Help with my ich situation

[dmort]

Howdy all, I have a sumpless 55 gallon tank in its early days. Tank is stocked with a bicolor angel, royal gramma, and a pair of clowns. No coral. Assorted CUC. Serpent star.

I noticed ich yesterday evening on the Angel and today on the Gramma. Since then, they have been moved into a 10 gallon QT tank (heater and HOB filter).

I've done all the reading I can do and I know that the choices are hyposalinity treatment or copper. I'm going with copper, because despite that it can be stressful, I don't think I'm going to be able to keep up with the demands of hyposalinity (I'm a teacher, this is a really busy time of year).

The question is:

Can a 10 gallon tank, with an every other day 50% water change (I think I can swing that), accomdate all my fish? I know it is best to treat them all as they are likely all hosting the parasite.

I also have a UV sterilizer inbound, which I will run at a very low GPH to address parasites in the main tank. The clowns show no sign of infection and are eating well. Is hoping for the best, by leaving the clowns in the main display with the UV sterilizer, a foolish idea?

If the 10 gallon can handle all the fish, I'll move them all. I just don't want to introduce a second problem by over crowding a tiny tank for 6-8 weeks.

 

[Defective_Weeble]

Hey there. Sorry for the ich pains. I feel your pain as I'm battling an outbreak myself.

If the fish are small then you should be fine. I'd give them a few PVC fittings to hide in. Quite a few, in fact. The biggest concern that I'd have is maintaining the appropriate dose of copper in a tank of that size. Any evaporation has the ability to spike the copper to a dangerous level pretty quickly.

Otherwise, I'd say you're good to go, again with the assumption that the fish are all no bigger than 3 or 4 inches. They'll be cramped, but they'll be OK.

 

[3dees]

save your money on the uv. doesn't do a thing for ich. remove all fish since ich can be invisible to the naked eye. your dt will have to go fallow for a minimum of 72 days.

 

[Louie661]

I was battling this about a year ago, my fish were in pretty bad shape .I tried a ton of different things with no progress. Then one of my lfs owner told me to try a simple recipe of ground store bought ginger and mysis shrimp, I thought it was weird but figured I've tried everything else so what the heck what do I have to Lose at this point. I swear it works! I have shared this method with others with ich problems and it cleared there fish as well.

what I did.
went to the grocery store bought ground ginger found in the baking area
went home and thawed out 6 cubes of mysis. Rinsed mysis in RO water to remove any nutrients.
Put them in a zip lock bag added the ginger. Added a little bit of RO water then froze flat so It's easy to break off in small pieces.
fed fish twice a day for about a month with only this food mix. And ich was gone, I've been ich free for about a year now .
others have found success with this method as well.

best of luck.

 

[Kworker]

If there is no coral, take out as much rock as possible and take out the CUC.. put them into the 10gal.

Go hypo in the display.

 

[Bad Company]

^ great Idea!

 

[saltyhog]

Angels are very sensitive to copper IME. Hypo is difficult to do and there are strains of C. irritans that are resistant to it. I would opt for tank transfer and then leave DT fallow for 72+ days. TT is easy to do and almost 100% effective (nothing is 100%).

 

[dmort]

Thanks for all the advice, I started seachem cupramine today in the qt. Hopefully all will resolve over the next week's /months

 

[dmort]

Naturally I didn't buy a test kit for copper, so I ordered one today. I'm going to try to keep it around .4 to .5 ppm. I read that it is ineffective against ich below .25 ppm and it starts becoming toxic around .6ppm (seachem says .8ppm).

UV sterilizer is in the main display. The aquatop uve-9 has adjustable flow, and according to them, if bring it down all the way, the flow is less that 55gph which is what I've read is neccesary to fight parasites. After a week or two, I'm going to bring the flow up and also put the unit on a timer so it doesn't run constantly. That should prolong the life of the bulb.

 

[miyags]

Treat all the fish and leave the main tank fishless for at least 3 months. I'd run the UV full time on your main tank while fish are in hospital tank. I run an 18 watt full time on my 55gal.

 

[dmort]

UV is running full time the last few days, and the skimmer is pulling out progressively yucky junk.

But, one clown, and the bicolor angel have died. And I can't get the Royal Gramma to eat in the QT tank. Tried seaweed laced with garlic, tried PE Mysis, tried freeze dried brine shrimp, tried flakes. Nothing new goes into the tank until early November, and I'm sort of at a loss as to how to get the Gramma to eat. Tips appreciated!

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I would try any type of frozen foods or even live black worms. I have heard great things about Reef Frenzy.

 

[dmort]

Unfortunately, its irrelevant. Royal Gramma was dead this evening.

 

[dmort]

So, while I wait for the ich to die off, can I add live rock? Base rock? I currently have 40 lbs and I want about another 40 lbs. I'm happy to wait though if it isn't a good idea.

 

[fishroomlady]

I wouldn't think that adding some base rock would be a problem - so sorry for your losses

 

[dmort]

Thank you, its very frusturating. I figure base rock is fine and this way it will have plenty of time to "become alive.

 

[Reef Junky150]

save your money on the uv. doesn't do a thing for ich. remove all fish since ich can be invisible to the naked eye. your dt will have to go fallow for a minimum of 72 days.

I ran into ich and if it's visible on one it's on or will be the rest. Remove qt all fish and let tank go fallow. Qt all new fish for future tank mates

 

[dmort]

I ran into ich and if it's visible on one it's on or will be the rest. Remove qt all fish and let tank go fallow. Qt all new fish for future tank mates

All ready done. Thanks for chiming in.

 

[Reef Junky150]

So, while I wait for the ich to die off, can I add live rock? Base rock? I currently have 40 lbs and I want about another 40 lbs. I'm happy to wait though if it isn't a good idea.

You can add rock. But with coral and rock additions you run the risk of parasites hitchhiking. Should be qt as well. So imo I would let tank fallow after all additions of rock to your tank to be 100 percent sure of no ich

 

[natalie.ohare27]

I was battling this about a year ago, my fish were in pretty bad shape .I tried a ton of different things with no progress. Then one of my lfs owner told me to try a simple recipe of ground store bought ginger and mysis shrimp, I thought it was weird but figured I've tried everything else so what the heck what do I have to Lose at this point. I swear it works! I have shared this method with others with ich problems and it cleared there fish as well.

what I did.
went to the grocery store bought ground ginger found in the baking area
went home and thawed out 6 cubes of mysis. Rinsed mysis in RO water to remove any nutrients.
Put them in a zip lock bag added the ginger. Added a little bit of RO water then froze flat so It's easy to break off in small pieces.
fed fish twice a day for about a month with only this food mix. And ich was gone, I've been ich free for about a year now .
others have found success with this method as well.

best of luck.

Does the ginger have any affect on corals? I used garlic laced noori which helped a good deal but my corals calmed up for a few days. I left the top off for a day and added some fresh R/O and they came back out beautifully but I don't think I'll do that to the DT again