Need help, sick Tang

S

Shilpan

Member
Hey guys! As you may have read earlier I have Ich so I'm preparing for a 12 week fallow of my 100gallon plus treating my 8 fish in a 40gallons.

Now then QT is cycling still. It's been 3 days and I've got my ammonia (0.25) and nitrites but waiting for them to come down (the cycle was quick because I seeded my canister filter with 1L of matrix for 2 weeks in the DT and I'm using seachem stability).

Now the Tang was doing ok but today he's got heaps of spots again. No signs of distress or heavy breathing but is itching. Should I do a FW dip in heated water for 5mins to help him survive longer until my hospital tank is ready? Or will that stress him out more so that when I put him back in the DT he'll get reinfected and die even quicker?

Thank you, I understand I may just have to wait and be patient but I'd like to do something if I can.
 
S

Shilpan

Member
Hey guys just an update. So the cycle is coming along. Day 6 or 7, and I've been adding seachem stability and I had established filter media.

No fish dead in the DT, but it seems to be getting worse, I can see visible signs of itching and the poor tang is covered it just spends all is time at the powerhead to soothe the itch.

So in the hospital tank, Ammonia-0ppm, nitrite-1ppm (was 2ppm 3 days ago, and 1ppm 2 days ago), and nitrate-10-20ppm.

After researching and also recalling a discussion we had on this forum last year, nitrites (yup 'i') are relatively harmless to saltwater fish, unless 100's or 1000's of ppm. So I'm gonna water change and even if there's still 0.5ppm nitrites left I'm gonna add the fish to the QT, keep adding stability and start the cupramine.
 
geridoc

geridoc

Well-Known Member
Nitrates (with an 'a') are relatively innocuous until levels rise well above 100 ppm. Nitrites (with an 'i') are toxic. Since your ammonia levels are at zero and the nitrite levels are low and falling, I would add Prime and get the fish into treatment now.
 
S

Shilpan

Member
Cheers guys :)
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php
That's the article regarding nitrite geridoc. But tested my nitrite today 0.25, so I'll do a water change and then add them in.

One more question, so I'm separating all my equipment at the moment. My brother is gonna take care of the dT so I can avoid touching it and cross contaminating anything. So tell me, what's the best way to clean equipment that's been in an Ich tank? Like pumps and stuff I use for water changes. Do I just tap water rinse and dry?
 
lmforbis

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
I use a 10% bleach solution. It kills hepatitis, TB, and HIV should kill ich. I then let everything air dry.
 
S

Shilpan

Member
Thank you for the help, thank god for forums.

lol I went to a fish store and he goes "no no don't fallow, it does not work. Ich just stays dormant and you'll never ever get rid of it from your tank. It can live forever. Just keep buying garlic guard and this vitamin supplement every month from here and that will help you"

Hahahaha never going back there again.
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
I would suggest using hyposalinity rather than copper. Copper in a new tank is going to destroy whatever biofilter you've established over the past several days. Better for fish as well. What are size of all those fish? A 40 gal isn't going to hold 8 fish unless they are pretty small.
 
S

Shilpan

Member
After looking around, it seemed like hypo is difficult to do properly for first timers because a fluctuation in salinity above 1.009 or whatever can cause the treatment to fail. Hence I opted for cupramine. Cupramine seems to be better than other coppers because it's complexed to an amine. But I understand where you're coming from because it's tougher on the fish :) also I've done a bit a of research and contacted seachem, if I keep dosing bottled bacteria it should keep the filter adequate (I'm using double the reccomended Matrix media so hopefully that also helps). Also they say cupramine shouldn't destroy the filter or cause any noticeable change to it, but eh I'll have water on hand for changes anyway cause of course they'll say that.

Yeah so it's a 45gallon long to be exact. The clowns wrasse goby firefish and bangaii are 1-2". The foxface is 4" and the tang is the biggest at 5". I do agree it's a little cramped but it's the best I could do with what's available. We don't have cheap tanks here in NZ cause of demand, this 40gallon without any accessories costed me $200NZD. I hear about these amazing $1 for a gallon sales you guys have. Hopefully they'll be ok :) but if I don't attempt this pretty sure they're gonna die anyway.

Man....serves me right for not medicating the tang during quarantine I guess.
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Hypo is no harder than copper because you also have to be exact about copper in the water as you do with keeping the water at 1.009 for hypo. The biggest concern here is that you have an uncycled tank. As I said, copper will kill off a lot of your biofilter. Every time you change water because of problems maintaining quality water in an uncycled tank disrupts the copper treatment. If you go down that course, be sure that your change water is maintained with adequate levels of copper before using for water changes. And careful not to overdose.
 
S

Shilpan

Member
Ok thank you for the advice Beth :) I do hear what you're saying about the hypo answer I understand you're recommending it to keep my fish safer, I just feel quite unsure about it's efficacy especially since if I have to re-treat the fish are stuck in that 45gallon for even longer.

Yup I have a test kit and I've measured out the tank volume exactly. Also got a new bucket to mix the copper in.

Yeah I'm hoping the pre-seeded seachem matrix, double doses of seachem stability and little chaeto compartment which I'm gonna hook up to the tank will come through for me. I'll let you guys know how it goes :) my tang started eating again so I'm back to waiting for that last 0.25ppm nitrite to cycle I guess.
 
S

Shilpan

Member
Update
Still haven't started copper. After cycling the tank I added the fish. Ammonia was fine for 26hrs but then crept up to 0.25. So I've started using seachem prime (ammonia alert back to 0), and I'm gonna continue using it until the tank recycles and ammonia tests 0 on my API kit which is still showing 0.25
Ammonia as it should. I'm adding stability daily. I'm glad I decided to wait 2 days to check the biofilter before starting cupramine.

Interestingly all the fish lost their Ich they're spot free. Theyll be covered within a few days probably but last 4 days they've been spot free. I guess this is why TTM must be so effective. The main tank meanwhile is fallowing now. My brother feeds my shrimp so I don't touch it. I RODI rinsed all my equipment and dry it between use now.

Any tips for either cycling or anything else are welcome :) thanks
 
S

Shilpan

Member
P.s I have 75 gallons worth of seachem matrix in a large external canister filter which I haven't cleaned yet for fear of disturbing the bacteria after only 2 weeks.
 
lmforbis

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
Just be sure to do several large water changes to get rid of the prime before you start copper. It may not be necessary, I don't know anything about how fast it breaks down. I'd hate to see it cause a problem when you've put so much time into doing things the right way. Good luck!
 
S

Shilpan

Member
Cheers buddy!
Yeah I emailed seachem, they said prime only works for 48hrs. So you have to wait that amount of time before using cupramine.

I think I've been sold on the TTM when I quarantine new fish after this fallow. It's amazing day 5 and still no Ich yet.

Thank you everyone :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top