Am I doing this right?? Help please

[WtksBlondie104]

Ok, I have had this issue before, but my Blue Regal tang seems to have ich again. The spots are white and raised off her skin. She is covered in them! It just broke out within in the last few days.

She has been in my established 75 gallon for quite a while now, so I'm not sure what caused it, but I am ready to treat it.

I just set up a 20 gallon hospital tank. I took 10 gallons of established water from my 75 gallon tank and added it to the 20 gallon. I also bought arragonite crushed coral substrate, added a small live rock from the 75, and lots of hiding spots for her.

For the new 10 gallons of water, I used filtered water from the Fosters and Smith filter. I matched the salt level of the hospital tank within a half a point of the 75 gallon salt (at 1.023), and added a heater. Right now the temp seems stable at 78 degrees.

I tested the water and so far there is 0 nitrites, about 15-20 nitrates, and good Ph. So far seems like everything should be ok. I am not going to be suprised if there is a cycle that starts though.

Oh, I also bought the Marineland penguin Bio wheel filter. I let it run overnight to clear the water, and added the blue copper medication today. (I did have the medicine in there a few hours before I took out the filter pad) Does that mean I should add more copper now?

Also, I am acclimating the tang right now in a specimen container. I turned the light off to ease her stress, and I am adding a half a cup of the hospital tank water every 10 minutes for an hour. She is ok right now, I think. She is swimming a tiny bit in the specimen container, but mostly laying on her side.
I have about 20 more minutes before she is released.

This is all the information I can think of to tell you. And I just wanted to know if I did it all correctly because this is my first time having a hospital tank all set up and first time using copper. I would certainly welcome any comments or suggestions.

I was hesitant to diagnose her with Ich at first because she had a lot of spots before and I thought it was ich, but turned out she was getting picked on. She is so covered in spots, I dont think this is the case now. It's better to take her out just in case now, correct? Anything else I need to do. I am putting a heavy dose of garlic Xtreme in her food tomorrow.

[lReef lKeeper]

is this the ONLY fish in the display tank ?? if so then you are on the right path. if NOT then ALL the fish in the display need to be in a hospital tank also. as long as there is ONE fish in the display for the ich to host on, you will never get rid of it !! i (right now) am treating my 125 display with a product called "kick ich" ... a reef safe ich treatment. this is a VERY simple way to destroy all traces of ich in any type of tank.
if you have any questions feel free to ask.

[Reef_Angel]

I'll start by saying this....
Since you've already started a copper hospital tank, get her in the NOW. Don't dump the cup of water in that she's been sitting in. Poor off as much of the water out of the cup and then gently dump her in. Follow your directions on the bottle to a T. Keep the lights OFF, and just let her rest in the tank with the solution in it. While you have nothing to but wait now, take a look at this site. http://petsforum.com/personal/trevor...marineich.html
I felt it really covered Marine ICH nicely in an easy way to understand it as well. How long has she been "down"...meaning laying on her side and such? I personally have never used a copper based medication before. We used hypo salinity the time we had it, and treated the entire tank for it at the same time. How many more fish do you have in your main tank? Do you see any signs of ICH on them? Generally if there's one fish in the tank with ICH, there are more live parasites in the tank, and the white deep burrowing parasitic cysts will inevitably start to show. Please DO NOT use a copper based chemical in your show tank. Read the info on the page I suggested and do the hypo salinity treatment. Tangs are so beautiful, but they are ICH magnets. I really hope she comes out of this OK, but the way you described her, she sounds pretty stressed. Please let me know how she fairs! (((Hugs))) I wish you the best!! ....Angel

[WtksBlondie104]

Thank you both for the great info. I have placed her in the hospital tank and she laid on her side for a few minutes. I turned the light on to see if she would become more active, and she is now up and swimming around checking out her new environment. I put a little sheet of seaweed in there and she is eating away at it. (I bet she loves having it all to herself!)

But, she got up and swimming just a few minutes after we put her in. One thing that one of you posted was to not put the water in there that she was sitting in. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to do that, so I poured it all in because it was from the established tank. I am afraid of a new cycle starting.

But as for the other question in the main show tank I have 6 other fish. They are all very little, except for one. I have a Majestic Foxface in there who is about 4 inches, I also have about a 4 inch Midas Blenny, one really tiny false perc, and one 2 inch false perc, a 2 inch Royal Gramma, and a fairly new 2-3 inch Flame Angel. That's all that's in there. I dont really have a lot of inverts anymore, except 2 sand sifting snails, one medium snail, and a sand sifting star.

Nothing else in the main tank shows any signs of Ich so far. The flame angel had 2 white spots a few days ago, but they have since fallen off. I have been using a reef safe Ich treatment in the main tank, and will continue to do so for a few weeks.

I was reluctant to put the other fish in there that show no signs of Ich because they would going from 75 gallons to 20. And, I didnt know if treating them with no signs of Ich would be a great idea. Thankfully, the tiny little flase perc don't have a single spot on them. I was the most worried about them.

I will keep you all updated as much as possible. Since the flame angel had a few spots on her, even though they fell off, I may still put her in the hospital tank. I am just watching her very closely.

[Reef_Angel]

Sounds like you've got the right idea. Sometimes you can just plain luck out and have it not affect any of the other fish. That's ok about the water. I read your post so fast, I thought you had her in a small cup for some reason. I think I was still on my daughter's "pie mode making" being done in the kitchen. Scary at best sometimes, especially if she's yakking to girlfriends on the phone at the same time. She's quietly doing the dishes now! Anyway, I know you are an advanced reefer and feel pretty confident in what you've got going now. Please just done put any copper based medications in your display tank! Have fun by the fire, and have a glass of wine for me too! I'd like one of those tangs someday, or I might sell my two big ones (Powder Blue & Sailfin Tang). They are big ones, and I'd miss them, but I'd like to try some new fish choices. It's been great talking to you this evening. You can find me anytime!! See phone # below! Have a great night, keep me up to date. ! .....Angel

[WtksBlondie104]

Thanks so much! I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I have really only been doing this heavily for about 6 months. I still feel very new and have a lot of things to learn. Hope your pie turns out well too!

[Whoyah]

I think you are on the right track. I would also suggest soaking the seaweed sheets in some Selcon and Garlic Xtreme. The selcon is full of vitamins and fats that will help keep the fish's immune system up (fishy chicken soap). The garlic also seems to help.

About a year ago I bought a Purple tang. The tang went straight in to Quaratine tank since they are prone to ick. Add sure enough, ick appeared. I used Copper to treat the ick and selcon and garlic xtreme. Everything turned out good.

On the other fish, I would just suggest using Selcon and Garlic on their food as well. Also try and keep the tank parameters stable. Fish have the natural ability to fight off ick if they are healthy and not stressed. Some times trapping and treating them is worse them leaving them alone, IMO.

[chrisl1]

I have to dissagree with Bobby, that Kick Ich is crap, I used it 2x on my tank and it recycled my tank both times.My advise is use garlic in the food and get cleaner shrimp in the tank, they should take care of all trhe fish, my red sea sailfin had ich and he used topull into a little cave and the cleaner would pick him clean it was like a little fishy car wash it was the most hillarious thing to watch but none of my fish have had it since.

[lReef lKeeper]

i am surprised that it did that Chris, i am checking my parameters every other day just to be safe but as of now ... absolutely no change in anything.

[Whoyah]

Something to kept in mine is that not all fish will use a cleaner shrimp. About half of my fish. It seems the small ones are less likely to use the shrimp.