Velvet, Ich, and Aptasia!

[bumperbeetle]

Yep...it sucks!

I will start by just bringing you up to where I am now and then back it up a little. Im open to any and all suggestions!

I have all my fish now in QT. Ive lost half of them so far. All I have left is one percula, foxface, wrasse, and sailfin. What started as ich turned to dark brown spots that quickly turns to a blistery appearance before the fins start to "rot away" and then they die. I started treatment in the whole tank while the fish were still in it with an organic treatment formula found in Petco, did that for 5 days. Now Im treating all fish in a QT tank with Mardel Protoshield. As for the tank, Im running fallow right now. Only thing in there are some mini carpet anemones, a few zoa's, mushrooms, LR, anemone crabs and some snails. Im also treating the tank with Mardel. I did. 50% water change and raised the temp to 82. I am also battling Aptasia for the first time ever. Ive been using Red sea Aptasia X and it doesnt seem to be helping much as it now looks like these weeds are now growing off of my tank walls!

I tried to order true peppermint shrimp from my LFS but their supplier is out. He did get me a matted filefish but it does me no good if I cant put it in my tank because of the velvet. So for now he is in his own QT tank has he has had no exposure to my tank or other fish, I just picked him up. I do have copper but dont think I cant treat my big tank with it because of my inverts, corals and such.

So what are my options? What havent I tried? How do I save my remaining fish first and my tank second? How do I battle the Aptasia without the aid of fish or shrimps?

As for parameters they have all been spot on! Salinity at 1.021-24, PH at 8.0-8.2, nitrates, tites, amonia, alk all at zero, calcium at 420-440. Temp at 78.2-78.6 until I turned up the temp to 82.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Short Reefer]

if your fish is already out, and aiptasias problem. i suggest you to break down the tank and redo it! there will be no aiptasia, just little patiance with the cycle, but the fishes on QT anyway! and also alk at zero is really bad, or i assume it was typo problem.

 

[Fish_BowLisha]

I can help with the aphasia...not much with the fish though. QT is the way to go. From there I would first do a web search with the symptoms and get a best guess on the disease and use whatever cure you find for it. Keep changing the water in the QT also. As for the aptasia...

Seems to simple but it works really well. You will need: Lemon juice
A syringe with a needle and
a turkey baster or other suction type device.
(1) fill 1-2 mL syringe with lemon juice from plastic lemons you see in the produce aisles.
(2) inject into the base of the hole that the aptasia lives in. (It will excrete stringy tentacle looking stuff and begin to retract. I usually do it two or three times for larger ones)
(3) remove from tank by suctioning it out of its hole.

Due to the high acidity of lemon juice don't get them all at once if you have a lot. Just a couple a day works fine. If I spot one I wait until it is a reasonable size to inject and see to remove.