Ich?!?!

[skae310]

I think my clown has ich. It has small white spots on it. Havent seen it on the other clown. I dont know what caused this or what to do. Please help asap. I have a small QT tank that i used for freshwater. I dont however have enough RO water to start this up. If you suggest I need to QT him will tap water be ok?

[Flake]

pull water out of the display, that way you can quickly put him in the tank without worrying about acclimation.

[skae310]

How will I refill the display then? tap?

[Flake]

oh it's only 14g, nm. I didn't check

Just use tap for now. Since you'll be doing water changes for the Qt anyways, just quickly try and get RO in there instead.

[skae310]

Yea ok. Treatment wise once hes in there? and just bring him or all fish?

[Flake]

all the fish. They've been exposed to ich. The best treatment is hyposality.

[skae310]

I have no clue what that means.

[skae310]

Another thing is if im not leaving any fish in the display itd be easier to just siphon water from it. and leave the empty display till i get more RO. That ok?

[skae310]

I need help on how exactly to start hyposalinity. I only have a hydrometer and i heard they arent very accurate. im afraid i will mess this up. Another thing is my QT is very small

[Flake]

hyposalinity is the process of dropping the salinity in the tank to 1.008 or so and maintaining it for abou 4 weeks.

Hydrometers are terrible inaccurate. If you're going to use one, use the glass tubes, not the plastic ones. I highly suggest getting a refractometer.

[skae310]

I dont have any money i can spend on a better hydrometer for now and although it may be terribly inaccurate i either have to deal with it or let them go untreated. As for the salt levels in the QT to begin with? keep them the same and drop slowly to 1.008? how slowly do i do this?

[Flake]

the glass ones are about 5$. Think of it like acclimation. slowly take the regular water out of the qt and replace it with straight RO water.

[skae310]

Ok acclimation takes only about a half an hour. How long should i make the change from 1.023-1.008 take?

[Flake]

I believe one of the other members that did hypo told me he took out one or two gallons from a 20g tank every 12 hours

[melosu58]

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

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

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: A Quarantine Tank for Everything by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com

ATJ's Marine Aquarium Site - Reference - Hyposalinity Treatment

[skae310]

Good articles. thanks. I do have another question about my main tank. Since the clowns will be out a while will the inverts be ok without small amounts of leftover food they usually manage to get? or should i feed them a little? I have peppermint shrimp and hermit crabs and snails

[InfernoST]

Originally Posted by skae310

Good articles. thanks. I do have another question about my main tank. Since the clowns will be out a while will the inverts be ok without small amounts of leftover food they usually manage to get? or should i feed them a little? I have peppermint shrimp and hermit crabs and snails

Just put in a pinch of flake food every day to keep your ammonia source going and to keep your nitrifying bacteria colonies and animals fed. Another note, you are going to have to keep your DT void of fish for 5 to 6 weeks, this will insure all of the ich in the DT have expired.

[InfernoST]

Originally Posted by Flake

I believe one of the other members that did hypo told me he took out one or two gallons from a 20g tank every 12 hours

To bring the salinity down you have to replace 20% of the volume in the QT every 12 hrs with straight treated RO/DI water until you reach your target SG 1.007-1.009.

[skae310]

Yes i know they will be out about that long. So far everything looks good. Still havent seen it on the other clown and the clown that had it seems that it doesnt anymore or at least not that i can see. The salinity is almost down to the range. One more adding of RO water should do.

[InfernoST]

OK