Serious coral issues after treating for ich

[hannonlen]

I’m not sure this is the right place to post this. I recently treated my tank for an ich outbreak and my corals are doing poorly. It’s likely a case of doing too much, too fast and I should have known better. I was told at my LFS that kick-Ick has been used by a lot of customers with no troubles, and that treating the fish food with Metro would be a benefit. At the same time, I started feeding my fish seaweed that was soaked in garlic guard. So, during the kick-ick dosing schedule, the tank received a daily dose of Metro (sprinkled on brine shrimp) and a dose of garlic guard (soaked into a strip of seaweed).

I’ve completed the kick-ich dosing schedule and now see my corals on a slow, steady decline. What I mean by that is:


Hammer and bubble coral is mostly retracted into its structure for a few days now,
tongue coral has lost its vibrant green and has not presented its tentacles for a few days,
Chalice coral has lost its vibrant color and display a brown “film” on its underside.
Echinopora showing a brown film on its underside,
Galaxia tentacles are not as extended as usual,
Button coral not extending its fleshy outer pedals, and
Pipe organ retracted.


Strangely, my torch coral looks fine and the various polyps show no changes. All livestock are doing great.

The only think I can think of causing this is the combination of additives I have put in my tank over a couple of week period. Any advice on how to try to save my corals other than an aggressive water change schedule?

[MikeTR]

Run fresh carbon, bump up the water changes. STOP listening to your LFS for advise. Invest in a quarantine tank and read about the 4 methods for treating ich that people are successful with: hyposalinity, copper, chloroquine phosphate, tank transfer. Meds should usually be dosed in a quarantine if you can help it, but i have dosed praziquantel/metronidozal in the DT to treat paravortex and flukes.

[bertoni]

I agree with the fresh carbon and the water changes. I might try 15% a day for a few days, or until the corals perked up.

If any corals start dying, I'd watch the ammonia level carefully.

[hannonlen]

Thanks... I have already replaced the carbon and did a 15% water change. You think 15% per day is not too aggressive? I was planning on every week. Also, should I change carbon more frequently than my normal (monthly)? Roger on the ammonia watch... my bubble coral has basically disintegrated. Its a sad shame.

[bertoni]

Until the corals look better, I might change the carbon every few days. 15% per day is a fair amount of work, and might not help much, but it shouldn't hurt. I don't know whether the corals are reacting to what's in the water now, or have been hurt in some way by something that's gone already, so I don't know how much the carbon and water changes will help.

[trinidiver]

Whats the size and volume of the tank. he may have to change more than 15% at a time

[nicholasb]

Never listen to your lfs when it comes to ich. I did and it got me no where. A Q.T tank is the only way. Lfs should not sell these products as they don'y work. As every one is saying carbon may help.
Sometimes you have to swich off the skimmers to uses these products, wich can cause lack of oxigen problems in the tank. If your tourch is o.k thens things can't be that bad.

[hannonlen]

The tank is a 215 gal bow front. Water parameters are otherwise excellent. The kick ich instructions called for turning off the skimmer, but I only left it off for a few hours after each dose.

Coral continue to do worse. My bubble has basically disintegrated and the tongue is showing skeleton along its top edge. My challice looses polyps as the brown film is removed.

In the bright side, all of my polyps, acropora, brains, acons, livestock and inverts are still ok for now.

[hannonlen]

Any reason I should reduce the amount of light or the light spectrum during recovery? I have radions and their flexability to play with as well....

[tmz]

I'd reduce the light intensity .Often shading a sick coral helps particualrly chalices, echonpylia et alia . Euphylia seem to thrive in high organics and other nutrients ,ime so I'm not surprised they are doing ok. I would have thought the same for the physogyra/ plerogyra(bubble) though. I'd definitely use a lot of gac and skimming and a series of small water changes. Brown fim could be a brown jelly infection, a protozoan infection that starts in dead or dying tissue and rolls along to healthy tissue. It can spread. Might consider fragging of the infected section and/or removing sick corals from the tank to cut the losses.