Lesson Learned

[gotwake89]

Started my 75 gal reef tank back in March '12. Had not been using a quarantine :headwally: ... suddenly, ich happened. lost 1 fish so far and have 1 clown is recovering in my new hospital qt and being treated with copper. To all new hobbyists: make sure you quarantine your fish no matter how healthy they look before putting them in your display tank!

Also, question, should I also qt my fish that are still in the display that were not infected? I know ich can be dormant in a tank and just wait until new fish are introduced, but is it safe to put the fish that may have been exposed in my hospital quarantine with my infected clown or is it safer to just leave them in the display tank? and if I leave them in the display tank, how will I ever get rid of the dormant ich?

[andrewey]

At least you learned now while the price was lower than if you had a full reef going 2 years in.... :)

[MarkGP]

It sucks that you had to learn the hard way but at least you learned. You will have to remove all fish from your display and treat them in another tank or tanks depending on how many. The display will have to remain fishless for at least 9 weeks to be totally free of ich.

[hollister]

Many fish have ick but are never seen if the fish isnt overly stressed. Stress could be a big factor and low water flow and or low oxygen levels could be high on the list.

[Denbf58]

the only way to get ick out of the dt is remove all fish to qt for min of 8 week that is the life cycle of ick

[devildog999]

I learned the same lesson the hard way. I have lost my mated True perc clowns, flame angel, bangaii cardinal, sleeper banded Toby, blue spot jawfish, bluebtang, sailfin tang, and 1 or 2 more I cannot remember. Will never not qt again!

[gotwake89]

thanks everyone, and I kinda figured I had to remove all the fish... gotta do it the right way though. Should I put them in the medicated tank or should I buy another quarantine tank?

[andrewey]

I would do another tank- if you have already treated that tank with a dose of copper, you'll have to do the same to make sure the levels are correct, although depending on the volume of water, this could become a double dose!

[enjetek]

Since you have a hospital tank use it for your fish unless it is too small. It hopefully already has the proper dosage of medicine so anything left in there should be fixed. If setting up a new tank use fresh water so you know what dose to use and don't forget to use some old filter media so there isn't any cycle.

[Englishmatt]

To the OP - Did you dose Copper in your reef? I don't think you did, but I'm just stating the obvious about NOT dosing copper in your reef

...or making sure your QT system is totally isolated from the DT water so NO copper can infiltrate the reef...

Just stating the obvious...

[gotwake89]

no copper in the reef, i did my homework

[Joel_155]

I have sadly just gone through the exact same thing....i just lost my tang to ich.

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[MrTuskfish]

Copper stays quite stable, so fish can be added to the existing QT if there's room. BUT; the clock for Cu treatment starts at day 1. I learned this way too, never again!

[Braxibear]

Sorry for your loss, but like others have said, you need to have your tank fallow for at least 8 weeks to let all the ich die out.

[mal7887]

Keep a close eye on your QT parameters, especially ammonia. Copper kills off the bacteria that breaks down ammonia and it can sneak up on you quick!

[MrTuskfish]

Keep a close eye on your QT parameters, especially ammonia. Copper kills off the bacteria that breaks down ammonia and it can sneak up on you quick!

Cupramine will kill some of the aerobic bacteria; but leaves plenty to control ammonia----if the QT has a well seeded sponge, or something similar. Most QTs/HTs seem to be set up in a hurry and there isn't an adequate bio-filter to cycle the tank and that will always require frequent WCs to control ammonia. If you keep a sponge filter/insert in the flow of your main system; you'll always have good ammonia control.

[gotwake89]

I have been checking ammonia daily and doing daily water changes, no problems so far. all fish that were infected died though, i was a little too late to treat them, but I have prevented my last 2 fish from getting it so far by treating them prophylactically