Full Tank Restart? How to combat parasites?

[Evan4250]

Hi, I have a 125 gallon aquarium with a 30 gallon sump. I have 130 lbs of live rock, and quite a bit of coral.
I have had my tank up and running for a little bit over a year but got struck by some misfortune when I added a foxface and a powder blue tang. I had a very well stocked tank but one of these new fish was carrying a parasite... long story short after several months of doing everything in my power to save my fish, all but 1 have died. All that I am left with is a Banggai Cardinalfish and now 2 cleaner shrimp and a peppermint shrimp.
I have been doing weekly water changes with RO water and Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. After 2 months of doing this my coral looks great but now I am getting bubble algae out of nowhere. However the main problem is still that the parasites that keep killing the fish.

At this point I just want to start my whole tank over. I want to completely drain the tank, sell my coral, and decide what to do next with the live rock and method of filtration. I just want to be able to have fish back in the tank again.
What should I do? Should I treat the live rock and try to use it again and also should I wash the sand or get completely new sand ?
I am completely lost and need someone to guide me in the right direction please!! Thank you so much.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

You could tear it all down and sell it because of some simple alge yes .

Or

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef-hd-and-clams.452464/#post-5159002

 

[LowLi]

these vids helped me restart my tank from a 90 to a 120

 

[Maritimer]

If you leave your tank empty of fish (invertebrates and corals can stay in the display) for six weeks, Brooklynella and Velvet will be starved out. If you go a little longer, to 76 days, ich will follow them into oblivion.

If you don't set up a quarantine and make certain that your existing banggai, and then any new fish you'd like to add, are healthy and parasite-free before they go into your tank, then parasites will almost certainly return to plague you. (There are a few reefers out there who run "immune" tanks, but I'm not sure that their systems can be replicated reliably.)

~Bruce

 

[KrisReef]

Heres a recent thread how a guy eliminated bubble algae. Do this and 76 days later add fish from your quarantine.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef-hd-and-clams.452464/

 

[mcarroll]

There is an easy way to mimic stable tanks. You have to start very slowly and build slowly.

Most folks appear to stock up their tank in about a years time or even less. That's way way way too fast. Go slower on the big animals like fish – one or two at a time – and go faster on adding coral which will actually help support a healthy environment. keep it all within your level of expertise, do not try to mimic some tank you see on the Internet because more than likely it was put together or is being run by somebody with more experience than you.

It's also possible that the awesome tank from the internet that you try to model crashed the day after you read the article so that's something to be careful of all the way around — research whose advice you are taking. (Mine included. Click my avatar picture, click "my threads" and have a read.)

76 days is not a magic number, but if you take that time to stabilize the tank rather than continuing to add things to it you should be able to avoid a restart. A restart actually buys you very little unless the tank is actually totally ruined – but the fact that a green algae like bubble will still grow, I know that it's not ruined. I actually like bubble algae. Very pretty, easy to get rid of. Nice!

If you can find a local fish store that sells healthy fish it will give you a huge leg up - spend some time looking.

Whether at the store or in your own quarantine system, you really do need some way to observe your new fish to find out if they're healthy or if they have any issues that you need to work on.

Remember that the object of quarantine is to restore the health of the fish that you buy so that their immune systems can keep them healthy.

This task amounts to removing the stress from the fish that have accumulated from the time they were caught in the ocean to the time they get into your possession. Usually TLC will do it, but sometimes a med may be required so be prepared/read up on both.

Lots of info on meds out there, btw.

Much less info on TLC, strangely enough.

So don't get over-focused on meds.

Do most of your digging on TLC so you get that right!

@Paul B 's immunity thread MAY be the single best fish thread on R2R.

In summary, I would take a step back, but I doubt a restart is actually worth it.

 

[Yvonne Wong]

What about adding UV sterilizer to the reef? It will kill the free floating stage of the parasite life cycle. Remove your last fish and treat it with medication such as copper. Do not add fish to the reef for 8 weeks. I think that might help get rid of ich or marine velvet.

 

[HOOPDEEZ]

As stated above, The parasites will starve in 76 days or less without fish in the system. Don’t buy a UV unless you’re wanting it for some other use.

 

[JumboShrimp]

For what it’s worth, this is currently my third (3rd) time of going fallow due to marine velvet (and third time having my fish in a hospital tank with copper at therapeutic levels). To me that can only mean one thing: “Gone” wasn’t really “gone.” So as boring as it is to look at a DT filled with nothing but water and rocks, this time I am going fallow for a full 12-weeks and not a day short. Meanwhile, that is more than ample time to treat and then observe the fish, in preparation for reintroducing them back into the tank at the rate of about two per week. My wife thinks I’m crazy—but I just rant back, “I will NOT be defeated!” (Lol)

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

After having worked on countless tanks over the years, one business I took myself out of is trying to control and prevent ectoparasites.

Hold on to your seats...

I feel like no matter what you do, these guys get in there (or get back in there). Since they are typically naturally occurring organisms in reef ecosystems, I just welcome them with open arms.

When fish live in low-stress natural environments with plenty of room to swim, plenty of structure to find sanctuary in, really good water quality and great nourishment, parasites are almost a non-factor. In my experience, parasite issues in established reef tanks are virtually unheard of. If they do pop up, it’s in a low # and only affecting 1-2 fish (usually stemming from some sort of aggression).

It might sound outlandish to simply ignore parasites, but they’re just not anything I ever thin about. To paraphrase Jay-Z, ‘I got 99 problems, but parasites ain’t one’

 

[drizzle21]

I agree with this 100% I lost almost all my fish twice from ick. I didn't quarantine any fish and ended up getting ick wiped out all but 1 out of 9. Then tried again but only went fallow for 1 month. Stocked 4 fish slowly and again ick returned wiped out 3 more fish so i pulled the remaining fish put in qt for 90 days. That did it no more ick and as I understand 90 days should be enough to starve out most fish disease that are in the tank. Now I qt everything that comes in and haven't had any problems since its been 2yrs since my outbreak. Now I did recently get montipora eating nudibranchs so i have a new battle the lesson im learning is QT EVERYTHING. Good luck

If you leave your tank empty of fish (invertebrates and corals can stay in the display) for six weeks, Brooklynella and Velvet will be starved out. If you go a little longer, to 76 days, ich will follow them into oblivion.

If you don't set up a quarantine and make certain that your existing banggai, and then any new fish you'd like to add, are healthy and parasite-free before they go into your tank, then parasites will almost certainly return to plague you. (There are a few reefers out there who run "immune" tanks, but I'm not sure that their systems can be replicated reliably.)

~Bruce

 

[Superlightman]

After having worked on countless tanks over the years, one business I took myself out of is trying to control and prevent ectoparasites.

Hold on to your seats...

I feel like no matter what you do, these guys get in there (or get back in there). Since they are typically naturally occurring organisms in reef ecosystems, I just welcome them with open arms.

When fish live in low-stress natural environments with plenty of room to swim, plenty of structure to find sanctuary in, really good water quality and great nourishment, parasites are almost a non-factor. In my experience, parasite issues in established reef tanks are virtually unheard of. If they do pop up, it’s in a low # and only affecting 1-2 fish (usually stemming from some sort of aggression).

It might sound outlandish to simply ignore parasites, but they’re just not anything I ever thin about. To paraphrase Jay-Z, ‘I got 99 problems, but parasites ain’t one’

I was believing this, and it worked near 15 years,but now I'm near loosing all fishes..