Questions after fish loss

[saullman]

So I have a Reefer 350 with a couple tangs, a clown, and a 6 line. Some inverts and a few LPS corals. Overnight I had an ich outbreak which ultimately took my foxface. I tried throwing up a 10 gal hospital tank as soon as I noticed but he was too far gone by the point. I have several questions now even though I am a day late and a dollar short. I'm just trying not to relive this nightmare again. Here are my questions:

1- from what I have been reading, ich is still present in my main display. I am monitoring the remaining fish closely. Do I need to somehow catch the remaining fish and let the tank be fallow for 3 months or just roll the dice and see what happens to the remaining fish.
2- right now my hospital tank has no fish in it. However it does still have coppersafe in the water column (5 days). It says the coopersafe is good for up to a month with 1 application. What do I do with the water in the hospital tank? Do a 100% water change OR leave it in because it's a new setup. I'm just not sure if there is ich in that water column.
3- what else am I missing in the after math?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

The first thing, are you 100% certain it was ich? I ask because that then influences everything else....

1) As long as the tank still has fish in it, they could develop an acute case of ich, or they could maintain a subacute case for many months. That then becomes what is called "ich management" where you keep the best conditions possible, and possibly use a UV sterilizer and try to keep the ich from breaking out.

2) I'd keep the QT running - in case you need to move fish over to it to treat for ich. Yes, coppersafe remains active a long time, but it is difficult to judge the effective dose without a good test kit.

Jay

 

[saullman]

The first thing, are you 100% certain it was ich? I ask because that then influences everything else....

1) As long as the tank still has fish in it, they could develop an acute case of ich, or they could maintain a subacute case for many months. That then becomes what is called "ich management" where you keep the best conditions possible, and possibly use a UV sterilizer and try to keep the ich from breaking out.

2) I'd keep the QT running - in case you need to move fish over to it to treat for ich. Yes, coppersafe remains active a long time, but it is difficult to judge the effective dose without a good test kit.

Jay

Yeah Jay,
I'm almost positive it was ich. I think what I'm going to do is buy a larger quarantine tank that can house all of my fish. I rather not try to keep the ich at bay with ich management. I want to wipe it out completely even if it means no new fish and an empty display for 3 months.

And yes, I will pick up a copper test kit for quarantine. Any suggestions besides Hanna that is more cost effective but still accurate?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Yeah Jay,
I'm almost positive it was ich. I think what I'm going to do is buy a larger quarantine tank that can house all of my fish. I rather not try to keep the ich at bay with ich management. I want to wipe it out completely even if it means no new fish and an empty display for 3 months.

And yes, I will pick up a copper test kit for quarantine. Any suggestions besides Hanna that is more cost effective but still accurate?

My understanding is that the Salifert kit doesn't work with bonded coppers, only copper sulfate. That leaves the API kit I think and people have difficulty reading that. I'd suggest if you go that route, to dose five gallons of water in a bucket with the exact amount of copper for a full dose, then run the API test on it, and take a picture of the test results so you can try to use that to compare with test results later on.

jay

 

[saullman]

My understanding is that the Salifert kit doesn't work with bonded coppers, only copper sulfate. That leaves the API kit I think and people have difficulty reading that. I'd suggest if you go that route, to dose five gallons of water in a bucket with the exact amount of copper for a full dose, then run the API test on it, and take a picture of the test results so you can try to use that to compare with test results later on.

jay

BTW. You have me thinking twice about ich vs velvet. I really didn't understand what velvet was until I just read about it. Whatever it was it took my fish out in about 2 days. I wish I tried a freshwater dip. Not sure if that would have helped, but i don't think it could have been any worse. If it was velvet and not ich, is the course of action to treat different or the same?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

BTW. You have me thinking twice about ich vs velvet. I really didn't understand what velvet was until I just read about it. Whatever it was it took my fish out in about 2 days. I wish I tried a freshwater dip. Not sure if that would have helped, but i don't think it could have been any worse. If it was velvet and not ich, is the course of action to treat different or the same?

Copper can be used in both diseases, but there may be a difference in the fallow periods needed to then clear the tank of the disease. That said, velvet is pretty rare, so I don’t have a good handle on the clearance times for that disease, so I opt for extra safety by going longer - 60 days perhaps.
Jay

 

[Uncle99]

BTW. You have me thinking twice about ich vs velvet. I really didn't understand what velvet was until I just read about it. Whatever it was it took my fish out in about 2 days. I wish I tried a freshwater dip. Not sure if that would have helped, but i don't think it could have been any worse. If it was velvet and not ich, is the course of action to treat different or the same?

Velvet is the fast killer. 2 days sounds right.
A fish having Ick sometimes never kills, or if it does, it’s week to weeks after infection and the fish just get gets too weak.
Love your idea about the QT and eradicating that pest, I did it once, years ago now and really happy I did.
It was worth the wait.