Never QT'd before, what do you suggest?

[805reef]

My tank has been running for over 7 years and I have never QT'd a fish in that time. I bought them, acclimated and put them in the display. Thanks to a lot of reading here I bought a QT tank and several medications/tests/equipment so that I can QT any new fish that I get from now on.

My problem though is that I most likely have ich in my current tank.
Here is my current fish list: Sailfin tang, blue tang, yellow tang, pair of naked clowns, green wrasse, bicolor angel, red stripe angel, blue spot puffer, matted filefish and diamond goby.

I also have at least 1 (maybe 2) fire shrimp, 3 rbta's and a couple small hammer/frogspawn corals.

I am thinking I should treat all my current fish before adding new QTd fish. Since I don't have a QT big enough for all my fish I am considering doing hypo in the DT. I could easily put the rbta's, shrimp and corals in my 29 gallon QT while I do this.

How does this sound to you guys? Any other suggestions? Should I just move forward without worrying about this? I am just trying to start taking care of my fish and tank as a whole better than I have in the past and want to do it right.

 

[TheEngineer]

What makes you say you already have ich? You have fish with signs of it right now?

I always looked at QT as a way to avoid bringing something new into your tank rather than the other way around. It's an interesting perspective you bring up though. QT IMO is to prevent causing an outbreak in an otherwise "clean" tank. Hmmmm... following along.

 

[Duke4Life]

I had a similar experience but with flukes. And I'm with icecool2 on what makes you think there's ich? Any new additions?

 

[805reef]

No new additions since june of last year.

Here's a little back story... my tank was running fine and looking great. I was doing stuff to it daily. Then in January 2011 we had our first kid. December 2012 our second. The tank wasn't just in the backseat but in the trunk at this point. Very neglected. Very rare water changes or cleaning. during this time my tangs (the sailfin and yellow, didn't have the blue yet) got fin rot and still look pretty bad because of it. Early last year I started cleaning the tank up and getting a handle on it again. The blue tang got added in june of last year and looks fine. no fin rot. The sailfin and yellows fins are pretty bad but other than that they are fat and eat very well. No signs of stress or ich.

I just want to make sure my tank is "clean" because if not then QTing new fish just to put them in a ich'd up tank is pointless. But then again maybe my DT is fine and I don't need to worry about it.

 

[trahelyk]

Following. I'm basically in the same situation you're in, except I'm much earlier in the process than you are (been up & running about 4 months now, and I've only added 3 fishes).

Also, just a thought: I disagree with your statement that "QTing new fish just to put them in a ich'd up tank is pointless." You might have some dormant strains of ich or other parasites in your display tank, but you could always bring in a new strain by adding new fishes that didn't go through quarantine. So even if you choose not to treat your current residents, there is still something to be gained from quarantining new ones.

 

[805reef]

Also, just a thought: I disagree with your statement that "QTing new fish just to put them in a ich'd up tank is pointless." You might have some dormant strains of ich or other parasites in your display tank, but you could always bring in a new strain by adding new fishes that didn't go through quarantine. So even if you choose not to treat your current residents, there is still something to be gained from quarantining new ones.

Very good point. I definitely am going to QT any new fish coming in from now on. Thank you for pointing that out.

 

[melypr1985]

My tank has been running for over 7 years and I have never QT'd a fish in that time. I bought them, acclimated and put them in the display. Thanks to a lot of reading here I bought a QT tank and several medications/tests/equipment so that I can QT any new fish that I get from now on.

My problem though is that I most likely have ich in my current tank.
Here is my current fish list: Sailfin tang, blue tang, yellow tang, pair of naked clowns, green wrasse, bicolor angel, red stripe angel, blue spot puffer, matted filefish and diamond goby.

I also have at least 1 (maybe 2) fire shrimp, 3 rbta's and a couple small hammer/frogspawn corals.

I am thinking I should treat all my current fish before adding new QTd fish. Since I don't have a QT big enough for all my fish I am considering doing hypo in the DT. I could easily put the rbta's, shrimp and corals in my 29 gallon QT while I do this.

How does this sound to you guys? Any other suggestions? Should I just move forward without worrying about this? I am just trying to start taking care of my fish and tank as a whole better than I have in the past and want to do it right.

Hi there! I think this is a great thing to do. Very responsible of you. So here's the thing.... I would definitely treat your current fish. You, however cannot use copper because of the puffer. Doing hypo in your DT is a good plan since you already have a place for your inverts. If you dont have an ATO (i'm betting you do) then get one. It will make doing hypo much easier. If you need, I can post how to do it for you. Treat your current fish for ick, then QT all new fish from now on. If you need to add antibiotics at any point, you'll need to do that in a separate tank.

 

[miyags]

I dont think hypo in your main tank will work. I think it would kill your sandbed and live rock,causeing an ammonia spike and killing everything.

 

[805reef]

Hi there! I think this is a great thing to do. Very responsible of you. So here's the thing.... I would definitely treat your current fish. You, however cannot use copper because of the puffer. Doing hypo in your DT is a good plan since you already have a place for your inverts. If you dont have an ATO (i'm betting you do) then get one. It will make doing hypo much easier. If you need, I can post how to do it for you. Treat your current fish for ick, then QT all new fish from now on. If you need to add antibiotics at any point, you'll need to do that in a separate tank.

Thank you Meredith. I do have an ATO.

I haven't read up too much on hypo yet, other than the short blurb in this thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/treatment-options-102.189658/

I will search for more information but if you wouldn't mind doing a write up that would be helpful.

I dont think hypo in your main tank will work. I think it would kill your sandbed and live rock,causeing an ammonia spike and killing everything.

That is interesting. Definitely something I need to look into before doing this. Thank you for bringing this up.

 

[melypr1985]

I dont think hypo in your main tank will work. I think it would kill your sandbed and live rock,causeing an ammonia spike and killing everything.

Not true at all. Though it's perfectly acceptable to take all the fish out and do the same thing in your QT if your worried about that.

 

[melypr1985]

Thank you Meredith. I do have an ATO.

I haven't read up too much on hypo yet, other than the short blurb in this thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/treatment-options-102.189658/

I will search for more information but if you wouldn't mind doing a write up that would be helpful.

That is exactly what i was going to quote here. That's the "how to" right there. More specific questions can be answered here of course, but it's pretty a straight forward treatment.

 

[805reef]

That is exactly what i was going to quote here. That's the "how to" right there. More specific questions can be answered here of course, but it's pretty a straight forward treatment.

The only thing I see missing from that write up is how to raise the salinity backup. It says to lower it over 48 hours but not how fast/slow is should be raised.

One other major thing I should mention, I'm trying to casually slip this in , is that I am actually doing a tank swap/upgrade next. I will be using my existing live rock but using all new live sand in the new tank. My plan was to do the whole swap in a couple days and be done, but now with the hypo coming in to play that is going to be changed a bit.

Instead of putting the inverts into the new DT I will move them to their temporary home in a 29 gallon. The fish I will place in the new DT with the live rock and new sand. That's when I would start the hypo.

Does this sound doable or should I give the fish some time to acclimate to the new tank before starting the hypo?

 

[805reef]

Another option, if the live rock shouldn't be in the tank during hypo. is that I could leave the LR in a Rubbermaid trashcan that is used for seawater, heated, for the 30 days while I do hypo on the DT with the fish only and no sand or rock. Only thing about this is I would need a plan for preventing ammonia spikes. I could do water changes if needed, as large/often as needed.

The only problem I see with this is that if there are tromonts(maybe I'm using the wrong word, but basically ich) on the LR then it will be reintroduced back into the DT because I didn't treat it at all and it wouldn't go the full 72 days without fish to kill the ich lifecycle.

 

[melypr1985]

You can use water changes or do your top off with saltwater to raise it back up. Take a week or so to raise it back up as fish take to lowering salinity much easier than they do raising it. They may be stressed in the new tank, but no more than putting them in a QT and treating, so i see no problems with that plan.

You can do the hypo in your new tank no problem. Leave the live rock in there.... its not going to hurt it.

 

[805reef]

You can use water changes or do your top off with saltwater to raise it back up. Take a week or so to raise it back up as fish take to lowering salinity much easier than they do raising it. They may be stressed in the new tank, but no more than putting them in a QT and treating, so i see no problems with that plan.

You can do the hypo in your new tank no problem. Leave the live rock in there.... its not going to hurt it.

Sounds like a plan!

Thanks for the info on raising it back up. I have my ATO and auto water change setup all in the garage so I could easily just swap the tube for my ato to connect to the salt water container when its all done to slowly raise the salinity.

I will post back here next week when I start this as I am sure I will have more questions/concerns.

Thank you all!

 

[melypr1985]

Sounds like a plan!

Thanks for the info on raising it back up. I have my ATO and auto water change setup all in the garage so I could easily just swap the tube for my ato to connect to the salt water container when its all done to slowly raise the salinity.

I will post back here next week when I start this as I am sure I will have more questions/concerns.

Thank you all!

No problem. For sure keep us posted and ask all the questions you have

 

[Humblefish]

After 30 days of hypo, use SW (instead of FW) as your top off water. This will slowly raise the SG back up to match your DT. It will be a slow process doing it this way, but you must go fallow for 76 days anyway.

 

[miyags]

Another option, if the live rock shouldn't be in the tank during hypo. is that I could leave the LR in a Rubbermaid trashcan that is used for seawater, heated, for the 30 days while I do hypo on the DT with the fish only and no sand or rock. Only thing about this is I would need a plan for preventing ammonia spikes. I could do water changes if needed, as large/often as needed.

The only problem I see with this is that if there are tromonts(maybe I'm using the wrong word, but basically ich) on the LR then it will be reintroduced back into the DT because I didn't treat it at all and it wouldn't go the full 72 days without fish to kill the ich lifecycle.

I'd leave the live rock out for the whole 72 days, and add an airstone or power head.