Need help please with my yellow belly blue tang

[dromo2189]

Hello had my yellow belly blue tang for about three weeks now. Had him in my qt tank building him up to ich. Looks like he had It. Today I just notice something else is wrong and added pimafix and melafix. Please help what's wrong and what can I do

[Sniperhank]

That is a stressed out fish. You will see paling colors when they are stressed out. How long has he been in QT? Have you been checking the parameters of the QT tank? Are there places to hide, like PVC elbows?

[dromo2189]

Unfortunately I was to late and he died this morning. Do I have to empty the tank and completely clean everything? In bleach and vinegar

[Sniperhank]

What all was in the system? Is there rock and sand?

[dromo2189]

No it's just a fake rock,heater,filter, and power head. I had copper in it along with melafix and primfix

[dromo2189]

I'm going to take probably 80-90 percent of the water out. Just wasn't sure if I had to clean and bleach everything

[Sniperhank]

You can. Running any system fallow for a 6-8 week period will ensure that any of the ich parasite are no longer alive.

[Brookster123]

What is keeping your tank cycled if everything is fake?

[dromo2189]

It's my hospital tank. It's only for when fish are sick. But I like to keep it running all the tiem

[Brookster123]

I get that, what's keeping the cycle?

[dromo2189]

Water changes I guess

[Mebbid]

Originally Posted by dromo2189

Water changes I guess

It's pretty common practice for reefers to keep a bag of filter media in their sump in order to have some cycled media on hand in case there's a situation that requires a hospital tank. I would suggest starting that, then you don't have to keep the hospital tank running all the time, only when you need it.

[Sniperhank]

With copper based meds and hyposalinity, this kills off any beneficial bacteria that can be presented. Water changes are the only way to keep parameters in check.
This can be easily understood with the salinity. The bacteria that keep a freshwater tank aren't the same that keep a saltwater tank cycled. A salt system goes into the realm of brackish, not really the same circus anymore...just with less bears and more elephants.
Kinda like how trials are on a different map every week Mebbid.