Reef Discussion

[mattalbs]

Thanks to everyone for their input. I bit the bullet today and purchased a new QT. For the next few months, i'll actually house all my new corals and inverts in the QT whilst I hypo the DT and get all those fish back to good health. Good meeting you today Ken. You're right about the gravel cleaning. I'll give the cleaning a bit of a rest I think. Maybe i'll do a QT tank journal :p

 

[Dave001]

Hey @mattabls,
I don't think we would be keen on giving the gravel a clean. This will just stir up any bad stuff in there which could stress your livestock even more. One of the stages of Ich is dormant in the substrate, stirring this up may just release more into the water column & attack the livestock harder then normal. This may be a reason your losing fish? If you had a UV unit that could treat the water column once disturbed, this maybe a better way.
Good luck with it, let us know how you get on. If you a hand with anything just yell out :)

Your comment on stirring up any bad stuff in the substrate brings up a good point, but it will depend on what the substrate is, 20mm of sand is not going to be a problem, 100mm will release a lot of crap, so of course you need to take this into consideration.

When the ich first drops off the fish (protomont stage), this is the best chance you have to remove it from the tank, stirring it up will not be a problem, it can't attach to the fish during this part of it's life cycle.

 

[Meller]

Thanks to everyone for their input. I bit the bullet today and purchased a new QT. For the next few months, i'll actually house all my new corals and inverts in the QT whilst I hypo the DT and get all those fish back to good health. Good meeting you today Ken. You're right about the gravel cleaning. I'll give the cleaning a bit of a rest I think. Maybe i'll do a QT tank journal :p

As was mentioned earlier in the thread...if your gonna do QT, take your FISH out and put them in the QT.... Not the corals and inverts.

That way your corals, live rock and all you bio-life can remain undisturbed, in they're normal flow and lighting pattern and ride out the fallow time.... Meanwhile in your QT run a Hypo treatment program. Your fish wont give a crap about the change in lighting or anything else for that matter. They'll just be relieved to be getting treated.

There is no need to re-invent the wheel here. In general, there is a reason people advise how to do things certain ways. Its usually because they've learnt from mistakes, or they listened to advice previously and it worked for them.

HTH and good luck ;)

 

[Ian G]

If you medicate copper into your DT it is ruined FOREVER. Undisputable. Hyposalinity is the wise choice but you're going to kill lots of things in the DT by doing it there even so.

Strictly speaking, right now you need to use your new tank as Hospital Tank (HT) and you need to put what's ill in the hospital, not the other way around. Then afterward (as long as you avoid copper treatment always), the tank can alternate between Hospital Tank & Quarantine Tank (QT), use to PREVENT disease getting into your tank in the first place.I like to store my HT/QT dry between uses to eliminate any lingering issues as far as living organisms go.

Some good info on the difference here. Although I don't agree with all of it, or rather issues they miss, it's pretty good.

Ian

 

[mattalbs]

Thanks so much @Meller + @ijg3956 for taking the time and providing your experiences and expertise. Firstly. I have no intention of using copper in my DT. Never have and never would. Thanks to some solid reading on this forum, I also learnt that hypo, which was my planned method of attack, will kill all the bacteria in my tank leading to an ammonia bomb wiping everything out. I therefore will do what everybody has stated and move the fish to the QT. My original concern was trying to catch all the sneaky little buggers, but seeing as though the ich has caused a few fatalities, moving the survivors wont be such a problem.

Thanks again to everyone.

 

[Ian G]

All good. Make sure you understand the hypo treatment. It must be very precise & very graduated both down & then back up. A good refractometer is essential as a day or two at the wrong salinity & you have to start again.