Failed quarantine...

[RJKain-777]

Hey, so I obviously failed my QT protocol , didn’t QT everything wet, got some macro algae from a questionable source (should’ve known better) and now I have what I think is ich..

mall fish went threw 20 days copper power at 2.3 ppm according to the Hannah checker. As well as 2 rounds of prazipro .

display was 100% sterile when set up, other then bacteria and rock from my old system (rock was in a brute can for a few months between tanks).

all the bangaii cardinals have died, 2 wrasses have died, and my powder blue has died.

the issue here is, in out of town till Monday night, and having a hard time asking my wife to do anything.
So what can I do? Do I just hope for the best? Can I turn my temp down to slow it down? What can I ask my wife to do, short of tearing down my tank, to catch the fish and place in QT?

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Bump

 

[davidcalgary29]

So what can I do? Do I just hope for the best? Can I turn my temp down to slow it down? What can I ask my wife to do, short of tearing down my tank, to catch the fish and place in QT?

No, turning the temperature down won't help. It's tough, but you should ask your wife to catch the fish, set up quarantine, and start dosing copper as quickly (and as safely) as possible. If you don't have anything but fish in your tank, and don't mind throwing away any rock and substrate in it, you could dose copper in your display tank, but I wouldn't do that unless you had no other option.

Do you belong to a local club? You could always ask a fellow member to assist. You can also contact one of the local aquarium maintenance companies like this to see if they'll set up a QT and treatment for you.

 

[RJKain-777]

No, turning the temperature down won't help. It's tough, but you should ask your wife to catch the fish, set up quarantine, and start dosing copper as quickly (and as safely) as possible. If you don't have anything but fish in your tank, and don't mind throwing away any rock and substrate in it, you could dose copper in your display tank, but I wouldn't do that unless you had no other option.

Do you belong to a local club? You could always ask a fellow member to assist. You can also contact one of the local aquarium maintenance companies like this to see if they'll set up a QT and treatment for you.

I’m apart of all the Calgary clubs, but, unfortunately no one will help.
I’m not willing to dose copper in my tank, as there’s 300+ lbs of rock and probably the same in sand. And I’m not willing to wreck a $7000 tank with copper. Not to mention all the equipment.
I have a bunch of 55 gallon tanks (commercial retail system) that I planned on cleaning and setting up to house all the fish at once. Wife said she would clean the tanks, but I’ll still need to replumb them, and build a stand. The 30 gallon QT I currently have won’t be enough.

 

[polyppal]

does the display have corals/inverts yet? if not, you can hypo the display for 30 days and eradicate the ich

 

[RJKain-777]

does the display have corals/inverts yet? if not, you can hypo the display for 30 days and eradicate the ich

It does yes.

 

[RJKain-777]

Seems like my best option is to hope for the best, and when I get home Monday night, do what I can to catch the fish and move to a QT.

 

[polyppal]

That sucks man, sorry to hear. Sounds like your best bet is to setup a couple QTs and pull your fish and go fallow...

unless you can move your corals and any inverts you can catch to a temp tank, then you could hypo your fish in the display for 30d

 

[RJKain-777]

That sucks man, sorry to hear. Sounds like your best bet is to setup a couple QTs and pull your fish and go fallow...

unless you can move your corals and any inverts you can catch to a temp tank, then you could hypo your fish in the display for 30d

I purchased 2 marine land retail racks for this purpose but need to clean them and set them up.
I do have a 30 gallon QT up and running still, that I can use temporary.
Then go fallow for 96 days.

 

[Bepis]

Use the vase method... here is a link

The Guide of Capturing All Your Sick, Troublesome, and Nuisance Aquarium Inhabitants

Over my time as a part of this forum and reefing community as a whole, which is surely not as lengthy as the rest of our resident reefers (not by a long shot), I have fought and struggled threw numerous trials and battles. Personally being struck by ich repeatedly losing thousands of dollars of...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[RJKain-777]

Little update...

Lost the following fish:
Yellow eye kole tang
Adult chocolate tang
Empire angel
Powder blue tang
5 bangaii cardinals
3 yellow tangs
Naso tang
Hippo tang
Orange back fairy wrasse
Solar wrasse
Blue line wrasse
2 gladiator clowns

 

[davidcalgary29]

Devastating. I'm so, so sorry to hear this. I hope you'll rebuild from this.

 

[dhnguyen]

Alas hindsight is always 20/20.

Somethings I'd do myself
1. Never get new livestock just before leaving town.
2. Always have a simple what to do list for your S.O or tank sitter while you're away (who to call, do steps 1to X when such and such happens, etc...)
3, Have a buddy or 2 local to you on standby while you are away.

I know it's devastating but you'll rebuild and learn from this.
Might be a good time to look in getting a UV sterilizer for the tank. Even if you don't run it all the times it's still good to have on hand when needed.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Seems like my best option is to hope for the best, and when I get home Monday night, do what I can to catch the fish and move to a QT.

Sorry - that is a real predicament. I would say that once fish loss due to ich has begun, it really isn't likely to stop without quick decisive treatment - and sometimes that isn't fast enough. For example, copper typically takes three days to begin working - so more fish are going to die during that time.

Jay

 

[Tamberav]

Sounds like it might be velvet and not ich cuz dang your fish are dropping fast. I set up a fishless QT for corals/anything wet to fallow in and posts like this remind me I did the right thing even though it is another tank to care for.

You can have the wife dose peroxide a few times a day. You can look up managing using this... look up Peroxide dosing for parasites in a reef tank. It probably won't stop fast moving velvet in time though, it is more of a management tool.

 

[RJKain-777]

Alas hindsight is always 20/20.

Somethings I'd do myself
1. Never get new livestock just before leaving town.
2. Always have a simple what to do list for your S.O or tank sitter while you're away (who to call, do steps 1to X when such and such happens, etc...)
3, Have a buddy or 2 local to you on standby while you are away.

I know it's devastating but you'll rebuild and learn from this.
Might be a good time to look in getting a UV sterilizer for the tank. Even if you don't run it all the times it's still good to have on hand when needed.

All live stock has been in the tank together for a couple months. And all came from a tank tear down I purchased.

im on the fence if rebuilding it or not

 

[davidcalgary29]

All live stock has been in the tank together for a couple months. And all came from a tank tear down I purchased.

im on the fence if rebuilding it or not

Do it. Take a breather and let the heartache pass (or at least ease a little bit), and then start anew. The only thing that I'd suggest for the future is to get a buddy at one of the local clubs to get into a tank-sitting arrangement with you. I'd love to have that myself, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in this town with marine builds.

 

[RJKain-777]

Do it. Take a breather and let the heartache pass (or at least ease a little bit), and then start anew. The only thing that I'd suggest for the future is to get a buddy at one of the local clubs to get into a tank-sitting arrangement with you. I'd love to have that myself, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in this town with marine builds.

Unfortunately, there’s not many people that will look after others tanks. My wife is fine looking after it, I just don’t understand what happened, and suppose I need to be more proficient on my QT practices and not buy anything from the store I got my algae from again.

 

[dhnguyen]

Do it. Take a breather and let the heartache pass (or at least ease a little bit), and then start anew. The only thing that I'd suggest for the future is to get a buddy at one of the local clubs to get into a tank-sitting arrangement with you. I'd love to have that myself, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in this town with marine builds.

Even if they aren't hobbiests they can still help if you write out an easy to follow what do to list. Beyond that there's really nothing that can be done anyway even if you were there.

 

[dhnguyen]

All live stock has been in the tank together for a couple months. And all came from a tank tear down I purchased.

im on the fence if rebuilding it or not

I would consider macro algae livestock. Really anything that's biological.