Misson..I hope its possible

[popothemailman]

My tank has been dreaded with ich for the longest time. I have 4 fish in the tank a 3 inch fairy wrasse, 1 1/2in fairy wrasse, 2 damsels and a dozen inverts not including my 3 cleaner shrimps. I would like to take all my fish out of the tank and just let the ich die off. My questions are how long does it take a tank to get rid of ich when there are no fish present, and any ideas where to put the 4 fish. I only have a 10gal QT tank(empty) I am planning on doing a water change today and putting the water im takeing out into the tank along with a 20gal whisper filter. If necessary i can discard of the damsels(maybe the fish store will take them back)

thanks

 

[quarryshark]

If you took the damsels back, you could may get away with the 10 gallon. If you keep them you will need a 20 IMO. A 20 would be much more forgiving either way.
You need to leave the fish out for at least 6 week to rid the system of the parasite. If you don't already know, leave the invert in the main. They are not hosts.

 

[PumaKrieg]

I think there are medicines for ich that you can pour into the entire tank to get rit of it. Also give all your fish a freshwater bath and wait at least a day for the medication to do its effect on the tank. Do the freshwater bath for 1-2 minutes and afterwards immediately put them back into the 10 gallon bucket. Sorry to say, i'm not sure if this will work for good. Also do make water changes. The lower the salinity in your tank, the less likely parasites will survive so start making slow adjustments by adding more freshwater. Try reaching a salinity rating of 1.015 i'm guessing. However, this can be devasting to hard to keep inverts like sea serpents. Hope i was some help.

 

[quarryshark]

I think there are medicines for ich that you can pour into the entire tank to get rit of it.

Bad idea, most have a dismal track record and can damage micrscopic like and invert when used in a main.

Also give all your fish a freshwater bath and wait at least a day for the medication to do its effect on the tank.

Won't help to clear up ick, not worth the stress on the animals.

Try reaching a salinity rating of 1.015 i'm guessing. However, this can be devasting to hard to keep inverts like sea serpents. Hope i was some help.

Not nearly low enough to hurt the parasite but I do agree, it is bad for the other life in the system. Hyposalinity should be performed in a qt setting and a SG of .009 must be reached and maintained for a period of at least 4 week to be effective.

 

[popothemailman]

Ya i guess ill put the 2 wrasses in the 10gal since that is my only solution. After i fill up the qt tank with water from the main tank, how often should i do water changes and should i use rid ich or clout(dont know the exact name) or just do a hypsalinity. btw i have used no-ich on the main tank numerous times and it just keeps coming back. i dont even add any new fish... 80gal tank with 4 fish... this is a last resort. Also while the fish are out will it be OK to add some sand into the tank. I only have about 1/2in of live sand(i know i know) that is why i would like to add more.

Thanks

 

[popothemailman]

I forgot to mention that i just bought 15gal of catalina water today. I use oceanic in the main tank and slowly want to change to catalina. Should i use the catalina water for the qt or the main tanks water?

 

[popothemailman]

I just got one more suggestion. That is to put all my LR and inverts into my spare 55gal and treat the 80gal with some very strog meds such as clout and kill it all.

 

[quarryshark]

Don't need the sand, bare bottom with a few PVC elbows would be the best. Hypo would be great but do you own a refractometer?
If going with meds I recommend Cupramine along with the Sechem multitest kit for copper. It is well tolerated by most fish and works very well.

Should i use the catalina water for the qt or the main tanks water

I would start with water from you main, you are going to treat it anyway.
Expect to do daily water changes for at least (with fresh salt mix, not from the main once treatment starts) the first couple of weeks and be sure to monitor ammonia, nitrite and PH closely.

 

[quarryshark]

That is to put all my LR and inverts into my spare 55gal and treat the 80gal with some very strog meds such as clout and kill it all.

Would have to move all invert as well. If you did this I would just use hypo. I would never suggest using meds in your show tank.

 

[popothemailman]

in your oppinion which would be a better solution. Putting the fish in the 10 gal and letting the main tank without a host. Or putting all the rock and inverts into the 55 gal and useing hypo on the main tank.

 

[quarryshark]

I like the qt solution much better. If the bioload give you a problem, you could alway upgrade to a 20 gallon. They really don't cost very much and you already have the filter.

 

[dralarms]

Putting the fish in the 10 gal and letting the main tank without a host

This is the best solution.

Now to weigh in on the ick problem, I used Ruby Reffs "kick ick" sucessfully 1 time, had an out break of ick in my 46 gal, treated the fish right in the tank, snails, crabs, pepermint shrimp, pods, ETC. Everything survived except the ick. Now other people have used it with out success, I guess the difference is I didn't follow directions 8O , Instead of dosing every other day, I dosed every day 8O . Seemed to work

 

[cmor1701d]

You mentioned a spare 55 gallon. If that is not hosting other fish, why not use that as your QT for the 6 week QT period?

I also recommend reading Hyposalinity

Keep careful tabs on your pH as it tends to go low in hypo. I suggest 10% daily water changes to help keep the water parameters stable.

It works!

 

[popothemailman]

would it be better if i used my 55gal wet/dry on the 10gal. It has recently been taken out of the main tank about 2weeks ago(Just bought a ehem 2028-GREAT filter 4 weeks ago)

 

[popothemailman]

Well i guess here is my plan: Im going to buy a 20gal tank and use the 55gal wet/dry on it. Take all my rock and inverts out and put them into my 55gal tank. It will then be easier to catch the fish and ill be also able to add more sand to the main tank(HD sand goes on bottom and my live sand goes on top). I will then put all the rocks and inverts back into the main tank and let it sit for 6 weeks while the 20gal goes through hypo.

 

[quarryshark]

 

[Hara]

one side note, I don't know that it would be a nice idea to return ich infested fish to the fish store.

 

[popothemailman]

LOL...Im not, the damsels will stay...