I set my current 300g up 12 months ago... I QT everything, copper treat fish as a matter of course, dip corals and keep them mobile inverts in QT for 76 days. About 3 months after start up I had an outbreak of ich in the DT. The only thing I can think of is that I used a net to catch a yellow boxfish which was heading downhill... a friend took the boxfish on (and still has it I might add). But I was in such a rush to get the thing out before it poisoned everything I used the net he'd brought with him without thinking. As it turned out it was his QT net!! dang unlucky, but just shows I guess...
Anyhoo, I've managed the ich since then with diet and decent water (despite a massive cyano and bryop outbreak... but that's another story) and to date it's not returned.
Having recently read @Humblefish excellent piece on ich management vs ich eradication I'm considering eradication.
My problem is this... my QT is a 36 us gal cube... excellent filtration, skimmer if need be ready to go etc etc. I think my fish are far too big for my QT and the bioload will be far too much. Is there any way I could reasonably manage the aggression and bioload in such a small tank for 76 days? I wondered if the FW African cichlid idea could work... ie overstock to reduce aggression and overfilter to deal with the overstocking?
My DT fish stock (excluding my copperband, which I understand won't tolerate copper ironically) is as follows, size in inches in brackets:
Orange shoulder tang (10)
Regal tang (8)
Heniochus bf (8)
2 x maroon clowns (8 & 6)
3 humbug damsels (4, 4 & 3)
Yellow coris wrasse (5)
4 x Caribbean blue bass (4 each)
Unfortunately I don't have the space for a bigger or another QT.
Is it possible to do this or will I need to manage ich forever more?
Thanks.
Anyhoo, I've managed the ich since then with diet and decent water (despite a massive cyano and bryop outbreak... but that's another story) and to date it's not returned.
Having recently read @Humblefish excellent piece on ich management vs ich eradication I'm considering eradication.
My problem is this... my QT is a 36 us gal cube... excellent filtration, skimmer if need be ready to go etc etc. I think my fish are far too big for my QT and the bioload will be far too much. Is there any way I could reasonably manage the aggression and bioload in such a small tank for 76 days? I wondered if the FW African cichlid idea could work... ie overstock to reduce aggression and overfilter to deal with the overstocking?
My DT fish stock (excluding my copperband, which I understand won't tolerate copper ironically) is as follows, size in inches in brackets:
Orange shoulder tang (10)
Regal tang (8)
Heniochus bf (8)
2 x maroon clowns (8 & 6)
3 humbug damsels (4, 4 & 3)
Yellow coris wrasse (5)
4 x Caribbean blue bass (4 each)
Unfortunately I don't have the space for a bigger or another QT.
Is it possible to do this or will I need to manage ich forever more?
Thanks.
