Help

I have a blue hippo tank and I he had ick. I did a 10g water change and a freshwater dip with quick cure. The ick went away within 24 hours but return 3 days later with a vengence. The spots are dark brown now. The fish still eats a LOT. I also have 1 very small true clown, 4 hermit crabs, and 1 coral banded shrimp they have no signs of problem. The tank is fairly new but has cycled before in put fish in. I will give you my set up but I'm unsure of the exact name of equipement but when I bought every thing it was over the suggested gallon recommendation. Here we go

55g
20g wet dry I remove bio ball
powerhead
protein skimmer
40-50lbs lr
20 lbs ls (2 bags) 2 inch deep sandbed

levels
am =0
nite= 0
rate=20
salinty 1.022

I'm using test strips

also I have an iphone with pic and video but can't figure out how to put it on here yet.

Also I switched from an aggressive tank to a community tank and I never had any problem until I stired the sand bed

 

I don't really know what your question is. I assume your question is how to get rid of ich? The best way is to quarantine ALL fish and treat them with hyposalinity (sg. 1.008 or 1.009) or copper, while leaving your DT fishless for 8 weeks. You can wait and let the fish defense to fight off the ich but it will only create ticking time bomb scenario for another outbreak.

 

Ok thanks reefwizard, that is the question. Next question, I have a 20g just sitting can I just add a filter and let it run with that or do I need additional equipment for a qt tank?

 

Removing the fish to QT can stress them more and make it worse. I would only do this if they are not eating. If they are eating soak there food in garlic or vitamins and let them fight it off. Healthy fish can fight it off. Also with treating it, copper and hypo work. But both must be done correctly or it will make things worse.

 

I definitely agree with pgood. If it is still eating well, I would advise against catching him again and putting in a different or newly established tank. Doing so is probably much more stressful to it. Just keep him fat with vitamin enriched food and nori. The ick will run it's life cycle and the fish's immune system should/will eventually be strong enough to fight them off.

Good luck.

 

You will need filter from an established tank like filter sponges. If you don't have any, you might want to sacrifice a few live rocks. Follow recommended instructions for med.

A healthy fish will fight off ich but the parasites remain in your tank as long as there is fish (at least for a long time).

 

Yes but then fish in the tank will be already immune to it so to speak, so even if you add a new fish with ich the other fish wont catch it, this is a plus to the natural way. Also I let mine beat ich when I started it, and I have added many fish for one reason or another since then and haven't had 1 repeat outbreak in a over a year.

 

I'm glad yours fight off ich. I waited 2 days after the first sign of ich because they were eating, hoping they can beat ich themselves. Then I lost my yellow tang, flame angel, coral beauty, lawnmower blenny and royal gramma in a week. [worst days of my reef keeping]. I saved last two clowns by treating them in qt with copper. That's why I like to take extra measure to get rid of ich.

 

Feed them as much as they want to keep them fat and healthy so they can beat it. Tangs are all prone to ick and the more you mess with him the weaker he will get

 

Great, thank you everyone. I will continue to feed other than the spots he is very aggressive to everyone else. Question about the garlic soak food, do I buy regular food or and soak with fresh garlic or is their a brand that I should use? Right now I have pellets, flakes, brownseaweed(no one eats), brine shrimp live and frozen. I try to keep a wide varitey of food for them.