setting up and maintaining a QT

[neptune]

eating humble pie...

I just lost two new fish to ich as I put them in my DT directly from the LFS. I now understand my 50 gallon FOWLR + mushrooms / inverts DT tank is infested with ICH. I only have 3 fish left... 2 percula clowns 6 years old / one yellow goby 3 years old. I am setting up a 10 gallon QT today. Looking for suggestions on how you start a 10 gallon QT and ensure it doesn't ammonia spike and kill the fish you are placing in quarantine? Suggestions? I do have a HOB filter with media that is running in DT now...

Please comment I am planning on treating my 3 existing fish with hyposalinty in the QT. I was thinking of treating them for 2 full weeks with hypo 1.009 + 2 days on either side to slowly adjust salinity. I DO not play to put them back in DT for 6 - 8 weeks to ensure that the ICH in my DT is dead. I WILL NEVER place a fish in my DT again w/ out QT and treatment.

Neptune
am I on the right path for an ich free tank?

 

[Marshall O]

I don't know if you still need the advice or not, but here is what I have done to setup QT tanks. I keep an air pump driven sponge filter in my DT running 24/7. This way I always have established bacteria population ready to go. Those sponges are a perfect media for this. So once it is time to get the QT running, I simply fill it up with new SW (although I know a lot of people that use DT water), get it running and heated to temp. Then move over the sponge filter (again need to keep it running with an air pump). Basically this is the equivalent of putting in established live rock into the tank, except you don't need to worry about die off from treating.

The second method I have used is if I don't have a sponge filter ready to go for whatever reason, still do the same as above (get the tank filled and running) and then dose nitrifying bacteria you can find at any LFS. You need to have some sort of porous media in the tank (standard filters used by HOB filters, sponge that has a good amount of flow over it, etc). I find it usually takes a week or so before the tank is ready. You should be ghost feeding the tank ever other day small amounts of food to give the bacteria something to break down.

With either method, I strongly recommend the use of a Seachem Ammonia Alert badge. You should be able to find them at any LFS (or online). Constant monitoring of ammonia down to (.02 PPM (API test kits will only show as low as 0.25 PPM). HTH

 

[MisFit]

I was thinking of treating them for 2 full weeks with hypo 1.009 + 2 days on either side to slowly adjust salinity.

Neptune
am I on the right path for an ich free tank?

Nope, not if you want to get rid of the ich. If you end hypo at 2 weeks you will be bringing the salinity back up at the most critical time point. You are setting yourself up for a massive reinfestation by raising the salinity at just the point where the ich is vulnerable to the low salinity. You need to have the fish below 1.009 for 6-8 weeks to be safe due to the variability of gestation. Also the hypo MUST remain AT or BELOW 1.009, creep above that even for a short time and you will need to reset the clock.
You are adjusting the salinity faster than I would like to see as well. 2 days is a little fast for dropping, but doable. It's definitely not for raising. Take your time. I would say closer to 3 for dropping and 4 for raising.
Have starter bacteria on hand as well as some Amquel to deal with ammonia spikes. Biggest challenge is going to be buffering your tank. Keep an eye on pH and test several times a day. It's difficult to maintain pH without a controller. Be careful not to chase the pH too much though, it's easy to over dose buffer with the low salinity.

 

[nemodan]

Hi .... I am not an expert on ich. But these are my observations from my own tanks during the last 20 years.

- ich was always there doesn't matter what chemical available in the market I was using. I never tried what is described in the previous postings.

- Most of the time was happening with a new fish addition. It could be happening to the new one or to an old one in the tank. I will call that stress/incompatibility that is reflected in a lowering of the fish defense's.

- From reading I have in mind that you never get rid of Ich.

I have a 14 G reef mix tank with just only 2 fish, a clown, and another violet with black eyes similar to a wrasse, I do not know what it is. After a few weeks in the tank the violet got ich. The guy just continued eating and after looking horrible for some weeks the ich start to disappear and now looks beautiful. The tank was new and only the clown was there. From where the ich came ? Was the stress of the new tank ? The clown that was in the tank never had ICH.


After some months I added a 6 lines wrasse. All goes OK, but will stop there. Any new addition to my nano will come with a peak of stress , due to lack of space, and I bet with a peak of Ich.

 

[JohnK]

^ while your experience is not unique, it is %100 untrue that you cannot rid a tank of ick. It's a parisite with a known life cycle. Ick is good at laying dormant when the fish are doing well, but that doesn't mean it can't be eradicated.

Copper, hyposalinity, and "tank transfer" are all potentially effective at eradicating ick. Treatments must be done right, and plenty of people have killed fish trying to treat them, but it can be done.

 

[freakit]

Is it not true that the ich can only lay dormant for the 8 weeks if there are no fish present to feed on? If the fish are healthy with a slime coat that won't let the ich penetrate won't the ich die off from starvation?


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[JohnK]

With no fish present ick will die out, 8 weeks is often enough, but it's safer to go more like 12 weeks. The lifecycle is well known, but there are different strains of ick so there is at least the potential that some can hang around a little longer than others.

If there are any fish present it can potentially seem to lay dormant for just about forever. It's not really dormant, it's just that it stays under control enough that it's only in the gills where we can't detect it.

 

[Marshall O]

/\ Correct. Often times Ich will be in the gills where you don't see the signs. The fish will remain perfectly healthy, but it will still be present. That's where keeping stress to a minimum, maintaining good water quality, and feeding a variety of quality foods all come into play. That will help keep Ich in check.

 

[freakit]

That's the small piece that I was confused about. I didn't know that the healthy fish would still carry the ich keeping the cycle going just enough that a weak fish can become infested. Thanks!


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