HELP - White Cotton

[sea2sky]

Hello all,
I am struggling with an issue that happened in my 150 gallon saltwater tank. I had an outbreak of what I thought was ich but think turned into a bacteria infection. I setup quarantine in the basement and emptied the 150 gallon, cleaned two Fluval FX6s completely out and let air dry. Boiled / baked all the sand and rocks. Then filled again after roughly a week. I have put in the tank two Fritz turbo start bottles (each meant for 200 gallons) and have seen seen the following appear? What is this and what can I do to ensure a clean start to the tank after I move my fish back?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hello all,
I am struggling with an issue that happened in my 150 gallon saltwater tank. I had an outbreak of what I thought was ich but think turned into a bacteria infection. I setup quarantine in the basement and emptied the 150 gallon, cleaned two Fluval FX6s completely out and let air dry. Boiled / baked all the sand and rocks. Then filled again after roughly a week. I have put in the tank two Fritz turbo start bottles (each meant for 200 gallons) and have seen seen the following appear? What is this and what can I do to ensure a clean start to the tank after I move my fish back?

Do you have a picture of what you are seeing in the tank?

Jay

 

[sea2sky]

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

That looks like bacterial slime. Could there have been dead matter inside the rock? Boiling that kills bacteria, but doesn't remove the the organic material itself. Then, when the rock is put back in water, new bacteria grows to start to consume that organic material. If that is what this is, let it go for a week or two and the bacteria will break it all down.

Jay

 

[sea2sky]

The pictures below show the fish that got sick from the out break in the 150 gal. I put them in QT and treated with Copper (~2.5) for 5 days but continued with Triple Sulfa (API), Fungus Cure (API), Kanaplex (Seachem), Metroplex (Seachem). Started with the API products for 5 days but ran out with daily water changes so had to switch to Seachem because of store supply and ran for another 2 weeks. Currently look much better in QT with no meds and want to make sure I am good to put back into DT. Would this have been a sufficient treatment based on these pics?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

The pictures below show the fish that got sick from the out break in the 150 gal. I put them in QT and treated with Copper (~2.5) for 5 days but continued with Triple Sulfa (API), Fungus Cure (API), Kanaplex (Seachem), Metroplex (Seachem). Started with the API products for 5 days but ran out with daily water changes so had to switch to Seachem because of store supply and ran for another 2 weeks. Currently look much better in QT with no meds and want to make sure I am good to put back into DT. Would this have been a sufficient treatment based on these pics?

The tang does look like it has/had a bacterial infection. The foxface doesn't have much of note. In looking back over your original pictures - some of that white material *could* be living sponge, it has more structure than bacteria would. Are they both feeding well now?

Have you tried siphoning that material out?
Since the fish seem stable in the quarantine, and since you don't know what is going on in the display, I would rush in putting them back there.

Jay