Establishing a quarantine tank

C

Carabelli

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[well, the s*** has finally hit the fan, as if it wasn't bad enough for my brother's tang to get ich, my purple tang came down with it today it appears - i can only think the sohal tang i had with him was harrassing him more than i thought -- i should have quarantined all of the fish, but for numerous reasons, i didn't :sniffle:

anyways, time to remedy the situation ... i have 3 tangs - purple, regal blue, yellow mimic; 2 perculas, 1 blenny, 1 sixline wrasse, 1 royal gramma and 2 small bannerfish in the tank -- so, this is pretty much the entire load i am planning for the 260 (2 mos away and counting!) -- so, i think at this point i should break the current tank down, take out the fish and move them to a "hospital tank" ... and leave the main tank with corals, snails and crabs only

my question is as follows: should i place all of the fish in the same tank - if so, how big?? i am planning on keeping them in there for 6 weeks - will a 55 gallon be big enough (regal blue is nice and large 5" and the purple and mimic are no slouches either) - with pvc pipe for hiding spots, will they be okay for the most part?? any other concerns i should plan for? thanks and does anyone have a tank i could borrow?]
 
[well, i was afraid of that - i just don't know if there is much of an alternative - i could place the 3 tangs in the 55 gallon and the rest of the smaller fish in a 30 gallon?? i suppose i could just pull out the tangs and bannerfish, but that will keep the ich alive in the main tank - damned if i do and damned if i don't!]
 
[Go to tractor supply or home depot and buy one of those large tubs. It would be a lot cheaper and wouldn't require a bunch of setup. Plus you could get a large enough tub to hold the fish.

I believe they call them stock tanks...And you could use this bad boy for your sump on your new tank! :beer:
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Edited By blide on 1110860341
 
[the purple tang is starting to show white specs - doesn't scrape too much on tank - bannerfish are showing some signs of ich, but they could be just stressed as they are new - will have to think about this]
 
[well, i think i will see if can do a 55 gallon and 30 gallon setup - will have to see on pricing and work out plumbing - any suggestions welcome -thanks.]
 
[To be honest with you I would feed garlic and hope. I know it stinks but you really have to beat this thing on the front end!

If your fish make it until you are abut a month away from your big tank then I would consider it but it will be a royal pain with that many fish! But I would think transferring them to QT now. Lowering the SG over a couple days, there for 3 weeks (changing a large amount of the water at least twice a week), back up over a couple days then back to your current tank then oh ya another move a month or so later. That is just stressful, stressful, stressful!]
 
[gmacy,
I do not know what size tank you have now so if this suggestion is out the window just let me know.
Get a stock tank big enough for the rock and corals, and LS then use your current tank as your QT untill you get your big tank up.
It seems that their current home is big enough and the rock and coral would require less attention then the fish. You could start them off buying moving them to buckets while you remove everything else and and start their treatment in ther same water. It would take a little longer I believe but it might be less stressful on the fish.
Just an idea, like I said I don't know your current setup and amount of room that you have. just my .02]
 
[richard - that is a good idea, but at this point i don't want to risk losing a lot of the corals - the fish take 2nd on priority list to them - good thought though

keith - i know exactly what you mean... i have decided to wait another week to see how they do and go from there - just hate to stress them out even more]
 
[okay -- due to the size of the task of setting up adequate tanks to house the fish, i have decided to hope for the best for a while -- i am going to focus on feeding them more and keeping them really happy and stepping up my water changes and maintenance in hopes of keeping the water clean - thanks for the help and i will update as things progress.]
 
[aah - the regal blue is now showing signs of ich - this sucks!!! i will keep the same routine up and hope for the best - :very sad:]
 
[Just so you know...

The Regal will hit rocks and lie in the sand, so it will look like ick sometimes. Not saying that it doesn't have ick, but they often "scratch" themselves on rocks. Have you tried garlic yet? I used to feed the Regal garlic soaked food and garlic every couple of weeks and she loves it.]
 
[yeah, i am pretty sure it is ich ... very generalized and wide spread - i have been feeding them a lot of garlic -- all of the nori is soaked in it as is the mysis and brine - i also feed them garlic flakes - this sucks, they are such beautiful fish i hate for them to be sick or even worse die ...

has anyone used a product like ruby reef's kick ich -- i know they have a bad reputation and we aren't sure what all they do, but, it is not feasible to do the hospital tanks now and they are showing no signs of improvement, rather, getting worse :cussing:

i plan on going by fish gallery and seeing what they say - i just don't know - thanks.]
 
[Hi Gerard, sorry its taken me so long to get back to you. Im not sure that I have any more advice to offer though. It seems like you have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done, just unsure that you want to go through with it. Hypo will resolve the situation, no doubt.

If you want to keep an eye on them and see if they can beat it on their own, you might be in luck. Feed the garlic, up the temp to 82 and keep the pH in the upper ranges. These are all safe things you can do, that wont cause harm to corals, inverts, etc.
If the fish get real bad, ie. heavy breathing, excessive scratching/flashing, you might want to pull them for treatment.

The "reef-safe" treatments are just too unknown for me to ever recommend. I have heard of tanks with wiped out corals, massive algae outbreaks, etc.. occasionally I also hear someone who swears by one or another of those products. Personally, I would never dump any of that crap in my reef. It is easier to remove and reset the rock to catch the fish, than to replace everything that you risk killing off.
HTH!]
 
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