Quarantine tank for ick

[countryboy9843]

I have been battling Ick for over a month now I have tried Kick-Ick and that stuff was garbage and the fish seemed to get worse, so i have decided to just take the fish out and put them in a quarantine tank and use Copper Power. ALL MY FISH ARE JUVENILES OR BABIES!!! I have 2 regal tangs, 2 O.clowns, one yellow tang, one henioucus, one coral beauty and one damsel. they are in a 20 gallon tank and all appear to be happy and swimming. I tested this morning and the ammonia is 1.0-2.0. I have two hang over filters (no carbon just the biological filter) and a bubblier. how can i get rid of the ammonia or am i starting the cycle again? i used water out of my DT.

 

[Ingy]

I have been battling Ick for over a month now I have tried Kick-Ick and that stuff was garbage and the fish seemed to get worse, so i have decided to just take the fish out and put them in a quarantine tank and use Copper Power. ALL MY FISH ARE JUVENILES OR BABIES!!! I have 2 regal tangs, 2 O.clowns, one yellow tang, one henioucus, one coral beauty and one damsel. they are in a 20 gallon tank and all appear to be happy and swimming. I tested this morning and the ammonia is 1.0-2.0. I have two hang over filters (no carbon just the biological filter) and a bubblier. how can i get rid of the ammonia or am i starting the cycle again? i used water out of my DT.

With 2 regal tangs, 1 yellow tang and 1 heniochus, what size tank did they come out of.
For the ammonia, just keep up with water changes. 5 gals per day should be nothing compared to what your used to.

 

[Supa Belle]

Id go bare bottom QT, fresh water dip, and Garlic Guard in there food and Hyposalinity of 1.016 but you gatta lower the salinity slowly to prevent salinity shock my regal came down with ick and that's what I did and after fresh water dip put them in a fresh container of salt water before you add to QT

 

[countryboy9843]

Like i said they are babies and about half a inch long, they came out of a 125g tank

and I have already started the copper treatment so i cant do hypo

thank you both

 

[Supa Belle]

I wouldn't use copper it can be fatal if not dosed properly or checked with a test kit

And if your useing copper treatment in display the rock will absorb it and u won't be able to have any inverts

 

[countryboy9843]

The stuff that i use is safe and the copper is tested everyday and it is where it needs to be. This is the stuff that i use, I know that the hypo method is safer but i don't trust it.

Copper Power, Marine Copper Treatment, 4 oz

 

[TheTodd]

That is a lot of fish (even if babies) for a 20g QT. You are bound to have ammonia due to a large bio load and a tank with no BB. Keep doing water changes to keep ammonia levels down.

Keep the DT fallow for 6-8 weeks to let the Ich die off in there.

 

[countryboy9843]

We are still getting way off topic my question was why is the ammonia rising? they have been in there about 24 hrs and the ammonia went up, is the tank trying to run a new cycle or is it the bio-load from the fish?? again i used water from the DT so it is fully cycled

 

[Ingy]

Water doesn't cycle. The BB form on the rocks. So, yeah, your going to have a cycle. That's why you have to do lots of water changes. I keep a bio pad in my sump getting bacteria on it just for the purpose of a QT needing bacteria.
Don't use anymore water from your DT either. Ick has a free swimming stage.

 

[countryboy9843]

i used bio foam from my dt filter to put bb into the qt as well. there is nothing in the tank except pvc pipe and the bio foam that the regal tangs like to hide in. I just did a 5 gallon water change and it is reading about .25 to .50

 

[TheTodd]

+1

Even if you had BB, the bio load with that many fish in that small a tank could easily overload it. They just lost 100 gallons plus whatever size sump you have) but are still putting out the same amount of waste. It's basically more concentrated now. The BB in the foam will help, but I'm guessing water changes are going to become a regular occurrence for a while to keep your parameters in check.

 

[countryboy9843]

Right, I am feeding them about every 2-3 days now as well so the tangs cant crop dust the tank. Should I turn on their light for a few hours a day or none at all? and can i give the tanks a small piece of their seaweed every few days?

 

[TheTodd]

Cutting back on feeding will help produce less waste, but you also want to feed enough to keep them healthy/strong so they can fight this off. The less stress right now, the better for them.

 

[countryboy9843]

what would you recommend for a feeding schedule for them? And also a added note the heniocus and coral beauty were the only ones that were showing ick at the time of the quarantine and they would get it for a week and then drop it and then it would come back, one of the regal tangs started to scratch on the live rock and on the sand, but showed no signs of ick spots, the coral beauty has been in a qt tank for about 2 days longer than the others and the two regals have also been quarantined at the beginning of the ick cycle but they were in a smaller tank and the levels would not stay stable so they had to come back to the dt after about 9 days. They eat food soaked in garlic every meal.

 

[TheTodd]

I think every 2-3 days is fine. Tangs and the Heniochus need greens, so the seaweed is good for them. Garlic is supposed to help too.

There are a lot of good articles online about Ich. Lots of links on other threads here too. Read up on it, as there is a lot of confusion surrounding this. The spots will drop off as part of the life cycle, but it goes into the sand and multiplies. That is why you want to leave your DT fallow for 6-8 weeks. Without a host, all the Ich in there will die off. It needs a fish/host to survive. You add your fish back in earlier and its just in there thanking you for giving it a host.

 

[countryboy9843]

I know a good bit about it my only problems is that i can not keep the qt this is my second time dealing with ick and i lost everybody the first go around so i trying not to lose anybody this time. I was also told about raising the water to 80+ degrees and it helps with the ick do you have any comments on this?

 

[Ingy]

That works for freshwater ick. Temp doesn't help at all for marine ick.

 

[countryboy9843]

okay my dt stays around 80-82 degrees because of the lights and it didn't seem to be helping so i wanted to ask. Another question is do the fish need to stay in the copper for the whole 6-8 weeks or can i start running carbon to remove the copper in a couple weeks and they just have a regular tank?

 

[TheTodd]

Exactly with the temp. That is a freshwater trick.

Please do not take this the wrong way, but you are saying you know quite a bit, but seem confused about a lot. Reading a few articles really should explain all about the Ich, what treatments work (and don't) and a lot more. The good news is that you are using QT with copper, which works to cure the fish. If you can not keep them in QT for a 6-8 week period, odds are they will go back into the DT which will still have Ich and this vicious cycle will continue. Some fish are strong enough to fight it off and some people just let it run its course and do not QT. They try to keep pristine water conditions and maintain a stress-free environment and hope that it clears itself up. I get that it can work, but I've lost fish to Ich before and that "hope for the best" gameplan just doesn't work for me. IMO, you are on the right track with what you are doing

 

[countryboy9843]

yeah im not trying to say that i am a genius at this but from what i have read and asked about i know a little bit. My QT is testing at

ammonia .25-.50
copper 1.0 i added a little more and will retest
nitrate 5.0
nitrite 0
ph 7.8-8.0