death in the family

I brought a blue tang to the tank about 5 weeks ago and immediately saw ich in my tang that spread to my gramma. Last night I checked on everyone and the gramma was in it's cave upside down. this morning the gramma was infested but ate good and swam around some although lathargic. Just came home from the LFS with some water for a water change and she was gone. I bought some Ich Attack and it says to turn off the skimmer. How long should I leave the skimmer off? I know it will go crazy but I don't want the tank to get nasty either.
Thanks

I should note that the LFS did keep it's fish in a tank treated with copper.

 

how big is your tank?

what are your water parameters as of now?

sorry for your loss... From my experience, "cures" for crypto that are not copper or hyposalinity dont really work. There are some that will help heal the fish from the attack but will not kill the parasite it self.

 

After reading about this disease, it looks like a hypo and higher temps are the nest way to get it gone. If anyone can confirm this, please do.

 

hyposalinity and copper are a confirmed way to do it. ( should not be done together.. it's either one or the other) Rising temperature wont really do anything to the parasite. thats a misconception between itch, and crypto. ( crypto being the saltwater version of itch.)

if anything rising the temperatures will cause the water to have less dissolved oxygen in it and might suffocate the fish who are already having trouble..

however, either of the two treatments must be done in a separate tank because they both will kill the live bacteria in your tank causing another cycle. If you choose this route, you will have to leave your tank empty for a good 2 months before adding anything else so that the parasite that is already in the system dies off.
Other wise it will be utterly useless because the fish will just get re-infected once re-introduced and it will just add more stress to the fish, ultimately killing it.

Most of the time I recommend to just feed the fish very nutritious food with garlic extract and possibly supplement it with vitamins.

you can use Melafix to fight bacterial infections, which is what really kills the fish IME.

 

Never use copper or formalin in conjunction with hyposalinity.

You can not use hyposalinity in a tank that houses corals and inverts, the target SG is 1.009. When using hyposalinity in a tank with live rock you will have some die off of the biological filter and need to be aware of the need for wc to correct ammonia spikes.

You can not use copper or formalin in a reef.

If you do not have a QT and have to keep the fish in the DT, feeding HUFA, garlic or Selcon is your best bet. Make sure to decrease all stress levels such as overcrowding, poor water quality and bullying.

 

as of now I'm just trying to heal the blue tang. The percula and three cardinals are doing fine right now and realize that ich will never go away so I'm planning on setting up a quarantine tank and my 72 bowfront remain fallow for 4 to 6 weeks.
How long should I leave the skimmer off?

 

well the gramma is gone. I'm losing steam here.