ICH - Please Help!

[Freshnoob1]

So on Tuesday I picked up a 20g tank it has 30lb live rock, 30lb fine sand, condy anemone, toadstool mushroom, 2 colt corals, some polyps.

Inverts: sally lightfoot crab, arrow crab, emerald crab, few hermits, snails.

It also came with 3 sgt major damsels, 1 blue damsel, 1 domino damsel, and 2 clownfish. WAY overstocked, I know. One of the clowns looked pretty bad from the get-go and I had to flush him yesterday.

But then last night I realized that all the fish had tiny little white spots on them.... I'm almost 100% positive it's ich.

What should I do? Do I need to get a 10g QT tank and put all the fish in it and medicate?

Should I just get rid of all the fish and start over livestock-wise too?

Is there a type of shrimp that would help out with ich? I know ich goes into the sand and everything.

I really don't want to have to tear the tank down and restart it....

 

[My Little Ocean]

Don't bother with in tank medication, uv, garlic, shrimp or cleaner wrasses as nothing will completely get rid, just get a quarantine treat with hyposalinity 1.009 the magic number use bicarbonate soda to buffer ph untill you see no more spots for four weeks then slowly bring salinity back up keep there for another four weeks with no spots, any spots seen even one you need to start hypo again, within this time your display tank will be fallow for minimum eight weeks and fingers crossed no ich present and you can introduce your fish slowly back. Still feed your main tank corals snails etc and water changes as normal then just quarantine EVERYTHING you buy in the future as you won't want to go through all this again

 

[Freshnoob1]

...And the fish won't instantly die from salt shock?? I've heard uv does very good things.. And that is a reeaallly long time.....

 

[FTMMWS]

The advice given above is spot on..
Please read this:
hypoOSTtherapyart.htm

 

[Freshnoob1]

So can I just lower the alinity to 1.010-1.011 SG in the DT, and leave the fish in and everything?

Or do I have to get separate 10g tanks for inverts, and fish, and then just keep the corals in the DT?

Will the lowered salinity kill invertebrates such as crabs, snails, etc.?

..I have way too many fish in my tank don't I?

 

[cmor1701d]

NO! The inverts cannot tolerate low salinity. The fish can. Hyposalinity requires a QT at 1.009 SG and NOTHING HIGHER!

Only remove the fish to a QT and keep everything else in the display tank at normal SG.

Here's some reading material on the parasite and one on how to do the hyposalinity treatment,

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part II by Steven Pro


ATJ's Marine Aquarium Site - Reference - Hyposalinity Treatment

 

[Freshnoob1]

Awesome. I think I got this. Should I put the hang on back canister filter on the QT? The DT should be fine without a filter as long as I do diligent water changes, right?

 

[cmor1701d]

I would (and did) buy a small filter for the QT. I keep the biowheel in my sump for when I need to set up. I have a very short cycle in the QT.

You will need to do twice daily pwc's of 20% for the first week or so. That will give you the opportunity to vacuum the detritus and tomonts off the tank bottom. Then you cut back on pwc's to every 2-3 of days.

 

[Freshnoob1]

So can I still get corals and inverts?

 

[My Little Ocean]

I only gave a very brief on hypo but it's sounds like you've done your research which is a MUST in this hobby, corals and inverts aren't affected by ich however if they are kept in a system with fish ich spores could be carried with them hence me saying quarantine EVERYTHING you buy, uv can kill ich at very slow flow rates if your uv is powerful enough however is it going to get all of it...doubtful hypo is the the way to go, seachem stability is good to cycle a tank, also seachem prime helps detoxify ammonia and nitrite.

 

[cmor1701d]

Corals and inverts are not affected by Ich, but they can carry it if they are kept in a tank with infected fish. By leaving them in a tank that has no fish the Ich parasite will die anyway.

Only fish need to be in the QT tank at low salinity. Corals and inverts can stay or be added to an established DT at normal SG.

Does that help?

 

[melosu58]

Those artcles that Cmor posted are the best out there.