Tang

[jb rekit]

Well, the yellow tang I got monday I just discovered has ick. I put him in my 10 gal qt, but my question is how long will a tang live in a 10 gal tank? I don't want to rush him back into the display and run the risk of it spreading, but I don't want to leave him in the 10 gal too long either if it will keep him too stressed out and die anyway. I can upgrade to a 20 gal qt for the same price as a new tang so I am open to opinions here if you guys think the extra 10 gal will make a difference.

 

[robchuck]

How large is the tang? Regardless of what size QT it's put into, you'll want to keep it in QT for at least four weeks to ensure that the ich has completely gone through it's life cycle.

 

[jb rekit]

It's fairly large, maybe 4" or so. Thats why I asked if it would be worth going to a 20L or if both tanks would still be way to small and be almost equally stressful and a waste of time and $20 to set up the new tank.

 

[fishtanker]

just make sure that there are no other fish in your display tank...if one of your fish has ich you'll have to remove all of them into the QT and leave your display fishless for 4 weeks.

 

[jb rekit]

Well since this is obviously going to be a long term thing, I thing I am going to use a 90 gal tank I was going to turn into a fuge for the QT for a month so the fish have more room to swim and then use the 20 gal fuge I have right now as the QT for the future to keep new fish in to monitor them for a month before putting them in the display. Catching these guys with 60- 70#'s of LR is not fun. Did manage to get the tang w/o removing any LR though (I guess that has been the main positive point of the whole ordeal).

 

[jb rekit]

As far as using the 90 gallon for a fuge after I am done using it as a QT what should I do cleaning wise? Just hose it out with fresh water?

 

[robchuck]

Great call on deciding to use the 90 for QT. The salt will cost you a few bucks, but the size of the 90 will help keep the fish's stress level down.
How do you plan to treat the tang? Hypo?

 

[jb rekit]

Since I am going to be putting them in the 90 gal, I am really leaning toward the hypo now since it will be a lot easier to monitor than a 10 or 20 gal dealing with evaporation and everything else in such a small quantity. Plus I won't need to be doing a water change everyday since the bioload will be a lot less.
If I was going to keep them in a smaller tank I was planning on just using the rid ick or another ick treatment.
What would you reccomend now that it looks like my options are increasing?

 

[jb rekit]

I guess some good comes out of everything.
I had been wanting a deeper display tank for some time now so since I am going to have all of my fish in a QT for a month or so, I am going to make my current 75 the QT and replace it with a deep (front to back) 150 gal.
That should give everything room to grow and make the tang happier once everyone is ready to move back in.
After everyone moves back in and is doing ok, I will turn the 75 into a refugium and use my 20 gal refugium as a QT for any new fish to make sure the parasite is not re-introduced into the tank.
One question though, do I have enough cylcled material in my tank to do this without losing the cycle in either tank?
I'm not as worried about the new tank just b/c it will have all of the LR and the refugium tied in, but still curious about how much water I need to keep in the 75 and how much sand etc.
Thanks
John

 

[jb rekit]

Oh and the tang is eating now too. There are no visible ick spots left on him, but they will definately remain in the QT for a month. Don't want to have to go through this again. Do it right the first time and QT everything from here on out.

 

[jb rekit]

Is rid ich ok? I used it in the tank a long time ago before I made it a reef tank and all the inverts are have made it.
When I turn it into the fuge, it is going to be dried out so I can put a divider and filter pad in it.
Just want to make sure I don't screw it up and lose everything.