Ick, hyposalinity, and other mistakes...

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by jorjef

Sit back and watch the tank.

+ a million. Ich is one of those things, if it's not an active, out of control infection that is killing your fish, the cure can be worse than the disease. If you want your tank to be 'ich free', yes, you'll have to go through some long involved and laborious process of quarantine, treatment, and fallowing, but to what end? Are you losing fish? do they look sick? Any of the 'known' cures for ich present real and tangible risks to the life of those fish, and in the case of copper and (for some species) hypo, greater than the risk of doing nothing.

If you ever want to keep one of the known 'ich magnet' species down the road in a bigger tank, it might be worth investing the time now to try and get it out while the tank is small and you hardly have any fish. When you upgrade would be a perfect time actually, but if you're talking about just this tank and just these fish, I don't think it would be worth the effort or the risk, unless of course your existing fish start to exhibit symptoms.

Also, the next time an LFS recommends any kind of tang for a 29 gallon tank, you should consider that as a cue to take every other word that comes out of their mouths with one very large grain of salt. A yellow tang's adult size in an aquarium can easily reach 8 inches if properly cared for, which would a) look ridiculous in a 20 inch wide tank and b) be incredibly cruel. LiveAquaria suggests nothing less than 100 gallons for a yellow tang, and I find their tank size requirements can often be pretty liberal.

[Aquattro]

IMO, this can be your reliable "go to " answer for this. Especially the part about the Tang. Find a new fish store
I went through a lot of time, trouble, expense, fallowness, etc, to get a disease free tank. My Achilles Tang has some ih spots last month -lol Just can't win. I just live with it now.
That being said, I would QT any NEW fish coming in to avoid introducing aything worse than ich.

Originally Posted by asylumdown

+ a million. Ich is one of those things, if it's not an active, out of control infection that is killing your fish, the cure can be worse than the disease. If you want your tank to be 'ich free', yes, you'll have to go through some long involved and laborious process of quarantine, treatment, and fallowing, but to what end? Are you losing fish? do they look sick? Any of the 'known' cures for ich present real and tangible risks to the life of those fish, and in the case of copper and (for some species) hypo, greater than the risk of doing nothing.

If you ever want to keep one of the known 'ich magnet' species down the road in a bigger tank, it might be worth investing the time now to try and get it out while the tank is small and you hardly have any fish. When you upgrade would be a perfect time actually, but if you're talking about just this tank and just these fish, I don't think it would be worth the effort or the risk, unless of course your existing fish start to exhibit symptoms.

Also, the next time an LFS recommends any kind of tang for a 29 gallon tank, you should consider that as a cue to take every other word that comes out of their mouths with one very large grain of salt. A yellow tang's adult size in an aquarium can easily reach 8 inches if properly cared for, which would a) look ridiculous in a 20 inch wide tank and b) be incredibly cruel. LiveAquaria suggests nothing less than 100 gallons for a yellow tang, and I find their tank size requirements can often be pretty liberal.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

That being said, I would QT any NEW fish coming in to avoid introducing aything worse than ich.

Amen to that. Even another strain of ich would be worthwhile keeping out.

[hfp75]

I think the saying is...

Ich Happens.

I have been successful with lots of garlic and water changes. I have a 55g and I'll crush in 2-3 little cloves of fresh garlic 15 mins before I feed and I'll add a splash of garlic (Seachem) to the food too!!!! For water changes I'll turkey bast the rocks, let it settle and then vacume the sand.

be committed and the ich will go away.

IF you lose a fish dont get upset, it was planning to jump out if it got the chance anyways, and YES I beleive that there is Ich in all tanks.

[Jschier]

Agreed, if the ich isn't affecting the fish (strong immune systems) then leave it as is. Something I just learned about ich, if left alone (zero additions to the tank) it will die off after 11 months. It is good to have 2 tanks as it gives you options when issues arise (I have 4). Best of luck and be sure to research every purchase before walking out of the store, good call on the tang.

[Myka]

Asylumdown give you great advice, I agree. Keep in mind that Ich (note proper spelling lol) is kinda like a fish version of human influenza - most people/fish get it occasionally, and it's usually overcome by healthy individuals. I would take Asylumdown's advice and sit back to watch the tank for awhile.

Imo, attempting to make a tank completely Ich free is fairly easily accomplished by following a 12 week quarantine with hyposalinity and keeping the tank fallow for that time, plus same quarantine for incoming fish. I don't think it is something that is that imperative, and 12 weeks is a long time. Do I think it is worth it for a Biocube? No. Do I think it is worth it if you're setting up a big tank and planning a bunch of very expensive (and usually less common) fish? Yeah, that might be a good idea. Do many people do it? I can only think of a couple people I know that follow this VERY strictly.

Imo, there is no Angelfish nor any Tang that would be suitable for a Biocube - they all get too big and too aggressive, so it's tough luck that the Angelfish was returned. If the tank hums along without a hitch for 3-4 weeks, consider adding a small fish like a Shrimp Goby (with a cool pistol shrimp) or one of the small species of Blenny like a Tailspot, Pictus, or Tiger. Not one of the big Blennies like the Lawnmower or Bicolor.

I like hyposalinity in quarantine for new fish. I do not recommend it as a means of treatment since hypo doesn't work fast enough for a serious Ich infection, and I don't recommend treating mild Ich infections, so that leaves a moot point there. I also don't like copper treatment - for anything. Chloroquine phosphate is a much easier and safer method of treatment in place of copper, although more difficult to obtain (purchase ahead of time!).

[Scuba Diver Gal]

Thanks everyone. By the way I knew how to spell ich but every time I spelt it correctly my mac would autocorrect to "icy"…so I left it at ick to avoid having to go back and change it.

My 2 clowns and purple fire fish are still fine. Eating and acting completely normal. We still have this quarantine tank so before we add anything else we will quarantine them. Should have done this in the first place.

I guess my biggest concern at this point is how to avoid bringing any ich into my new tank. Do I set up the new tank with new LR and then drop the salinity in the biocube and let those fish stay in there for 12 weeks and then bring them over? My son has an eye on a new tank (only 2 months in and he's already wanting to upgrade)…Assuming then that after the 8-12 weeks of low salinity that the live rock in the cube also would not have any ich still alive in it?

This is confusing to make this transition and avoid making any mistakes like we have already made Thanks again everyone!