BAD Situation, Need Advice

[SaltySchmidt]

First off, new here, but have been reading along for months. Anything I've had a question on I've just read and read till I educated myself, but this time is different. I've had a 55 Gallon FOWLR going for 4 months now, but last night I noticed the little Flame Angel had what appeared to be ICH. I went to the store after work to pick up some meds, and then set up a HT for her. When I get home, I see the Coral Beauty is in ROUGH shape with ICH too. She hides most of the time, so I don't see her too much.

I've got the HT all set up and runnig and they are both in it and medicated.

NOW, here's where it gets interesting.

Since things were going so well, I'm in the process of building a 125 In the wall of my basement. This was going to be a sweet build, I'm going to post pics. Planed on building it with Limestone around the Face as Trim, putting Stone up on the wall. It's actually in the wall and holding Freshwater. I just bought a bucket of Salt Yesterday. Was about to start to cycle it.......

So my Tank is currently ailing, and I know I have ICH in the Water Column. I was going to use the Live Sand and Live Rock to seed my new tank, not anymore. I'm keeping the other fish in my 55 for now, see what happens if they develop any signs and will treat if necessary.

My plan was to buy some more Live Rock and start cycling that tank with a few cups of my live sand, then after it had cycled add all of my Old Live Rock to the New Tank with the fish. I was going to add a bottle of Bio Spira a few days before just as a safety buffer, but what do I do now?

Can I add the Live Rock to the New Tank, get that tank cycling, and just use the entire Old Tank as a QT tank and treat everyone while the new tank is Cycling?

Can I transfer my Live Rock, or will it transfer the ICH with it??????????????

Do I have to let the Live Rock in my 55 go 6-8 weeks before I can transfer it?

H-E-L-P

Mike from Michigan

 

[Small triggers]

Do not use the current live rock or sand in the new tank...unless you can leave it fish less for 8 weeks (ichs life cycle without a host)
Your current fish, if they have ich, need to be treated with a copper based treatment...but you cannot do this with rock and sand in the tank if you ever plan to use them again...copper based meds don't come out of rock or sand and can never be used in a reef again...
So...move how ever many fish you can to the HT..depending on size...transfer all the sand and rock to the new tank, cycle it for 8 weeks
In the mean time treat all your fish...
Also keep in mind many say that the tank you treat in also cannot be used in a reef again...so you may not want to use your current DT if you had other plans for it....

 

[xthunderx]

I've gotten ich from transferring corals from a buddies tank into mine, lesson learned for me. Don't transfer any rock, it's a risk I wouldn't take.

 

[SaltySchmidt]

Yeah I was thinking this, but everything written just pretty much backs up my reading and thoughts. Looks Like I will be having two tanks running for a while......

 

[SaltySchmidt]

This is going to be a very costly lesson....I am getting close to very nice basement remodel and the tank will be sitting empty now for some time. Will not make this mistake again.