Lost Coral Beauty to Ick- next step?

[Lorna]

Hi just started up a 55 gallon saltwater tank in December. I have 2 clown perculas, 3 chromis, 2 cleaner shrimps and various snails and crabs. I added a Coral Beaty 3 weeks ago and lost him to ick last week. I tried the garlic and the cleaner shrimp did their bit and I used a product that my LFS recommended - Ick treatment by No Sick Fish. All my other fish are fine, but what do I do next? Do I assume that I still have ick in the tank?

[i have crabs]

ich is a parisite that has to be killed off or starved to death,so if you have fish in the tank they will or do have ich weather you see it or not,the garlic and cleaner shrimp is some of the worst advice ive ever heard and its the first thing i see posted every time,garlic and cleaners cannot and will not cure ich. at best it will boost the imune system enough for them to fight off a full blown out break and you fish will look healthy but they wont be.
the best thing you can do is go buy a 20g and a cheep heater and a aquaclear 50 wich will cost you about 60-70 bucks new and a lot cheeper used get some coppermine and a copper test kit for another 25 bucks and deal with the ich right now before you kill the rest of the fish you already have, hypo is another way but its alot more complicated and more expensive and does not work better in my opinion and i have done both ways more than once.
if you need advice on how to quickly cycle a new tank and do the copper thing let us know.

[Lorna]

Well I have a 20 gallon tank that is not in use and I am going to see if it leaks or not. So how do I get the tank cycled fast? Also when I move the fish to the QT tank I have to leave the tank fishless for 4 to 6 weeks. is that right? Will the ick effect the cleaner shrimps and crabs or not?

[Ruth]

Lorna if you have a sump just throw a piece of sponge - make sure it is just sponge and preferably get it at a LFS - in your sump (or tank if you don't have a sump) for 3 or 4 days and it should colonize with bacteria that you can then move into your quarentine tank.
I have crabs advise was right on the money though. I see time after time people advising to feed garlic and use cleaner shrimp to battle ich. It simply does not work. My theory on garlic is that it encourages fish to eat more thereby boosting their immune systems to be better able to fight of diseases and parasites. Cleaner shrimp just cannot get ich parasites, that burrow into the skin, off the fish. Copper is probably the best and quickest way to treat remaining fish. You will have to leave your main system fish less for 6-8 weeks in order to eliminate the parasite from your system.
The ich parasite will continue to live in your system as long as there are fish in there. If they are strong and healthy it probably won't affect them unless they get stressed or weak. I think a lot more of us have ich in our systems than we know. I have never had an outbreak of ich in any of my tanks but I am willing to bet that it is probably in at least one of them

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by Ruth

Lorna if you have a sump just throw a piece of sponge - make sure it is just sponge and preferably get it at a LFS - in your sump (or tank if you don't have a sump) for 3 or 4 days and it should colonize with bacteria that you can then move into your quarentine tank.

If you are going to colonize a sponge or two with bacteria, do it in a tank/sump/refugium that does NOT have ich in it. There is a great likelihood that ich will travel with the sponge.

[Lorna]

Only other tank I have is a freshwater tank. Could I put the sponge in there for a few days or would that be a big mistake?

[Ruth]

See if you can find another person in your area or even ask the LFS. Someone may already have a piece of sponge that's been in their system for a while that they will let you have.
One word of advise that is my experience is that unless you take great care to be very dilegent in cleaning any sponge that is in your system (ie just passive or in a canister filter) they quickly become nitrate factories. The only tanks that I have sponges in are my 2 JBJ Nano tanks and I clean them at least once a week when I change the water.

[Lorna]

Ok thanks for the advice, I will have to see if I can get some from the LFS. Once the QT is up an running will my tank cycle by adding the 5 fish all at once?

[i have crabs]

get some filterfloss or sponge from a friend tank if possible lfs have ich too sometimes,take a scoop of sand from another tank too just for the bacteria,.
i would leve the tank for mabey 3 days do a waterchange add mabey half the fish if you can catch them easily wait another 3 days waterchange and add the rest of the fish and start coppering,
if the fish are showing alot of ich i would move all 5 after the first 3 or 4 days and start coppering.

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