Oops - forgot to quarantine clean up crew

[ESH]

As the title says, I made a mistake and skipped quarantining the clean up crew that I added weeks ago which has resulted in a 1.5year ich free tank, now having ich. Honestly, I read about how this should be done for clean up crew, and immediately thought well that's just silly and I wasn't going to bother. I've always quarantine my fish, I just never thought twice about anything else. Quite honestly, up until now I never have quarantined my crew and never had an issue, but I guess my luck finally ran out.

It all started as I've been battling an outbreak of GHA. My solution to this has been through nutrient control, manual removal, and I also increased my clean up crew size, lots of snails and hermits - the source of what I believe my ich problem is. It is possible to have come in from some corals I picked up as don't typically quarantine them (definitely going to start doing so now!) but considering the large clean up crew I recently added Im going to just point the finger at them. While in the process of acclimating the crew, while I believe that none of the bag water went directly into the tank, I can only suspect that something came from the crew and as much as I tried and avoid it, some water had to have came in with the shells or simply the parasite was living on them, as after 1.5years of having a disease free tank, this past Saturday morning I noticed my powder brown has developed white spots that resemble ich. Maybe its just always had it, and stress from me having my hands in the tank cleaning out GHA finally brought it out of Brown dory (yes, hate it all you want but that's what my son named it), but today, I can see some spots on my yellow tangs fins too. Pretty bummed, but all I can do is try my best to recover. Other than spots on the fish, they all seem to be acting relatively normal - so at least there is some good news!

Normally, I would try to get all the fish out and keep the tank fish free per the recommended fallow method, and while I might still do this, I currently do not have a large enough tank for the fish to do this, nor the time to get what I need as I'm about to head overseas for a few weeks. Which really leaves me with no choice but to manage my problem. Any advice people can give to my plan is greatly appreciated.

So far, besides reading all I can about ich, I've increased feedings. I started feeding a sheet of Nori on a daily basis, and also started feeding frozen foods with selcon added daily. Typically all I feed is pellets 2x a day with occasional frozen 1 - 2 times a week, and a sheet of nori each week. I can keep the increased feedings going until Sunday, and the wife might be able to help while I'm out of town, but lets be honest, her priority is taking care of a 1 and 4 year old for 2 weeks on her own, so I have zero expectation for her to do more then she has to and any additional support from her just makes her a super mom. As I mentioned, I do have an auto feeder for the tank so the fish should be fine. Also, the screen top is a challenging to take on and off, so getting at the nori clip might be challenge. I could leave the top off while I'm gone, but then risk fish jumping so it just makes sense to leave it on. Better food with a risk of flight or pellets and a safety net? When you are trying to manage ich and you can't be there for 2 weeks, what would do?

Current Filtration consists of live rock in the tank / sump, bio blocks, an automatic filter roller and additional fleece padding that gets changed every 3-5 days that I stuffed in a few cups where the filter socks usually go. The tank also has a skimmer running. I am not currently running any chemical filtration. While I'm gone, I will likely take the secondary filter floss out just to prevent any flow issues and nutrient build up. I think the roller matt will be fine on its own. If anyone recommends adding in a mesh bag of carbon to help let me know.

Last, I've placed an order for a Pentair Smart UV 40 watt sterilizer (160 gallon tank , 40 gl sump, 20 gl frag tank so 220 gl system) with hopes that it will help manage the ich. That should get here Wednesday, and I already have an extra valve that was originally going to be used for a media reactor built into the plumbing that should work for this. Prior planning in a tank build with an unknown needed plumbing addition finally makes sense to me!

I appreciate any further advice on my plan or simply just wish me luck - managing the problem is all I can really do considering the circumstances - and I also hope others can learn from my mistake here. I always read about quarantining your fish, same with corals, and I will see the random post with a 1 liner stating you should also quarantine your clean up crew but nothing more than that.

 

[Mjrenz]

As the title says, I made a mistake and skipped quarantining the clean up crew that I added weeks ago which has resulted in a 1.5year ich free tank, now having ich. Honestly, I read about how this should be done for clean up crew, and immediately thought well that's just silly and I wasn't going to bother. I've always quarantine my fish, I just never thought twice about anything else. Quite honestly, up until now I never have quarantined my crew and never had an issue, but I guess my luck finally ran out.

It all started as I've been battling an outbreak of GHA. My solution to this has been through nutrient control, manual removal, and I also increased my clean up crew size, lots of snails and hermits - the source of what I believe my ich problem is. It is possible to have come in from some corals I picked up as don't typically quarantine them (definitely going to start doing so now!) but considering the large clean up crew I recently added Im going to just point the finger at them. While in the process of acclimating the crew, while I believe that none of the bag water went directly into the tank, I can only suspect that something came from the crew and as much as I tried and avoid it, some water had to have came in with the shells or simply the parasite was living on them, as after 1.5years of having a disease free tank, this past Saturday morning I noticed my powder brown has developed white spots that resemble ich. Maybe its just always had it, and stress from me having my hands in the tank cleaning out GHA finally brought it out of Brown dory (yes, hate it all you want but that's what my son named it), but today, I can see some spots on my yellow tangs fins too. Pretty bummed, but all I can do is try my best to recover. Other than spots on the fish, they all seem to be acting relatively normal - so at least there is some good news!

Normally, I would try to get all the fish out and keep the tank fish free per the recommended fallow method, and while I might still do this, I currently do not have a large enough tank for the fish to do this, nor the time to get what I need as I'm about to head overseas for a few weeks. Which really leaves me with no choice but to manage my problem. Any advice people can give to my plan is greatly appreciated.

So far, besides reading all I can about ich, I've increased feedings. I started feeding a sheet of Nori on a daily basis, and also started feeding frozen foods with selcon added daily. Typically all I feed is pellets 2x a day with occasional frozen 1 - 2 times a week, and a sheet of nori each week. I can keep the increased feedings going until Sunday, and the wife might be able to help while I'm out of town, but lets be honest, her priority is taking care of a 1 and 4 year old for 2 weeks on her own, so I have zero expectation for her to do more then she has to and any additional support from her just makes her a super mom. As I mentioned, I do have an auto feeder for the tank so the fish should be fine. Also, the screen top is a challenging to take on and off, so getting at the nori clip might be challenge. I could leave the top off while I'm gone, but then risk fish jumping so it just makes sense to leave it on. Better food with a risk of flight or pellets and a safety net? When you are trying to manage ich and you can't be there for 2 weeks, what would do?

Current Filtration consists of live rock in the tank / sump, bio blocks, an automatic filter roller and additional fleece padding that gets changed every 3-5 days that I stuffed in a few cups where the filter socks usually go. The tank also has a skimmer running. I am not currently running any chemical filtration. While I'm gone, I will likely take the secondary filter floss out just to prevent any flow issues and nutrient build up. I think the roller matt will be fine on its own. If anyone recommends adding in a mesh bag of carbon to help let me know.

Last, I've placed an order for a Pentair Smart UV 40 watt sterilizer (160 gallon tank , 40 gl sump, 20 gl frag tank so 220 gl system) with hopes that it will help manage the ich. That should get here Wednesday, and I already have an extra valve that was originally going to be used for a media reactor built into the plumbing that should work for this. Prior planning in a tank build with an unknown needed plumbing addition finally makes sense to me!

I appreciate any further advice on my plan or simply just wish me luck - managing the problem is all I can really do considering the circumstances - and I also hope others can learn from my mistake here. I always read about quarantining your fish, same with corals, and I will see the random post with a 1 liner stating you should also quarantine your clean up crew but nothing more than that.

You're already doing everything I would recommend someone do when choosing to manage ich, I hope it all goes well

 

[LAReefer4Life]

+1^ Just make sure you install the uv with gage valve to control the flow rate otherwise its useless against parasites. The more the water has contact time with the bulb the better. SLOW IT DOWN...WAY DOWN. I would also go one size up if you really want it to be effective for your water volume. Additionally, you can add metro + focus to frozen food to help keep it at bay while keeping nutrition high. Garlic guard is great to mask the food so it's still enticing to your fish. Lastly, I really love the fish solution water supplement with plenty of minerals and help boost appetite. Links below. Good luck!

https://www.seachem.com/focus.php

https://www.seachem.com/metroplex.php

https://www.seachem.com/garlicguard.php

http://www.ecosystemaquarium.com/products/marine/vitaminsminerals/eco-fish-solution/

 

[Wen]

Your on the right track!
Had similar situation right before leaving my tank for 2 weeks last summer. A 40watt uv on my 150 definitely saved the day and I didn’t lose a single fish to ich.
Once you get the uv dialed in, you may want to remove any snails in your fuge (I had same lifereef fuge and on vacation a snail clogged the return pvc enough to cause a flood 2x. This only happened when I wasn’t home.), do you have an ato or top off plan?, if you have screen tops you could cut a 2” hole for your wife to pour pre-measured food into tank or drop pre-made nori rubber banded to shells. Good nutrition is really important to help the fish live with ich until you can qt them.
Do you have a reefer friend or even a fish person who can check in once a week?
You got this.

 

[ESH]

Thanks for all the advice and confirmation that I’m on the right track!

No known snails in the sump, and the pump to this is in the skimmer chamber. I can add a guard to the pump intake just to be sure. Considering the size of the UV, it’s going to sit on the floor next to the sump and a flood was a concern. On the plus side it’s a basement sump but still, not something I want to happen when gone.

Good idea on wrapping nori to shells and having them pre made to drop in the tank! There is an opening for the auto feeder where they can be dropped in. That should be easy enough!

The tank does have an ATO so I’m good there. Though for some reason that always seems to be my biggest fail point as the tank Evaporates about 2 gallons a day. On random occasions, the ATO didn’t kick in correctly, or ran too long resulting in the APEX coding to shut the power to the pump off, but didn’t alert me or turn back on. I was out of town then and stuck on a holding ramp while my plane was waiting for its gate, and got a video text from my wife asking why bubbles were coming out of the return pump. I was able to fix this on the plane by turning the power to the ATO back on.

 

[Wen]

Thanks for all the advice and confirmation that I’m on the right track!

No known snails in the sump, and the pump to this is in the skimmer chamber. I can add a guard to the pump intake just to be sure. Considering the size of the UV, it’s going to sit on the floor next to the sump and a flood was a concern. On the plus side it’s a basement sump but still, not something I want to happen when gone.

Good idea on wrapping nori to shells and having them pre made to drop in the tank! There is an opening for the auto feeder where they can be dropped in. That should be easy enough!

The tank does have an ATO so I’m good there. Though for some reason that always seems to be my biggest fail point as the tank Evaporates about 2 gallons a day. On random occasions, the ATO didn’t kick in correctly, or ran too long resulting in the APEX coding to shut the power to the pump off, but didn’t alert me or turn back on. I was out of town then and stuck on a holding ramp while my plane was waiting for its gate, and got a video text from my wife asking why bubbles were coming out of the return pump. I was able to fix this on the plane by turning the power to the ATO back on.

The APEX should give you some piece of mind! It was the Leak Detectors that alerted me to the 'snail flood of 2018' and turned off the pumps. Well worth the $$.

Safe travels and hoping for the best.

 

[ngoodermuth]

If you can get LRS (has probiotics) and an omnivore frozen mix that has seaweed in it, that might help simplify feedings. Just have portions for each day divied out ahead of time into some of those little bathroom cups, add a little RO so they are easier to pour out, and freeze. Then, she can just pull a cup out... let it thaw on the counter, and then just dump it through the top. I'd keep the autofeeder going also, for good measure.

When you get back, maybe try sourcing some live worms, live baby brine shrimp, and/or fresh clams for a nutritional boost as well. Make sure you freeze clams before feeding to reduce the chance of pathogens.

Good luck!

 

[ESH]

Thanks again to everyone providing advice.

Got the UV connected and running tonight. looks like Iron Mans heart

For now, I have it sitting on the floor next to my sump in my old refugium for support. Eventually I'll find a way to make it look classy but its here to do a job not look pretty.

Flow through this is very slow so hopefully I got it right.
Guess I got lucky for having this manifold previously built and ready to add something like this onto my system.
I have a few more days before I head out of town to monitor and make sure everything's setup right.

 

[Croftsy]

How long do people QT there CUC, Fish and corals for before putting it into there display?

 

[LAReefer4Life]

How long do people QT there CUC, Fish and corals for before putting it into there display?

A minimum of 45 days with temp at 81 degrees or 76 days if temp is below that threshold for CUC and corals.

For medicated QT for fish that is really dependent on treatment protocol but an upwards of 30-45 days. 6 weeks minimum for observational QT (none medication approach)

 

[Croftsy]

A minimum of 45 days with temp at 81 degrees or 76 days if temp is below that threshold for CUC and corals.

For medicated QT for fish that is really dependent on treatment protocol but an upwards of 30-45 days. 6 weeks minimum for observational QT (none medication approach)

Thanks do you use any coral dips while QT. I ve read about the FW method would you do that to everything too before moving to display tank.