thanks to ich.....

[staylor21]

all my fish are officially wiped out even though i tried kill ich and the garlic method....what still remains are my hermit crabs, my cleaner shrimp, my spider crab, and my two anemones.....there is obviously still ich in tank and would like to know how to remove it without harming the remaining inverts......i do not have a QT therefore cannot remove them from the tank.....is there something i can do to remove the ich from the tank while leaving the inverts in there or am i just going to have to remove them.....if i have to remove them, what do i have to do to remove the ich from my fish tank which will still have some live rock and live sand after removing the inverts.....any suggestions would be great help....

 

[yearofthenick]

The ich only lives on fish.... it will not live on inverts or coral. If you can keep your tank free of fish for about 6 weeks, all of the ich will die off because there are no fish for it to feed off of. that's really the only way you can rid your tank of ich... by keeping it fish-less for 6 weeks. Some will tell you that 4 weeks will do the job, but if I were you, I'd wait the extra two weeks just to be sure that ich is completely gone.
I know it kinda sucks to think that you can't keep any fish in there for 6 weeks, but it's actually a pretty awesome opportunity... a LOT of fish tanks have ich out there, especially in all the fish stores... they have no way of getting all the ich out of their tanks, so they usually feed them vitamins and garlic. Anyway, it's an awesome opportunity because this gives you the chance to completely rid your tank of ich. Most people have fish and find out they have ich, then they have to get a QT going and deal with all that Bullcrap, but because you don't have any fish, it's perfect.
Another thing though, if you add more fish, there is no guarantee that they are ich free. It would be good to do some kind of treatment on the fish you buy, like a chemical bath or something, before you put them into your tank. This can greatly help to keep the ich out of the tank. You'll hear from a lot of people that you should do a QT and keep it set up and all, but I know there are like 5 minute chemical dips and baths you can use to kill all the ich before you put them into your tank.

 

[sepulatian]

Use this time to set up and cycle a QT large enough for any fish that you plan to keep. If you plan to buy tangs then don't set up a ten gallon. Set up an appropriate QT. Leave your display fishless for two months. Ich cannot host the inverts. It will die without fish.
Quarantine all new purchases. If you want to add more corals, rocks, or inverts, then now is the time to do it. Ich cannot host them, but can come in on them. Once fish are back in the display, after a month in QT, then you should quarantine everything.

 

[staylor21]

so what will the inverts and anemones eat......also will i need to be running my skimmer and filter during these couple of weeks.....any water changes i have/can perform because my tank is filty from turning off my skimmer and filter.....there is like this brown powder all over my LR and LS....

 

[yearofthenick]

Just feed the anemone and inverts... they eat the same food your fish did... just don't put a whole lot in there.
Keep all your filtration going just like before. You should never turn off your filtration as long as you have live stuff in there.
Only do water changes if your nitrates and/or phospates start to rise.

 

[staylor21]

so even though my tank is filty from the "Brown Powder", i should not perform a water change????.....its like all over the tank and glass and equipment and LR and LS and etc.....oh and my anemones dont need to eat anything???

 

[staylor21]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
http:///forum/post/2698006
Use this time to set up and cycle a QT large enough for any fish that you plan to keep. If you plan to buy tangs then don't set up a ten gallon. Set up an appropriate QT. Leave your display fishless for two months. Ich cannot host the inverts. It will die without fish.
Quarantine all new purchases. If you want to add more corals, rocks, or inverts, then now is the time to do it. Ich cannot host them, but can come in on them. Once fish are back in the display, after a month in QT, then you should quarantine everything.
what do you mean by, "Ich cannot host them, but can come in on them."???

 

[yearofthenick]

Originally Posted by staylor21
http:///forum/post/2698022
so even though my tank is filty from the "Brown Powder", i should not perform a water change????.....its like all over the tank and glass and equipment and LR and LS and etc.....oh and my anemones dont need to eat anything???
Your anemone is a filter feeder... he filters stuff out of the water, as well as catching whatever food you feed to everyone else. The anemone NEEDS NEEDS NEEDS water flow... do you have pumps that keep the water flowing throughout the tank? If you have a bunch of brown powder on your LR and LS, then you need stronger water flow inside your tank because that should not be happening... you need water flow strong enough so that almost nothing settles to the ground... whatever brown powder is in your LR and LS should be kept flowing throughout the tank and filtered by your filtration and skimming. Even if you did a water change, it wouldn't get rid of all the brown powder... that stuff you need to vacuum out... do you have a suction cup thing?
Everything could die because of poor water flow. I would focus on getting that improved before I worry about curing ich.

 

[staylor21]

Originally Posted by YearOfTheNick
http:///forum/post/2698027
Your anemone is a filter feeder... he filters stuff out of the water, as well as catching whatever food you feed to everyone else. The anemone NEEDS NEEDS NEEDS water flow... do you have pumps that keep the water flowing throughout the tank? If you have a bunch of brown powder on your LR and LS, then you need stronger water flow inside your tank because that should not be happening... you need water flow strong enough so that almost nothing settles to the ground... whatever brown powder is in your LR and LS should be kept flowing throughout the tank and filtered by your filtration and skimming. Even if you did a water change, it wouldn't get rid of all the brown powder... that stuff you need to vacuum out... do you have a suction cup thing?
Everything could die because of poor water flow. I would focus on getting that improved before I worry about curing ich.
well i have a powerhead that does provide good water flow but it is not running at its max(if that makes sense) because it was making too many bubbles and when i lowered it, the tank also looked clearer.....should i turn it back up to its max.....oh and how would i vacuum out the brown powder and by suction cup do you mean the one on the protein skimmer???

 

[yearofthenick]

Sorry, I don't know why I said suction cup... although it is a cup and it does suck... it's a gravel vacuum and it uses the water gravity to suck the gunk out of the gravel or in your case, LS and LR. I put a pic of it below.
You could also get a water pump that sticks to the side of your tank... I posted a pic of a Koralia water pump... they are very commonly used in this hobby to help with water flow. That could help things out.
Could you tell me what your setup is? do you have a plug-and-play reef system like biocube or anything? or do you just have a glass aquarium with a hang-on-back filter and skimmer? Tell me as much as you can about your tank so I can help you work with what you have.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by staylor21
http:///forum/post/2698024
what do you mean by, "Ich cannot host them, but can come in on them."???
Ich cannot feed off of your inverts. It can, however be transported into another tank via them. Ich falls off of fish to reproduce. It attaches to a hard surface. That surface can be your inverts.
Originally Posted by staylor21
http:///forum/post/2698022
so even though my tank is filty from the "Brown Powder", i should not perform a water change????.....its like all over the tank and glass and equipment and LR and LS and etc.....oh and my anemones dont need to eat anything???
What is this brown powder from? You should do a water change if things don't settle down.

 

[yearofthenick]

is the brown powder all over the tank, or has it settled? if it settled and the water is clear, then there's no point in doing a standard water change. if it's all floating around, then do a water change.

 

[staylor21]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
http:///forum/post/2698043
Ich cannot feed off of your inverts. It can, however be transported into another tank via them. Ich falls off of fish to reproduce. It attaches to a hard surface. That surface can be your inverts.
What is this brown powder from? You should do a water change if things don't settle down.
so if it comes in on them does this mean that the ich after about six weeks of no fish for them to host that they will remain alive or will they die

 

[staylor21]

Originally Posted by YearOfTheNick
http:///forum/post/2698039
Sorry, I don't know why I said suction cup... although it is a cup and it does suck... it's a gravel vacuum and it uses the water gravity to suck the gunk out of the gravel or in your case, LS and LR. I put a pic of it below.
You could also get a water pump that sticks to the side of your tank... I posted a pic of a Koralia water pump... they are very commonly used in this hobby to help with water flow. That could help things out.
Could you tell me what your setup is? do you have a plug-and-play reef system like biocube or anything? or do you just have a glass aquarium with a hang-on-back filter and skimmer? Tell me as much as you can about your tank so I can help you work with what you have.
well i have a 55 gal tank with the remaining things that i mentioned earlier....it is a glass aqaurium with hang-on- back filter and skimmer....i have about 20-23 lbs. of live rock and 25 lbs. of dry rock....i also have 75 lbs. of LS.....i actually do not have a a gravel vaccum yet but am probably going to get it soon due to the brown powder been all over the tank.....wont the gravel vacuum suck in my LS though or should i just vacuum it like 2-3 inches away from the LS?

 

[spiderwoman]

How old is this tank?
From the sound of it, you have diatoms... the brown dusting on the rock and sand. It's part of the new tank syndrome.
Do you use RO/DI water or tap water?
Running your tank fishless means that you still feed your inverts/anemonies and othr living thing in the tank, do your water changes, just don't add any fish to it for 6 weeks to 2 months.

 

[yearofthenick]

Yes, you'll need to vacuum a little further away than you would with gravel... or you could get an unusually long vacuum... the one I posted a pic of has a very long suction tube.
a HOB (hang on back) filter will not provide enough flow for your tank to do well. you should head out and get another water pump and just put it in your tank... it doesn't need to be connected to any of your filtration, and it's cheap, too... like $20 or something, but it will greatly improve the cleanliness of your tank because all the gunk will get kicked up and filtered out by the skimmer/etc. AND it will provide more flow to your anemone and corals, making them happy too.
Also, are you putting phyto or zooplankton in the tank for the anemone to eat? Do you have any coral? If you do, are you watching the Calcium and Alkalinity?

 

[staylor21]

Originally Posted by SpiderWoman
http:///forum/post/2698068
How old is this tank?
From the sound of it, you have diatoms... the brown dusting on the rock and sand. It's part of the new tank syndrome.
Do you use RO/DI water or tap water?
Running your tank fishless means that you still feed your inverts/anemonies and othr living thing in the tank, do your water changes, just don't add any fish to it for 6 weeks to 2 months.
well the tank has up for about a month and a half and i use tap water.....and what are diatoms?

 

[staylor21]

Originally Posted by YearOfTheNick
http:///forum/post/2698280
Yes, you'll need to vacuum a little further away than you would with gravel... or you could get an unusually long vacuum... the one I posted a pic of has a very long suction tube.
a HOB (hang on back) filter will not provide enough flow for your tank to do well. you should head out and get another water pump and just put it in your tank... it doesn't need to be connected to any of your filtration, and it's cheap, too... like $20 or something, but it will greatly improve the cleanliness of your tank because all the gunk will get kicked up and filtered out by the skimmer/etc. AND it will provide more flow to your anemone and corals, making them happy too.
Also, are you putting phyto or zooplankton in the tank for the anemone to eat? Do you have any coral? If you do, are you watching the Calcium and Alkalinity?
no i am not putting phyto or zooplankton for the anemones.....do they need it?.....i do not have any coral.....the only things that i have are my inverts and anemones.......should i still be watching the calcium and alkalinity?

 

[yearofthenick]

Originally Posted by staylor21
http:///forum/post/2698652
well the tank has up for about a month and a half and i use tap water.....and what are diatoms?
Tap water could kill everything! It vastly decreases your water quality because of the chlorine and other chemical contents, which are safe to us, but toxic to fish. It's a hobby standard to use reverse osmosis water, which is the purest form of water, free of any harmful chemicals. it's cheap, too... you can get it at any fish store.

 

[yearofthenick]

Originally Posted by staylor21
http:///forum/post/2698656
no i am not putting phyto or zooplankton for the anemones.....do they need it?.....i do not have any coral.....the only things that i have are my inverts and anemones.......should i still be watching the calcium and alkalinity?
I think you're ok then... you probably don't need to watch the calcium or alkalinity... the corals are really what feed off it. You'll see your anemone really grow and get more healthy if you keep phyto and zooplankton solution in your tank... like a capful a week will do. have tons of coral and they all feed off zoo and phyto, so I do a capful almost every day. Because you're only putting stuff in there for the anemone, go with the larger phytoplankton... he'll love it. Zooplankton is much smaller and the anemone probably won't be able to filter it too well.
IF you decide to go with corals, you can switch from phyto to what's called "Reef Snow"... I don't know why they call it that because it doesn't look like snow, but it has everything you'd need for all corals and anemone's...