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darlar76

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 28, 2006
Messages
11
SW tanks are a whole new experience. I just started mine not to long ago(4 months) and Iv already killed two fish, my others are not looking good(except 1), and my starfish looks like something out of a horror show. I got ich so I treated my tank with rid-ich(not a good move but I don't know which is the best way) and I find out after that it will kill my li9live rock(Is this true $$$$$$$$$$, arg!!!!). what do I do now. The ich is gone I think but I still have to treat the tank for 3 more days as it turns out. I might as well just keep treating it now. I can honestly say that im absolutely clueless on how to proceed now (with out having to spend more money than I already have when I set it up)

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks
 
Might wanna list your water readings too. What kinda critters are in the tank now? What sized tank? Give us more info, like when did the ick show up, how long you been adding kick ich? How did you cycle?

Yep, should've removed all inverts before using that stuff. Not sure on how the meds will do with added inverts later, but you're gonna have to do some kinda filter (maybe carbon) to remove it and substantial water changes when you're done treating. Speaking of treating, quarantine tanks are best for treatments like this, away from inverts and rock. Thought about setting up one? Otherwise, some have removed all fish from their tanks for 8 weeks so the parasite can die off without any fish hosts.

Also, don't count on the ick being gone for sure yet. That stuff releases from fish skins and floats in the water column for a bit and folks think its gone. I would still not add anything more to the tank for a few weeks while you watch it. Read up on that med you used and start thinking about how to get it out of the water IMO. Maybe there won't be any permanent damage to future inverts if you can get that stuff out of the tank now.
 
The only way to rid it from your tank is to treat fish in a QT and let main tank go fishless for 6-8 weeks. This will stop the cycle of the parasite.
 
Moved to sick fish forum.

Rid-Ich+ (link) “Contains formaldehyde (11.52% formalin) U.S.P. grade 4.26% and premium quality zinc-free chloride salt of malachite green 0.038%.” and I don’t see any mention of copper so hopefully your tank isn’t contaminated forever.

Treating fish in a separate QT tank is best since any medication in the main will affect inverts to some degree. See Help Setup Quarantine Tank for more info.

Also performing Hyposalinity versus using medication is much less stressful for the fish.
 
All great advice here. Stop..take a deep breath and do loads of reading. Post your parameters and tank info as requested before then we can give more pointed advice.
 
Thanks

I'm starting a quarintine tank as this seems to be the recommended choice by all. I just didn't want to have this tank running with nothing going on in it most of the time, is there anything else i can do with it when i don't need it?

My tank is 55g. I cycled for 1 month by putting in 20 lbs of live rock. I was told to get more but I thought that I would just use fewer fish for the first year or so. I also added about 30 lbs of rock on my own. I looked into this rock and found out that this is the same type of rock that aqarium owners buy. It is not contaminated and it was boiled for 30 mins before I put it in. I'm hoping that over time it will also be "live". When the tank was cycled (1 Month)I put in 1 clown and 3 damsels. Also I added 15 of the blue leg crabs and 2 snails. about a week later I added 3 feather dusters. after about two and a half months from initial set up I added a starfish(chocolate) and a cowfish. This is when the trouble started. I was going to now leave the tank alone and let it do its thing. Right away I noticed spots on the cowfish. This lasted for about two weeks before I did anything about it. I thought that this was just what it looked like. I then found two spots on one of the damsels. I've had a fw tank for 10 years so I knew what it was and M-green worked before.

I'm thinking that the ich came from the cow fish but I found it strange that he was basically the only one infected for so long and that he showed absolutly no signs of stress at all.

anyways, I constantly test my tank and all levels are zero(exept the nitrate which is very close to zero). I change 10% per week. salinity at 1.022. I have about 2 " of sand, strong pump with charcoal filter. No skimmer. Use tap water treated with dechlorinator, and use seachem reef salt.

I really can't think of anything else to tell you

I really appreciate the help, where do I go from here.


d

Also in my experience, the charcoal filter should remove the m-green withing a week or two
 
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