NEVER EVER ever say never......!!!!!

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

5 years and I have never had ich or any other disease in my tank. Beside hair algae, low alk, and low ph I have never had any real "problems" in any of my tanks. Well, the time has come....and a double whammy at that.

#1 I was feeding the reef tank today and I notice that my yellow tang has popeye. The eye is huge and cloudy. I'm not sure what happened or what caused it. It was fine yesterday.

#2 As I'm checking over the rest of the tank I notice my Achilles tang has an ich outbreak. ( I QT'd that fish too!!!)

I quickly tested my water and everything was ok except my alk is still too low and my calcium was only 380. (odd since I don't have any sps and I use oceanic salt. Plus I do a 30G water change at least every other week. Sometimes weekly. Hasn't been below 450 since I switched from instant ocean. It's a cheap test kit so that could be wrong. I ran out of the salifert calcium test kit and i bought what the local LFS had)

Normally I would take the tangs out and QT them for treatment but I can't put 2 tangs in a 10G hospital tank. They would kill eachother.

Any suggestions? What should I use to treat the ich? What should I do about the popeye?

I'm off to Madison tomorrow to get any meds I may need. I don't understand why the ich is showing up now? I do soak the food in Garlic extreme. I thought that was supposed to prevent ich.

I only have 5 fish in the 125G tank so bioload is not an issue. Could it be the low alk or lower calcium? I'm making water now to do a 30G water change. I will do another 30G water change tomorrow and the following day. That will be 90G in 3 days. If it's something in the water that ought to take care of it.

Thanks,
Angie

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

anyone?? Can I use hyposalinity on a reef tank? I can't catch the tangs, they are FAST! The only inverst in the tank are the normal snails, hermits,a britle star and a sea cucumber. (no shrimp) Will hyposalinity affect corals? I'd rather NOT add chemicals if I can help it. I have a 45H I could us for the Hypo treatment, but 5 fish (2 being tangs) seems like trouble in a QT tank together.

[dsfdbutterfly]

After years of having a tank my fish showed with ich. I was lucky in the fact that it was a fish only tank so treatment was easy. My source was a heating problem. My tank dropped to 72 and then back up to the 78 and bang, ich followed. I did find some stuff at one of the stores that is reef safe 100% organic that is suppose to treat ich. I don't know how effective it is. I used it one day and the tank became very cloudy. The next day I switched to a copper treatment and a galic regimen. Don't know what your temp is sitting at but make sure that you keep it around 80 also if you don't have anything too tempermental in the tank try the hyposalinity test just not as drastic. The problem not taking them out will be that the ich will continue to drop and spread to the fish. Try removing the one with ich to OT as this is the most important. Also try a fresh water dip.

As for the drop, I found this can happen after a while even if you don't have a load on your tank. I don't know what other people's opinions are about this but I have used sealab no.28 with great success. I drop a tablet in once every two weeks for my 30 gal. It helps prevent ph swings, stablizes my calcium and alk levels and everything seems to like it. It really doesn't add anything to the tank it is just a stabalizer from my understanding and since I have to treat so much for ph levels I needed it. One tablet costs me $2 so it was well worth it.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Angie

[dsfdbutterfly]

Just saw your second post. I did the hyposalinity (brought mine down to 1.014). At the time I had three snails and 15 hermits with my fish. The snails did fine until I added the copper. They even lasted a week after that. None of the hermits died. In fact I have only brought my tank up to 1.018 and I have put some copper in the tank and have 28 hermits running around with no problem. Small changes can make a difference expecially if done quickly and not put off. If you already have your tank at 80 raise it to 82 and drop your salinity by two points. You may be able to make a difference without meds. If you at all possible can catch and dip or QT your achillies I would though. I know how impossible that can be though. My regal tang is nil impossible to catch. I've tried every trick in the book to get him and it just doesn't happen unless I pull out everything from the tank. I hope this helps. I remember your post about how excited you were when you got your achillies. They are beautiful fish for sure. Even worth the trouble they cause.

[Whoyah]

I am sorry to hear of your sudden problems. I guess I would recommend trying to QTing the fish seperately, 10gallons are only like $12 here. I also guess that it was your low Alk that caused the stress in the fish. I basically had the same problem occur and lost a couple of fish. Regarding catching the fish, I have hearding of people placing a piece a bait inside a jar for a few days, allowing the fish to get use to the jar and then spring the trap. Just an idea never tried.

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

If I have to I will empty the 125 of all of the LR to get him out. I will NOT loose my achilles. No way, now how if I can help it. I have the 45 H set up and I will get the achilles out in the morning along with the rest of the fish. I wont do any good to treat one if there is ich in the tank. Eventually they will or could all get it. Thanks, I will let you all know how it goes.

Angie

[dakar]

Hyposalinity in your reef tank would be a bad idea, the odds on loosing multiple corals are pretty high... I'm with Whoyah on this one... do whatever you have to and remove all of the fish from the tank and run a hypo treatment on them as space permits, sound like multiple hospital tanks is in order here. But don't leave a single host in the tank or you will not be able to break the ich's life cycle.

It really sucks rocks not having any fish in the tank for 6 weeks, but the investment alone is enough to warrant it the necessity.

[dakar]

I obviously type too slow...

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

Multiple tanks is not an option as I only have the 45 empty right now. I'm going to put them all in there and keep a close watch on the 2 tangs. The 45 is 36L 13w and 24h. I'm going to the hardware store and getting 6 inch pvc for them to hide in. The tank will get 1/5 of the salt water replaced every 12 hrs with fresh ro/di water untill it reaches 12-14 ppt. All of the fish will remain there untill 6 weeks pass. The 6 weeks will start when I no longer see any ich on the achilles.

On a good note, by the time the fish are done with their QT, the 100lbs of live should be fully cured and ready for the new tank. I should be able to get the new tank up and running by then. I was going to go with a 240 but I think I'm going to go with a 180 and use the money left over to buy some new corals. Better an awsome 180 than a so so 240. Thanks for all of the help. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Angie

[dsfdbutterfly]

If provided room to hide from eachother they should handle it for the short haul. My friend had to treat her whole tank for ich. She had to place a naso tang and a chevron tang in a 55 gal with about 13 other fish. Lots of water changes were done and everything was given plenty of hiding spaces. No fish were lost and everyone made it through QT. They are now back in their 230 gal tank and happily swimming around. Fish will handle changes the worst is stress and desease. If you can minamize this then you should be able to save everything. You can also try some lace rock if you can get your hands on any since they will be in there for 6 weeks at least. This may help them feel better protected and usually doesn't cost an arm and a leg. It also doesn't hinder any treatment. Good luck, I do hope everything goes well and I am sending good wishes your way.