking you have a problem when you don't. I also quickly learned that livestock are a great indicator to how good your water quality really is. Obviously not the best way to know, (always test) but they can give you a pretty good idea.
Build up your biofilter. Add some substrate from a well established, known parasite free tank. I would say not your own DT being you suspected ich in the first place.
Also, I've read that the stick type test kits are not the most accurate way to monitor water quality. Never used them myself but have read it many times on here. Just a thought. HTH
Rob
 
kazarko

kazarko

Member
your tank may not be set up to handle that much bioload. Also if the fish are both new additions and the tank did not have fish for a while, then you will see a mini cycle of sorts even if you did cycle it before. The two fish will add alot of bioload. Make sure your tank has enough sand or other porus material for bacteria to grow on.
 
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