Need Help Fast! My Salefin Tang May Be Dying!

[dr5271]

Alright so it all started about a week ago when i noticed my sale fin tang had noticeable signs of ick.
i thought i had it under control, i put the three incher in a 10 gal quarantine tank with an air stone, heater and a dark jar to hide in...
i did not have any other form of filtration, so i was planning on doing water changes every other day, so the ammonia would not get so high.
i was planning on doing the lowering salinity method down to .10 and keeping the tank at a constant 80 degrees
after i introduced the fish into the tank he didn't seem stressed out at all, he was eating great! and looked absolutely better after the first day! (but i knew that he still had to stay in the tank for another 3 weeks)
i did a water change the following day, and noticed that the temp dropped imminently 5 degrees with the water change
i got a little worried how long this could go on for without stressing him out.
still eating great
Christmas passed and i received a new skimmer!!
i thought this would be perfect for my quarantine tank! reduce the ammonia!
i had checked it the day before x-mas and the ammonia had spiked to .25!!
so my fish was still doing great and i had high hopes for the guy!
the addition of this new skimmer comforted me, maybe a little too much because i didn't do a water change (like i should have every other day)
and skipped a day (this time i only waited 2 days to do a water change)
and when i checked the ammonia, it had spiked to .50!!! even with the protein skimmer (aqua Romera) big enough for a 60gal! it spiked!!! so i frantically did another water change (50%) and the ammonia was still at .50!!!
i left it alone that night to return in the morning finding my fish looking worse!?
he not only wasn't eating, had foggy eyes and sluggish movement, but he now had dark blotches over most of his body!!!
i checked the ammonia levels and they had risen to 2.0!!!!!
i hurriedly bagged him and did a 100% water change, this time scrubbing the whole tank out so as not to leave anything behind when i changed the water this time!!!
how could my ammonia get soooo bad even with a proteine skimmer running constantly!!
so after doing the 100% water change this morning and soaking his nori in garlic he is still not eating and the ammonia is still high?! (at.50)
and it is baffeling me why the ammonia is so freekin high even with all these water changes!
i just came home from work right now at about 5:00pm to see my poor fish looking the worst i have ever seen him!?
his sale's of his fins are deteriorating! (possibly fin rot due to poor water quality right?)
and he is still not eating/looking good
i don't know what the heck i should do!!
the ammonia is currently still at .50
i have two options now
i bought some "Kick Ick" with no copper added and i can use this in my origional tank (45gal) with a maroon clown/coral beauty/fire fish/ and fish shrimp with many hermits
and use that for my fish (does anyone know if this stuff works?) <-- this could risk all of my other fish's lives especially now with the contagious fin rot
or i coulf keep him in the quarantine tank and try some marine buffer to reduce the ammonia, or if anyone has any other methods that would be very appreciated please, help me fast! i need to act quickly! thanks for any and all comments! i need your knowledge to help me through this and to save my sailfin!

 

[sepulatian]

Welcome to the boards! First, that is a large fish to put into a ten gallon tank with no biological filtration. You are doing more harm than good to this guy at the moment. The skimmer would not prevent an ammonia spike. Biological filtration prevents an ammonia spike. Biological bacteria is found on things like sand, filter pads, live rock, etc. Add some sand out of your display. Get a filter on the tank and use the filter media from your display filter. You will have to keep up with regular water changes. Always use pre-mixed water that has the exact same temperature, PH, and SG as the QT.

 

[dr5271]

Welcome to the boards! First, that is a large fish to put into a ten gallon tank with no biological filtration. You are doing more harm than good to this guy at the moment. The skimmer would not prevent an ammonia spike. Biological filtration prevents an ammonia spike. Biological bacteria is found on things like sand, filter pads, live rock, etc. Add some sand out of your display. Get a filter on the tank and use the filter media from your display filter. You will have to keep up with regular water changes. Always use pre-mixed water that has the exact same temperature, PH, and SG as the QT.
I figured he was a large fish to put in the tank! but i figured he would only be in there for a couple of weeks!
i will put some sand in there
i have a little live rock, and i will make sure to keep the water at the same temp when introducing it into the tank!
what do you mean when you say "get filter pads"?
is that just those black pours pads and just stick them in the tank?
i think i might just take my whole fuval 405 off my main tank and put it in my ten gal at the moment!
attach my new protein skimmer to the main tank and it should be ok for the night, i mean all the fish in the main tank are quite small, and should hold for a night right? at the moment i do not have another filter so you are suggesting that i do not put the guy back in my main tank? thanks for your help! its a relief!

 

[sepulatian]

New filter pads wouldn't do this tank much good. You want to use the ones from your existing filter, but don't just put them into the tank. They would need to be run through a filter. Have you started treatment on the QT yet?

 

[dr5271]

5 min ago i switched the fuval 405 and hooked it on the back of my QT, i put the good skimmer from the QT onto the existing tank and it is now running on two skimmers/live rock/ sand which should hold for a little while until i get a small filtration system for the QT. will this be an ok remedy for the ammonia spike? and how long should i leave my existing established (3years) tank without a filtration system?
and i really would like to leave the fuval running in the QT until its down to 0ppm , maybe even throughout the whole quarantineing procress if i cannot find another filtration system...
thank you sooo much for your time and input, it literally has eased my worries sooo much! i will remember to always use the existing filter pads/media to promote biological filtration!

 

[sepulatian]

Your DT will be fine without the fluval for a few weeks. You are still going to have to do water changes if there are ammonia spikes though. Run to the store tomorrow and pick up some Amquel Plus. That will help for sudden spikes. On to treatment. Have you begun hyposalinity yet? What are you using to measure the SG?