Question on quarantine to eliminate Ich

[patrick123]

After struggling with ich for a while, I finally decided that quarantine is the best way to go. However, I have the following questions:

1. I was told that if one can keep the reef tank fishless but with corals for 2-3 months, all the ich will die-off by themselves due to the lack of host for them to propagate.

2. In my existing 6ft tank, I already have tangs, clown fish, angel, etc. along with my corals. These fish supposedly have already built up their immune system, so that I don't see ich, even though I know they are there.

3. Can I keep all the existing fish in the tank for the next 2-3 months, while setting up my quaratine tank for the new fish, coral.

The question is, will this help? Or I have to remove all my existing immate and put them through the quarantine as well? I will really hate to disturb my current fish.

Please advise.

Thanks,

Patrick

[weileong]

You will need a min of 6 weeks fishless in order to kill the ich.

All your fishes if possible will need to go to the quaratine tank.

If you do not have lots of corals then why not remove the corals & inverts and house them elsewhere for 6 weeks to kill any ich parasite on it then perform hyposalinity in your main tank, in this way you don't disturb your fishes.

In your quaratine tank you can either dose copper or perform hyposalinity (reduce SG to 1.009 or 14ppt.) You fish will need to stay there for 6 weeks or longer.

I feel that hypo is easier to apply. You'll have to watch the pH as in 50% saltwater the ph will crash easily so you can raise the kh to 10 to prevent that.

[patrick123]

That's a good idea, but I have quite a bit of corals...

So you are saying it has to be fishless for 6 weeks and as long as I have fish inside my main tank, the ich cannot be rid of? Eventhough the fish are already ich resistant?

Thanks,

Patrick

[roidan]

ich resistant is not ich proof...

think of....water resistant and waterproof...

fishes can carry ich at low infection levels even though they show no signs of it....

[patrick123]

So looks like no choice. Either remove my coral or remove my fish.

[patrick123]

BTW, what about cleaner shrimp and fire shrimp? When we say fishless, do we include shrimp too?

[weileong]

inverts (shrimps, worms, etc, anything that moves and not fish) are okie to leave in your main tank.

Happy catching your fish

[patrick123]

ok...I will try that when I'm back home. Need to setup the quarantine tank first. Any 2nd hand tank for sales? hehehe

[weileong]

Remember to cycle the tank properly first.

Skimmer won't work at 14ppt so you need a biological filter and frequent water changes.

[patrick123]

One more question. How do I know when my 6ft tank is 100% ich free and ready to receive fish? Just wait for 6 weeks and put in the fish or what?

When it is 100% ich free, can I remove my UV light since it will be redundant liao?

[weileong]

You can remove your UV once your tank is fishless. Even now in my 4ft I have turned off my UV liao.

6 weeks should be enough but if you KS then keep it fishless for 8 weeks

Good luck, it's troublesome but well worth the extra effort to quarantine your fishes before introduction.

[patrick123]

Thanks Bro. Will try that.

[weileong]

I tell you what happened. I actually got addicted keeping fish in my quarantine tub

Feed that way looking downwards very shiok Then because you look from top can monitor how fat are the tangs.

Down side is that I can't really monitor if the new fish have ich cos i can't see their body clearly.

[patrick123]

Do you use a IOS tank or just a bare tank and change water frequently?

[weileong]

A bare tank with some hang on filter for biological filtration would be good.

Give you step by step guide on what I did.

1. The salinity must be checked at least once a day during the treatment. You may use Chemical filters such as carbon and Poly Filter during hyposalinity treatment.

2. Alkalinity and pH tend to fall in low salinity saltwater. Check these parameters daily and add a kH buffer as necessary to maintain the pH between 8.1 and 8.3. A kH of 10 dkh will work well.

3. Perform two water changes per day for two days, reducing the salinity by about 5ppt per water change.

4. Maintaining the salinity at 16ppt, 14ppt would be better to allow for fluctuation due to evaporation. Salinity should be checked with a refractometer, avoid swing arm type hydrometer which is not accurate for this purpose.

5. Hyposalinity treatment should continue for a minimum of three weeks (recommended 6 weeks or more) after the therapeutic salinity level has been reached. Hyposalinity does not target the "free-swimming" or theront stage. Hyposalinity therapy works by interrupting the life cycle at the tomont stage. Tomonts are destroyed by hyposaline conditions, thus preventing re-infection.

6. In case at any moment of time the salinity is allowed to raise above 16ppt then you will have to start all over again on step 5.

7. After the treatment is over, take caution by raising the salinity very slowly, a good recomendation would be 2.5ppt once every 2 days until you reach a full seawater level of 35ppt.

Good luck.

[Blenny]

bare tank will be the best. that will include no rocks or sand. May want to put a few pvc pipes for the fishes to hide

[weileong]

Partick has giant tangs.... wow he have to go buy those 3" dia PVC pipes

[patrick123]

hehehe

Thanks bro. Will try it out when I get home. Need to go hunt for the tank liao.

So all future fish will have to go through the 6 week hyposality, and all corals will have to go through 6 weeks without fish?

In that case, better buy a double decker tank right? The top for the fish, and the bottom for the coral.

Cheers,

Patrick

[weileong]

For new fish no need to go thru hypo. Just quarantine them for 6 weeks. The stress due to shipment and change of tanks will surely caused it to get ich. So in 6 weeks the ich would have gone thru 2 cycles and multiply in sufficient numbers so you can see it on their bodies as pin sized dots.

For corals if they don't come with LR then it will be safe to introduce immediately.

[patrick123]

So if the new fish do not show sign of ich in 6 weeks, then can introduce to the tank, if show ich, then do hypo right?

For most LPS will come with a small piece of rock. So all need to QT right?

[weileong]

I know most pple don't but if wanna go thru all the trouble then by all means

[patrick123]

it will be a waste right, with all the effort...after going through all the 6 weeks fishless and then unintentionally introducing ich back into the tank via corals.

So that's why I thought may need to have 2 QT tank. One for fish and one for coral. Not sure if this is how people do it.

[weileong]

I am sure with all these precaution, your fishes will love you very much. You can definately look forward to more enjoyable fish keeping in future man

[patrick123]

Yeah...need to go out and buy that cheapo double decker fish tank with iron stand liao. Do you know where got good lobang?

[weileong]

You'll need a skimmer too, for new fishes.