I'm going down the quarantine path

[OceanL0ver]

After many years of managing Ich, I have decided to set up a quarantine tank and allow my display to run fallow 70+ days. It was a lot of work but I was able to catch all 20 of my fish and safely placed them in a large quarantine tank. I knew it was gonna be a lot of work but nobody can really prepare themselves for how hard it is to remove rock work and catch very fast and elusive fish. OMG, that was ridiculously hard. Not to mention I had a choris wrasse that hid in the sand and didn't realize it was still in my display tank until I had placed all the rock work back in the tank. I hope this proves to be a good experience for me and my fish, I'm ready for a new method.

A quick background on my tank, it's a red sea reefer 525 XL. It's been up and running for about a year. My blue tang and powder blue tang have had Ich off and on since I got them. I have fed them wel, fed them garlic fed, them ginger, used a UV light and all this did was make the fish healthy but not disease-free.

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to treat the fish in the quarantine tank. I'm kicking around the idea of doing hypo salinity. I also ordered copper. For now I am slowly lowering the salinity and keeping the fish happy and quarantine. Any thoughts concerns or information would be appreciated.

 

[ksfulk]

The "easiest" method would be to do tank transfer method for two weeks (12 days actually) and then into observation afterwards. This type of treatment gets you through removing the parasite from the fish quickly, and then allows you to observe the fish for a few weeks before it they go back into the DT after 76 days total. You can also give them a pair of prazi treatments just to wipe out any lingering flukes that might be present.

Ive never had any lucky with hypo. Its difficult to manage salinity levels if you have any appreciable amount of evaporation with an ATO, and its just not been a hit with me. Copper works, but can be rough on some fishes (tangs, angels and wrasses), so the type of copper you use is important, as is slowly increasing your copper levels and maintaining them at the appropriate level. Check out the threads in the disease treatment forum here and see what your best options might be

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-eradication-vs-ich-management.188775/

 

[4FordFamily]

I like copper over TTM-- more risk of human error IMO.

That said, I commend you for your decision. I did this myself after ten years. Your fish will thank you for it when it's all done.

Be sure to test copper daily if you go that route so you don't have to do this all again. Since you're waiting 76 days, be done in 30-40 days and observe for the rest and ensure you're golden!

 

[ksfulk]

I like copper over TTM-- more risk of human error IMO.

That said, I commend you for your decision. I did this myself after ten years. Your fish will thank you for it when it's all done.

Be sure to test copper daily if you go that route so you don't have to do this all again. Since you're waiting 76 days, be done in 30-40 days and observe for the rest and ensure you're golden!

Copper is a good choice too

 

[OceanL0ver]

I'm not familiar with the tank transfer method. I will look into that.

 

[OceanL0ver]

I have 2 yellow tangs, PBT, regal tang and a flame angel. Will these do ok with copper?

 

[Reefltx]

I have 2 yellow tangs, PBT, regal tang and a flame angel. Will these do ok with copper?

I had a purple tang in cupramine for nearly 2 months. Yellow and sailfin for 6wks. No problem.

 

[Tyreef2016]

Don't mean to thread jack.

I have a new 525xl also and I think it would be a good idea to quarantine my exsisting stock before the transfer.

I'm curious if once I remove all my coral can I treat my fish in my old tank? Would I need to remove sand and rock?

 

[miyags]

Your starting off with healthy fish, They should be fine with copper. More often than not fish die from ammonia build up. Or the fish is too far gone before the copper treatment. Good Luck.

 

[4FordFamily]

I've quarantined some dozen 12-16 dwarf angels including several flame, many zebrasoma tangs probably equally as many, a few hippo, and about 10 powder blue tangs in copper. They are typically fine but some fish don't do well in copper. Believe it or not, IME your yellow tangs (or other zebrasoma) would be your riskiest fish -- but I find that roughly 5% or so are copper sensitive, the rest don't have any issue at all.

In short, using my anecdotal experience and that of others I watch -- you'll be just fine. I personally don't find many angels to be copper sensitive I have used copper on at least 30 angels now and lost one or two max to copper-- and one of them came in in bad shape prior to copper so I don't know if I even should count it.

Just increase copper slowly!

I have 2 yellow tangs, PBT, regal tang and a flame angel. Will these do ok with copper?

 

[aykwm]

I believe copper is good idea and better than TTM in this case, seeing the amount of fish you have you probably need 50+ gallon tank atleast, so performing TTM on this amount will be a waste of water and you will still need to place them in a tank. On the other hand, adding copper to quarantine tank you can leave it there for 30 days and then move them to sterile QT for the rest of the fallow period ~46 days (the Tank is recommended to stay fallow at least 76 days). This will give you time to observe the fish to ensure the treatment was successful.
Best of luck, and good choice you decided to go the eradication way instead of management, less headache in the long run.

 

[aykwm]

Don't mean to thread jack.

I have a new 525xl also and I think it would be a good idea to quarantine my exsisting stock before the transfer.

I'm curious if once I remove all my coral can I treat my fish in my old tank? Would I need to remove sand and rock?

You need to remove sand and rock, they absorb copper and might leach it back to the system, it is risky and might be fatal as copper levels will not be stable. Also if LR and sand are contaminated with copper it will be risky to place them back in reef tank as they might release the copper in the tank.
Best option is to go bare bottom with couple of HOB or sponge filter or both, avoid using other porous materials like ceramic media.

 

[Tyreef2016]

Thanks! I would only be transferring
My fish. The rock and sand will not be used again.

You need to remove sand and rock, they absorb copper and might leach it back to the system, it is risky and might be fatal as copper levels will not be stable. Also if LR and sand are contaminated with copper it will be risky to place them back in reef tank as they might release the copper in the tank.
Best option is to go bare bottom with couple of HOB or sponge filter or both, avoid using other porous materials like ceramic media.