Thanks. Will take a video tomorrow morning.
The tank has been up since July (4ish months). My nitrate is less than 2 and phosphate is 0.03. Tank params are fine with the big 3 (Alk, Ca, Mg). I’m fighting cyano at the moment - other than that, things are doing fine.
I took the powder brown out ~4 weeks ago and treated it with CopperSafe at 2.5ppm. He’s been fine last week, hence I put him back to the DT. Perhaps I should let him sit in QT longer?
He’s in my anemone tank: 175g + frag.
Just to confirm the timeline here, I couldn't tell - you had a powder brown in the tank that showed ich, you took it out, treated it and put it back into the tank and it shows spots again? Or, did it go from one tank to another? The reason I ask is that in the first scenario, there would still be ich present in the tank, and then returning such a susceptible species would just get it sick again. My suspicion here is not that the coppersafe didn't work to cure the tang's infection, but that the tang is picking up an infection from the tank itself.
While we are waiting on video to try and confirm the infection, here is a write up I did on "ich management"
Starting Ich Management during an active infection only works if the number of trophonts on the fish is below a certain number. Above that number and the trophonts themselves become stressors and the parasite gains a foothold, despite your attempts to manage it. So what is that number? It depends on too many variables - but I start to expect Ich Management to fail if the number of spots on any one fish is above 30 or so.
Here is my protocol for ich management.
Please understand that I am NOT presenting this as an optimum method for controlling ich, just putting it out there for people who want to try it. Also, do not pick and choose which items you want to follow - you need to go with all guns blazing and use them all.
“Ich Management” Because many aquarists mix fish and invertebrates, they are ill-prepared to then treat for marine ich, as the two best treatments, amine-based copper or hyposalinity, cannot be used with invertebrates. A popular technique has then arisen, “ich management”. It is popular not because it works well, but because it is an easier alternative. Be forewarned, it often fails if applied during moderate infections. The reason that it exists as a technique at all is because people find themselves in situations like this and are desperate to try anything.
The basic idea is to reduce the infective propagules (tomites) of the ich parasite to the point where the fish's acquired immunity can fight the infection off. This is done through a series of techniques for stress reduction and tomite limiting. Unfortunately, the ich tomites themselves cause stress to the fish, so if the fish have more than 30 or so trophonts on them, the method often fails.
1) Install a powerful UV sterilizer on the aquarium.
2) Ensure that the fish's diet and water quality are the best you can make them.
3) Keep the water temperature close to 78 degrees F.
4) Siphon off the tank floor nightly to remove as many tomonts as possible.
5) Employ strong filtration to trap as many tomites as possible.
6) Try a proprietary "reef safe" marine ich medication. These rarely cure ich infections on their own, but some may have benefit when combined with other management methods. Avoid the herbal remedies, focus on those that contain peroxide salts. There is, however, some evidence that using peroxides with UV does not work, as the UV can break down the peroxides.
Jay
