Ich - how to treat when I am away?

[DI68]

Hi

My tang I was trying to sell which is in my 45 gal reef tank has now got ich...surprise surprise. I have been reading up on treatments but am going overseas 16 Oct for 12 days so don't know if I will cause more harm trying to start hyposalinity treatment in the meantime. My daughter won't be able to continue with the treatment while I am gone as it's too involved. I am lucky if she will feed my fish so a water change or two for the DT will be a bonus ( or a lie that she's done it ).

I have been feeding my fish with garlic soaked seaweed the past 5 days to try to keep it at bay but it's not working and is stressing me trying to work out the best way to go with treating this or at least subsiding the effects until I get back. Who else reads forums and researches since 3am on a Sunday morning? I need to do something today before I go back to work tomorrow. My LFS recommended Polylab Medic which I was skeptical about so researched ( yes I research now BEFORE I buy ) and is a treatment over a 10 day period. I was planning on buying this today but also saw a post where it was used and the tang's eye swelled and the anemone didn't like it.

My water parameters were off with my nitrates and phosphates when I last checked and shocked me so have been doing more regular water changes - 3 this week and I used a gravel cleaner tonight to make sure I picked up any waste but could only get to some areas of my tank. Maybe the high nitrates and phosphates are why 2 of my duncans have started dying too??? It's all happening at once

 

[jeffaquarius]

Sounds like your system is on the verge of, or have started crashing. Definitely your corals will not survive with high nitrates and phosphates. How old is your tank? How big and when did you added your tang? What are the inhabitants? You need to move the tang in quarantine asap and treat with copper. However, even if it survives the treatment I doubt if it will make it without anyone tending it for 12 days when you are gone. FYI tang needs bigger tank than 45 gal. You can not have hypo salinity in DT if there are still corals left. You also need to fallow your DT (no fish) for at least 3 weeks to eradicate the ich.

 

[DI68]

Thanks - Panic stations in my house at the moment ( well me anyway- no one else seems to care ).

I am thinking of doing this water change today
How to Reduce or Lower Highly Toxic Nitrates in Your Saltwater Aquarium Quickly & Efficiently

I found the culprit for my nitrates- the sump was partially blocked from debris with the bio type ball/grate which sits on top ( seaweed most likely ) so the filtration was not working to full capacity. It's already so much clearer. The tang was a mistake - bad or lack of advice from a LFS when I first started introducing fish in June. The tang is about 3 inches. I had him advertised for sale as soon as I found out wrong fish but the ich broke out. The tank was already established-I bought it 2nd hand in May and incorporated their water and mine from a 90litre which had finished cycling and topped it with fresh SW and RODI from LFS. I introduced more LR and corals and they have been fine up until the past couple of weeks.

 

[DI68]

PS nice tank. I bought more equipment online this morning to convert my 67gal tank over to marine so there is a larger footprint for my fish and will sell the other one I just bought once the other has cycled and I have beaten the ich.