**UPDATE**DON'T LET THE ICH BUG BITE!!! (QT PICS)

[revhtree]

Ok as some of you may know I just bought a 125g about 1 month or so ago that already had some beautiful fish in it. I traded a butterfly and angel that came with the tank for an orange shoulder tang and such. I saw a spot on the powder blue that is in the tank, but nothing major. Well after the qt period of the new OS tang, ich hit the tank covering the OS and the Powder. The Naso has never shown spots neither has the clowns. So today I bit the bullet and caught all the fish and started an 8 week qt period using cupramine. I got rid of the OS tang.

My qt is a 30g. I have a large naso, powder blue and 2 clowns in there. I have basically become a pro at qt'ing now but I was wondering what you all thought about this. With such a large tang, I will probably need to do at least 1 water change a day, maybe 2 sometimes. My question is this: Would you do like a 5g a day water change or more. Thanks.

Oh here are some pics of them in qt. I aslo used this time to do some aquascaping in the main. I'll post those pics later.

 

[revhtree]

The clowns are hiding...

 

[revhtree]

Here is the new aquascaping thread: http://aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?p=428015#428015

 

[revhtree]

Really????

 

[clowninround]

When I have fish in my 20g, nomatter how many I have I do a 5g w/c everyday. The water quality stays in check when I do a little everyday. I would do a couple more gallons than this everyday if it were me. BTW...the aquascaping looks awesome! I feel for ya QT has got to be the worst part of this hobby. I haven't had the nerve to add new fish in a long while because I hate it so much lol.

 

[revhtree]

Well just did a 5g change. Sucked out all the junk, got it looking very clean, no left over food, and then she does it!! My very large naso decides to have a bowel movement and cover, I mean cover the tank with POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! 8O

Oh well...got the filter sucking it into a sponge.

 

[fishfreek]

I have to share my thinking on those photos. I first saw two PB's and a Naso. Then I thought wait why is the coloration flipped on the one PB. Then I thought why on earth is that one PB upside down in both pics. Then my great mind kicked in and it told me "that one thats upside down is a reflection of the other one you doof".

 

[Phyl]

LOL, Fishfreek! I did a double take at "all of those" tangs in there too, lol!

QT is my favorite most hated topic (second only to ich). Sorry to hear that your tank has come down with it so badly.

When I QT in my 30 I did an overflow into a 30g garbage can for a sump. This worked out well. I also put a handful of new base rock in there to hold some bioload for the fish. The QT became self sustaining in no time and I was able to return to the use of my 10g sump for them.

I'm really frazzled by the whole ich thing. I know it has to be introduced, but I'm just sickened by how easy it is to introduce it. A lot of other people have it, and handle it the way I do. Just feed my fish garlic and selcon, keep up with the feedings and it stays at bay. If it ever gets bad I'll QT them all, but while it only lasts one day a month I live with it. It is also not on more than my purple (anymore).

So if you get something (like a coral frag) out of my tank (or any of a zillion other reefers), you better QT it. As well as any invert bought out of a non-invert only environment (my LFS). Also.... if you don't hypo/copper every fish addition you run the risk of adding the silent killer into your tank anyway (especially if your LFS is like mine and has their tanks running at 1.017 to disguise ich). My tank has had ich since early on. Now that I know for sure what it looks like I know that spot on my yellow 4 months ago was an ich spot. It went away the next day never to return, until my purple tang got a little hungry. Then BANG. there it is.

Is it possible to beat it? Sure... but you need to be vigalent for the rest of your life!

Whoah! I didn't realize how high up I'd gotten. I'm going to climb this ladder down now. Look out below!

 

[revhtree]

UPDATE::

After one solid week of .5mg/l of cupramine all the ich has vanished off of the PBT. The other fish never showed signs. I will keep it going for another solid week before I start removing the cupramine and then leave the fish in qt an additional 6 weeks....

The PBT had not eaten anything 1 week prior to the qt process. Also the Naso quit eating as soon as the cupramine got up to strength. I was getting worried but I stayed the course...

I slowly dropped the temp a couple of degrees, and slowly over the course of the week dropped the salinity level from 1.025 to 1.022 as recommened by Steve S.

2 days ago, after about 2 weeks of no food, the PBT begin to nibble on seaweed and pellets. It is still not fully eating, but it is eating some now. It does not have a suken belly, and its color is beautiful as ever...

The naso, has not given the nori a look, and would not eat anything else even before qt. So I remembered I had another kind of Nori which had a red tint to it and smelled a little different. I think its baked, anyway, I pulled out the green stuff, and stuck in the red nori. The naso gave it a whiff, then started gobbling it up! What a beautiful sigh of relief!

So if you got a tang that wont eat the nori you have, try a different brand.

Moral of the story......QT works.....you just have to be willing to work at it.

I have done a 5g water change since day two every day. Added 4 drop of cupramine per gallon that I take out...

 

[revhtree]

Today both tangs eating very good!!!

Salt at 1.021. That is as low as I'll go. The Naso rips the nori to shreds all over the tank do you think this will be an issue for ammonia/trite?

A may be talking to myself, but that's ok!!!

 

[clowninround]

I interested in the same thing. My Naso does the same thing. Mine looks about the same size as the one you got and she rips the heck out of it. You can here the water rush at the top when she pulls on it lol. Also when I feed them, you always see the top of her head breaking the water at the top before I drop it in. Aggressive feeders.

 

[StripesTheEel]

i'd keep an eye on the left over pieces of nori.. one or two bits should be ok but if he is tearing it to shreads leaving heaps of pieces everywhere u might have to get them out?? or maybe ur invisible clowns can eat them

 

[SeriousDude5]

How did you manaage to catch all them fish!

 

[revhtree]

A Miracle!! I just basically scooped them out. I had tomove 2 or 3 rocks to get the PBT...

If I would have had a goby or something in there the whole reef would have to be removed...been there done that...

 

[revhtree]

UPDATE: 2 Week mark today! No ich, and all the fish are eating like champs. I will continue the treatment with cupramine for an extra few days and then begin using carbon to remove it. I have diatoms blooming now....

 

[steve-s]

I have diatoms blooming now....

Believe it or not, that's a possitive sign.

Cheers
Steve

 

[revhtree]

You say it , I believe it!!

Actually I thought it was.....hehe...