QT cycle problems

[keeshcarm]

I have 4- 20gal QT's that I am having a terrible time maintaining cycle in hypo. I only have 1 tang in each (less than 3 in). I have lost one tang already because of Nitrite, and my Angel. I have to do big water change on them daily to keep nitrite down. I do the water change after I feed. Amquel nor Niteout has not helped. I supplement water changes from the DT in the QTs and also have added a cup of substrate from DT in 1.
Cycle was fine before hypo.
One of these tanks had live rock. A pair of Anthias reside. As I increase hypo the Nitrites are developing, but even though I removed the rock my experiences so far are not going to prevent rise in Nitrites..
What am I doing wrong?
I lost 2 to secondary bacteria. I currently have a purple tang in one tank that was clean. I have had him for a couple months in QT when ick appeared. I immediately started hypo (July 14) but the ick spots have not fallen off. He looked like he was developing secondary infection so I started Maracyn 2. He seems slightly stressed with the Marcyn 2 but is eating.
Any suggestions?

 

[beth]

Add a bit of live sand from your display into these QTs. Also, be sure that the circulation in the QTs is very good throughout.
Why did you set up 4 QTs?

 

[keeshcarm]

Hi Beth,
I have 4 qts (20 gal) because I could not keep the nitrite down with more than one fish in each. I pulled all from the larger DT when my yellow tang developed lympho (which at first I thought was ick). I have 3 DTs and had to empty 2 of them at the same time. I bought a powder blue that I QT for a month and still developed ick after I put her in the display and she also beat everyone up. She killed my Threadfin and my Koran. So she was in 1 QT (separated) with my coral beauty( who I lost), purple tang & royal gramma (lost the gramma too) in another, and my sailfin and cardinal in another. The 4th QT has my anthias pair.
Anyway....I did put a cup of DT sand in one tank, I will also do the others. Will the Maracyn 2 kill the bacteria in the sand?
Is there anything else I can do for the purple tang besides the maracyn 2? The white spots have not fallen off. He has not developed any more. He has been in hypo since July 14. Thats why I thought he may have secondary infection.
Thanks Beth

 

[sepulatian]

What exactly are you seeing that leads you to believe that the purple tang has an infection? If the maracyn is causing him to do worse then stop use of the medication immediately. The problem here is that you are running multiple tanks that sound like they have not been cycled. Then you have added maracyn, which should only be used in a fully cycled tank because it will kill off some of your bacteria. If you only have very little to begin with then you will end up with none. Get the medication out of there with water changes. Pick up some Amquel plus, Vitachem, and Zoecon. Rotate the vitamins on their food and use the Amquel as needed.
Are you sure that the fish have ich? What are you using to measure the SG for hypo? If it were ich, and you are testing the SG every day, then the ich should have fallen off by now.
If you had ich in the DT then have you removed ALL of the fish for treatment? If not then ich is still in there.

 

[keeshcarm]

Hi, thank you for your reply Sepulation
It was not ich in the DT. It was lympho. It only affected the yellow tang. All the fish in the DT were moved to QT. The QT was cycled. While treating the tang I believe I lost the cycle.
I received a powder blue. She was in the other QT & developed ich. She was never in the DT. Without huge daily water change the Nites soared. I had used Maracyn in that tank also. So I killed my good bugs. I kept adding water from the DT to no avail.
I will add the sand to the tanks as suggested.
I use a refractometer. I feed mixed of mysis, veggies, and soak it in vitamins and selcon.
I will try to get a pic of the purple tang to confirm today.