Keeping the Nitrifying Bacteria Alive

[sdellin]

Hello All,

I have had to remove all of my fish from my reef tank because one had ich. I read that the best way to prevent this from recurring is to remove all the fish and let the tank run without fish for 6-8 weeks to allow the ich to die off from lack of food (fish) .

Anyway, how should I go about keeping the reef tank in the meantime? I have fed a little algae flake fish food a couple of times to keep the nitrification process alive and well, but I'm not sure if that's the right way to do this.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Edit: Maybe just dosing the tank to feed the corals will do the trick?

 

[ryshark]

Hello All,

I have had to remove all of my fish from my reef tank because one had ich. I read that the best way to prevent this from recurring is to remove all the fish and let the tank run without fish for 6-8 weeks to allow the ich to die off from lack of food (fish) .

Anyway, how should I go about keeping the reef tank in the meantime? I have fed a little algae flake fish food a couple of times to keep the nitrification process alive and well, but I'm not sure if that's the right way to do this.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Edit: Maybe just dosing the tank to feed the corals will do the trick?

Feeding the corals will be good enough to keep your tank cycled while it is fishless. What do you "dose" to feed the corals? I just want to make sure we are on the same page here. Also, the flake food you have been throwing in works too.
Where did you put the fish in the meantime? Do you have an adequate QT tank? How are you treating the fish in QT?
I personally don't agree with this statement you made, but that is just me. "I have had to remove all of my fish from my reef tank because one had ich."
Yes if you want to for sure be ich free then you do have to remove them for 8-weeks and treat all the fish accordingly. I have been there done that, just to get ich show up another time several months later after adding no new fish, only new inverts. Although unlikely, you can get ich in your tank from anything wet. So, to be 100% sure you do not get ich again, you would have to QT anything new which is wet. Which is a very good practice, but not always an option for everybody.
IMO, healthy fish can fight off ich with their own immune system. The real scary parasite is Marine Velvet

 

[cmor1701d]

Removing ALL fish for 8 weeks is the first step to keeping a tank Ich free. You must then QT all new fish, drip acclimate all new inverts, etc.
After a drip acclimation I also give them a dip in used tank water in a bucket before adding them to the tank. I double dip all corals (cleaner and CoralRx) and then rinse is tank water before adding them to the tank.
This has worked for me for 4 years. No, I have not reduced the chance of an Ich outbreak to zero, but I have greatly reduced the chance of an outbreak by as much as possible (IMO).

Yes, a few flakes per week is all you will need.

 

[ryshark]

Yeah, I got pretty unlucky. I do the same dip process for corals with Revive and I would always rinse of any new snails, shrimp, etc before I added them to the tank. I still managed to get it back, way later and I was very diligent about everything including the hyposalinity for 9-weeks. Ich is pretty easy to control with a healthy tank. If I did not have an Achilles Tang which is a HUGE Ich Magnet, I wouldn't even know there was any in there. It is the only fish in my tank I see any white spots these days.

 

[cmor1701d]

I feel your pain. After removing most of the 200# of rock to get all the fish out, another round of Ich was something I wanted to avoid at all costs.
The process we follow minimizes the chance of re-introduction, but does not eliminate it. I am constantly aware of that as I'm usally the one with bad luck.

 

[sdellin]

Well, I guess I did not have to take all the fish out. There was obviously ich in the tank, but my fish were healthy enough to fight it off. When I added the Powder blue, this was after quarantining her, she got ich. So I did some research and my understanding is that if you leave the tank for 8 weeks with no fish, the ich will starve and die off.

I have two quarantine tanks set up, the powder blue is in one, being treated with copper and responding well. The other fish are in another tank, being treated with Melafix and Pimafix. They are being treated because I started to see fungus, which I assume is from the stress of moving and the smaller tank. My plan was to irradicate the ich and not add any new fish. I have enough fish and don't have room for more.

Although reading your posts above, I will reconsider adding inverts without some sort of treatment. Are you saying that dipping them in used tank water before adding to my main tank will wash off any parasites that might be present? I did not think inverts got ich, so I'm assuming you are suggesting they could be carriers. Good to know.

Also, what I have for dosing the tank is micro-vert and phytoplan for the corals.

 

[ryshark]

If you want to be "Ich Free" you need to treat ALL of the fish that were in the DT with the fish which had ich. They all must be treated for ich, even if you never saw ich on them they must have copper or hypo treatment.

Well, I guess I did not have to take all the fish out. There was obviously ich in the tank, but my fish were healthy enough to fight it off. When I added the Powder blue, this was after quarantining her, she got ich. So I did some research and my understanding is that if you leave the tank for 8 weeks with no fish, the ich will starve and die off.

I have two quarantine tanks set up, the powder blue is in one, being treated with copper and responding well. The other fish are in another tank, being treated with Melafix and Pimafix. They are being treated because I started to see fungus, which I assume is from the stress of moving and the smaller tank. My plan was to irradicate the ich and not add any new fish. I have enough fish and don't have room for more.

Although reading your posts above, I will reconsider adding inverts without some sort of treatment. Are you saying that dipping them in used tank water before adding to my main tank will wash off any parasites that might be present? I did not think inverts got ich, so I'm assuming you are suggesting they could be carriers. Good to know.

Also, what I have for dosing the tank is micro-vert and phytoplan for the corals.

 

[sdellin]

Well, I don't know if you've read any of my other recent posts, but I ended up losing all my fish. I took them all out to treat, but I didn't have a QT set up, so I had to set them up on the fly... I used some tank water, some freshly made water and did water changes often to avoid the horrors of the cycle process. The powder blue did really well in her own QT, the ich was gone and she was doing well. The other fish started getting a fungus. I tried treating them, but they didn't recover. I think it had to do with the uncycled QT. I kept the ammonia down and the nitrites with water changes, but they started getting the body fungus and died off one by one.
This was in the larger QT. After they died off, I moved the powder blue to their tank, after a water change, because I couldn't keep the ammonia and nitrites down in the 10G tank. The larger tank was cycled by then, no ammonia or nitrites and about 20 nitrates. I used carbon to remove the medicine and moved the powder blue over. A couple days later he got a reinfestation of ich and just wasn't strong enough for the second round of treatment.

 

[mr_X]

what corals are you keeping at the moment sharon?

 

[cmor1701d]

OK, so at the moment you have no fish?
What corals are in the DT?
They may need nothing but light, with an occasional pinch of food to keep the bacteria population going.

Wait a month, then when you start getting new fish make sure to QT them for 30 days. Keep a filter in the sump or in the DT to bring over to the QT. When you add fish to the QT, the tank will already be cycled when you move the filter over. You still need to keep an eye on ammonia for the first week or so of QT just to make sure.

 

[sdellin]

I have power compact lighting not MH, so I have only a few LPS: anchor coral, mushroom corals, snake polyps, some regular ole boring polyps. Other than that I have the long-tentacled anemone and a couple kinds of macroalgae.

 

[sdellin]

Cmor, i didn't see your post before I responded to Doug, great idea on the extra filter. I will do that. I have a sump. I've actually heard of that before, but forgot because I've not really needed to do it so far. This makes sense because I can just put another filter in the sump when I use the current one, just in case I have to use copper. Or, as Doug suggested, hyposalinity. I've never tried that, but I do like the option of not using chemicals. I'm posting pics of my tank, but their in the early morning with only the actinics and camera flash. So don't let the anemone fool you. He really is dinner-plate size, he's just in "I don't wanna get up" mode this early in the morning.

 

[sdellin]

Yes, I am fishless at the moment, so you can see why it's important to me to get a good match of fish. I'm starting with a clean slate. It's amazing how your tank can be so beautiful in the sunlight, but take pics with just the actinics when nothing is fully awake yet and they look all icky.

Anyway, the red macroalgae grew from a dark velvety looking patch into what you see there. I have cut it back once already. I can see I'm going to have to manage it. I have a couple other spots where it's growing so I don't want it to overtake the tank. I have that problem with the green macroalgae also.

Anyway, I'm thinking of a regal/hippo tang, a yellow tang, a percula or ocellerous clown, a fairy wrasse of some type (I want a scotts!) and maybe one or two other "not so messy" fish just for variety. I think with those listed above I will have color. What about a cinnamon or tomatoe clown? Any comments on those?

 

[mr_X]

the green stuff is halimeda. emerald crabs seem to like it. i don't like it in my tank because it uses calcium. i'd rather save that for stony corals.
if you still have that red algae in the spring, i'd like to buy some from you. it's too cold to ship cheaply now.

i wouldn't put 2 different species of clownfish together. i have never tried this, but i've heard stories of aggression.

i would stop feeding the kent stuff and the dried plankton. this might help with your rapid algae growth. as far as the bacteria goes, i think if you just didn't do any water changes for the next month, it will be fine.

 

[sdellin]

Here are a couple pics of my old 55G tank. I has some nice xenia, but dori ate them? I think I am going to get some more coral also. I had a nice colt coral for years, but it eventually just died off. It actually "had a baby" first. A little spot of fuzz that started to grow at it's base.

Any ideas also on coral that I could keep under this lighting would be appreciated. I have a 6' coralife aqualight with 2 X 10,000K daylight and two blue actinic bulbs.

 

[mr_X]

it looks nice and clean but predominantly brown. i'm betting this would change with stronger lighting.
softies like you have pictured will live under that lighting, but i don't think they will reach their potential in terms of color. the same goes with anemones IME.
some LPS might do well under the pc lighting. you could try trumpet corals, wellsophyllia, favia, platygyra ...things like those. if they don't retain color, you could always add some light.

 

[sdellin]

the green stuff is halimeda. emerald crabs seem to like it. i don't like it in my tank because it uses calcium. i'd rather save that for stony corals.
if you still have that red algae in the spring, i'd like to buy some from you. it's too cold to ship cheaply now.

i wouldn't put 2 different species of clownfish together. i have never tried this, but i've heard stories of aggression.

i would stop feeding the kent stuff and the dried plankton. this might help with your rapid algae growth. as far as the bacteria goes, i think if you just didn't do any water changes for the next month, it will be fine.

If I stop feeding the kent and plankton, what should I dose the tank with? or feed the corals and anemone? I've read that they can eat krill.

If you want the red algae in the spring I'd be happy to ship it to you for just the cost of shipping. I'll PM you my email address and you can remind me in the spring. I hate taking it out and tossing it, I mean, it is alive, but It does grow, well, sorta fast. I don't necessarily like the green stuff, it grows way too fast. I didn't know about the use of calcium, but I'll consider that.

 

[sdellin]

So would it be best to transition over to metal halides for variety of coral and color? I never liked the predominately brown tank. I'm always looking for color.

 

[mr_X]

yes, that sounds great. i am considering a display refugium, and would love a hardy, fast growing algae that was any color but green.
the anemone can eat meaty foods, like small pieces of raw shrimp or fish from the supermarket. the corals do not need to be fed and will live fine without adding food to the tank. as a matter of fact, i don't think any corals you have in that tank eat what's in those bottles, except maybe the hammer coral, and that could also be target fed like the anemone. none of those corals need to be fed, ever. they get what they need from photosynthesis.

 

[mr_X]

T-5s, metal halides, or LEDs are all choices for you.