Transitioning into Ich prevention from ich management

[QuarantinedCorals]

Hello everyone, I really need your help. I started a 55 gallon reef 2 years ago, never quarantined anything and practiced ich management and a lot of "dump any pray", fast forwarding a year and a half i upgraded to a 75 gallon reef, couple months later I got a 180 which is my current tank. Im tired of having a stocked tank, adding one last fish into the display and boom, losing half of what I had within a few days. I will be practicing strict quarantine methods to ensure I do not introduce ich or any other nasty disease/parasite into my new 180 gallon display, however I need some guidance. I set the 180 up and started cycling it with half of the live rock and media from my 75 gallon display a few days ago, I set my old 75 gallon display up as well as a jbj 40 gallon cube up as qt tanks in a different room far away from my 180 display. Currently my 75 is housing all of my coral as well as my fish, I currently have: 1 super male flame wrasse, 1 katherines fairy wrasse, 1 yellow fin flasher wrasse, 1 female blue star leopard wrasse, 1 radiant wrasse, 1 juvenile yellow tang, 1 juvenile orange shoulder tang, all in my 75 gallon which is also housing all of my corals as well as some cleaner and peppermint shrimps as well as hermits, and snails. I know quarantining all of these fish together is NOT IDEAL but they all came from my 75 gallon display and I dont want to keep playing Russian roulette with them because they are my pets! My plan is to let the 180 cycle, then move all my coral into the 180 as well as the clean up crew, let that fallow for 16 weeks to kill off any parasites in the water, rock, and on the corals. When I move all the coral and inverts out of the 75 I plan on medicating all of my fish with copper power, prazi, and metroplex. Im going to have 4 months of fallow time before any fish can be added into the 180 so I plan on medicating, and observing the fish on and off for 4 months to ensure they're all healthy and "clean fish". Ive been reading all about mr. Humblefish's quarantine methods which I will be replicating, please tell me how you would approach this scenario if you were in my shoes. Sorry for the long post but I appreciate any advice!!

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

@Humblefish

 

[ichthyogeek]

Honestly, I'm a convert to the Tank Transfer Method myself...

I'd start by moving all the live rock except that with the coral on it into the 180. Once the cycle finishes, I'd move all the invertebrates into the 180, and let that lie fallow for at least 11 weeks (longest ich cycle is 76 days, which is basically 11 weeks).

After moving the inverts out, it should just be a bare tank with fish and covers, like PCV piping and plastic non-porous decoration. I would start dosing for internal parasites at this point if there's any white stringy poop in ANY of the fish.

If all the fish are less than say....3 inches or so, then in order to treat for ich/velvet, I'd use the 40 and 75 for the Tank Transfer Method (you don't have to fill the water up all the way!). Once the TTM is finished, then I'd put them in something like a formalin or freshwater dip to treat for ectoparasites, and put them into the 75 for continued treatment against said ectoparasites if they're there.

The entire process should not take more than 3 months, at which point, you can start adding the fish back into the 180 slowly.

For clarification, exactly what diseases are you trying to combat right now? You can modify what you need in order to minimize stress on the fish themselves.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

Honestly, I'm a convert to the Tank Transfer Method myself...

I'd start by moving all the live rock except that with the coral on it into the 180. Once the cycle finishes, I'd move all the invertebrates into the 180, and let that lie fallow for at least 11 weeks (longest ich cycle is 76 days, which is basically 11 weeks).

After moving the inverts out, it should just be a bare tank with fish and covers, like PCV piping and plastic non-porous decoration. I would start dosing for internal parasites at this point if there's any white stringy poop in ANY of the fish.

If all the fish are less than say....3 inches or so, then in order to treat for ich/velvet, I'd use the 40 and 75 for the Tank Transfer Method (you don't have to fill the water up all the way!). Once the TTM is finished, then I'd put them in something like a formalin or freshwater dip to treat for ectoparasites, and put them into the 75 for continued treatment against said ectoparasites if they're there.

The entire process should not take more than 3 months, at which point, you can start adding the fish back into the 180 slowly.

For clarification, exactly what diseases are you trying to combat right now? You can modify what you need in order to minimize stress on the fish themselves.

I was considering the TTM method but I also forgot to mention I have a scopas tang in my 40 gallon tank, hes only a few inches but im not running any skimmers on the 75 gallon tank so I didnt want to overload the 75 with fish. I later plan on putting the tangs in the 75 together to disperse the bioload among 2 tanks. Im a little nervous when it comes to putting my leopard wrasse through prazi and copper, I had my flame and katherines in copper before but never prazi, any advice on putting wrasses through prazi?

 

[JasonK84]

The answer is fallow 76 days. Unless you ended up with Uronema Marinum in which case all equipment, rock, sand, etc. will have to be sterilized. There is no fallow period to rid it as it can live without a host present.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

The answer is fallow 76 days. Unless you ended up with Uronema Marinum in which case all equipment, rock, sand, etc. will have to be sterilized. There is no fallow period to rid it as it can live without a host present.

I just looked at what uronema looks like and none of my fish have displayed signs of it, all my fish now are visibly healthy but I know ich is present in the tank.

 

[JasonK84]

I just looked at what uronema looks like and none of my fish have displayed signs of it, all my fish now are visibly healthy but I know ich is present in the tank.

Uronema is most prevalent in chromis, damsels, and Anthias. Although all fish can get it. Glad you Aren’t dealing with that nightmare.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

Uronema is most prevalent in chromis, damsels, and Anthias. Although all fish can get it. Glad you Aren’t dealing with that nightmare.

Fortunately I havent lost too many fish over the years, my female blue star leopard wrasse has been with me for 2 years from the very start and shes survived a few ich outbreaks, from my observations, ive only lost fish to ich and never velvet or any other horrific parasites that caused an entire wipe out.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

@Jay Hemdal, @4FordFamily, and @HotRocks are guys that I trust on this topic (and there are lots of other great knowledgeable members of this community who could help as well). I do believe from what I've studied and done in my tanks that around 11-12 weeks is what you should plan for as a fallow period.

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

@Jay Hemdal, @4FordFamily, and @HotRocks are guys that I trust on this topic (and there are lots of other great knowledgeable members of this community who could help as well). I do believe from what I've studied and done in my tanks that around 11-12 weeks is what you should plan for as a fallow period.

Hey Daniel thanks for tagging members, that’s what I was planning for to ensure I do things right this time. Just need to make sure I get the quarantine/ medication process right so I don’t kill any fish and cure ich or whatever other parasites are out to kill our pets.