Need help with quick set up of hospital tank!!!

[shannonoss]

I have a 55 gal. reef tank that has had a flair up of Ick. Not all fish are affected but I am trying to save the ones that are. Currently they are being housed in a rubbermaid tub with air. I bought a 12 gal. nano for my son that we haven't set up yet, so I want to try to turn it into a quarantine/hospital tank. I have only been at SW since last summer, so I am still a bit of a newbie. My idea (and from what I have read) is to try to take water out of my 55 to start up the 12, I am due for a water change anyway. Then just top off the 12 with fresh. I am also going to take a piece of LR to help the cycle along. My question, is doing it this way when is the soonest I could put the affected fish in the 12, If most of the water and a piece of rock is coming out of my established tank. Is it going to cycle? Any insight would be wonderful!!! :help: :help:

 

[rainfishy]

To get rid of ich you would have to have ALL your fish in the hospital for atleast 6 weeks, not only to kill the ich on the fish but also in the DT. You would have to do hypo or treat with copper or something to kill the ich on the fish in the QT. However, it will take 4 weeks for your QT to cycle, by which time your fish could all be dead (thats why it is important to have a QT running, already cycled, all the time)
How much LR is in your main tank?? Inverts? How many fish and what size (all the fish in the 55)?
Honestlt your situation is pretty bad, even if the 12gal was already cycled it would probable not house all your fish (from a 55) comfortable for 6 weeks. Answer the above questions and maybe someone will have an idea.

 

[aredmon]

The water from your old tank will not help to skip a cycle. The bacteria needed is not in the water it is on the surface of things in the tank such as LR, sand, glass, filters, ect. i had to set up an emergency QT and I was able to skip the cycle by using an already established filter from my big tank. I had 2 hang on back filters and I just put one of them in my QT. Never experienced a cycle. What kind of filter do you have??
Also if I may add something. I know you said that not all of your fish were infected but you may want to treat all of them at the same time anyway. This is why. The ick is already in your tank. Even though you may still see only a few fish with it some of the ick may be free swimming in your tank or clinging to something laying eggs. So if you take the infected fish out and begin treatment (for example hypo) and another fish shows signs of ick you cannot just add them to the QT because hypo has already began and you can stress a fish to the point of dieing if you try to just add it or even acclimate it in an hour or two to the hypo salinity.
Also if you treating the fish and notice ick in your main tank and continue your treatment in the Qt and when they are done you put them back in the main and take out the newly infected fish to treat you just added your fish you treated back into an ick infrested tank and it will be a never ending cycle.
I say to avoid any frustration in the future and to be safe QT all of them at once so you know beyond a shoddow of a dought that the ick is gone.

 

[shannonoss]

I know a QT is important, I have had freshwater tanks for over 20 yrs. and have treated ick many times with them. However as I'm sure you can relate to saltwater tanks are expensive to set up and with 3 other freshwater tanks in the house besides my saltwater the thought of one more tank makes hubby cringe although with losing a $50 fish last night he is coming around quickly.
At this point the only fish still in the 55 are my clown, mandarin, and watchman goby all appear to be fine. The affected fish were pulled out as soon as I noticed the problem a week ago. But if you think I need to pull the three of them I will try to catch them also which should be interesting. Fish currently in the rubbermaid tub include Royal Gramma, Damsel, and two neon gobies, I lost my flame angel last night.
At LFS recommendation I did do a freshwater dip for 5 min. twice on the flame angel over the period of a week, didn't work.
Treating in the 55 is not an option, it is full of lR, crabs, snails, starfish, etc. Not to mention my all my corals. I have the nano running now, all but about 1.5 gallons of it came from my 55, I also pulled a piece of LR to put in it. I have a hang on back type filter with double filtration if I took one of the filter pads out of there and put it in the QT tank would that help?

 

[shannonoss]

Forgot to add, LFS sold me something today called Mardel CopperSafe which is what they use in the shop. Haven't started using this new med yet, but it has copper in it. Does anybody have any experience with this stuff?

 

[92protruck]

yes, adding the filter pad from the display will help but will not avoid a cycle. You will have to do water changes at least daily to keep ammonia down. Maybe a gallon or so but whatever is required. Can't help you with the copper product.

 

[rainfishy]

All of your fish need to be treated for ich, even if you do not see it on them. Your main tank needs to be fish free for atleast 6 weeks to let the free floating ich die!!
If you treat your fish in QT, then return to DT before 6 weeks your fish may get the ich again, starting the whole cycle over.
Most people on this site will say copper is never a good choice for saltwater fish. I personally have no experience with copper medications.
For more information on ich, treatment, and quarentine please look at the thread at the top of the pase, titled something like, health info, QT info, something like that, at the very top of the page.
Sorry don't know how to post a link

 

[shannonoss]

Great, I'll do that right now and keep my test kits at the ready. I appreciate the help.

 

[rainfishy]

I agree that moving filter pad will help, but daily water changes will be key to prevent cycle

 

[shannonoss]

I guess I will hold off on the CopperSafe and keep treating with the other ick med I have until I hear from a few others.

 

[beth]

How many fish do you have and how big are they? And when you say there is air, hopefully you mean good PH, pumps, not an airstone, or something similar.

 

[shannonoss]

Lost the damsel last night, not a huge loss, but still another loss. Remaining fish are small, less than 3 inches. Caught the clownfish and have placed him in with the others, still trying to catch the mandarin and watchman goby, tore half of my reef apart trying to get them and will keep on working on it today. As for the tub, I currently have a powerhead in there keeping things stirred up, from what I have researched placing a filter in there is not the thing to do is this correct? Also, how is my mandarin going to manage in there for six weeks? I do have access to live brine and black worms which he loves, but then I am getting into filteration problems keeping water quality up. The hospital tank has been running almost 24 hrs. now but I am figuring it isn't an option for me to put them in for several more weeks. I am monitoring closely and so far there are no spikes happening but it is still really to soon to notice anything right?

 

[aredmon]

I had the same problem as you. I have a 75 gal tank and no Qt. I ended up with ick. I had to QT a clown, domino damsel, 4 stripe damsel, flame angel, and firefish goby all in a 10gal. I used just one of the filters from my tank which only had one filter pad to it and I did avoid a cycle in the Qt. Not saying this will work for you but I say you have a good chance. But I did have to do water topoffs and water changes everyday to everyother day to keep nitrates in check.

 

[frosty]

I just got done cycling my qt tank. Its a 10 gal and I added two to three cups of live sand from my tank, one of my filter pads, small piece of live rock and about 8 gallons of my tank water. It was not spiking at all for days but when I added 4 hermit crabs and fed them the amonia started to slowly creep up and then the nitrite. Even with all that I did it took two weeks to cycle completely. I would reccomend buying the best bacterial supplement to add to the qt tank on a daily basis and doing water changes just as everyone else is saying. I would double dose the bacterial supplement on a daily basis as well.
Good Luck I hope they make it.