Ugh, finally got caught

R

raggedfinfirefish

Premium Member
Well, it was bound to happen.

3 Years of not QT'ing fish, and I wednesday's lack of power has finally brought the magic ich fairy to my door step. So, here are my variety of over asked, and mundane questions.

1) Whats the complete time period I'll need to be doing the Hypo/Fallow tank?

2) What size QT should I look into for ...
Harlequien Tusk
2 Clownfish
1 Midas Blenny
1 Copperband Butterfly
1 Green Chromis

3) How in the world do I recalibrate my refractometer?

4) How should I drop the Salenity, add in RODI? How fast should I do this?

5) How in the world will I catch these fish? I have enough trouble feeding them with freaking them out....

6) Should I put my Remora Pro on the QT? Its no biggie to move it over, just don't know if it'll work in the QT.

7) How in the world am I going to cycle a QT tank in time to help with the outbreak, and what should I do to cycle it.

Jeez i'm not in a very happy place right now....
 
Ack! Sorry to hear that.

As to youyr questions- I can help with some of them..

1) six weeks fallow / six weeks once you get the salinity in the qt down to 1.009.

3) Bring your refractometer to the next meeting- I'll be happy to help you calibrate it.

4) I change up to 10% of the qt water our with temperature matched RODI, twice per day, 12 hours apart, until you reach 1.009.

6) I use a HOB filter on my qt tank- a skimmer isn't as efficient with hyposalinity. They're designed for close to NSW levels of salinity.

7) Get a piece of filter floss down in the tank's sump now, and let it sit for a few days while you get things in place for the qt tank. After about a week, you should have a nice bacterial colony going in it. When you get the qt tank filled with water from the main tank (I usually do a 50 / 50 mix of old water / freshly mixed) this filter floss can be moved from the sump to a HOB filter on the qt.
 
Looks like i was wayy to tired last night, and mistook microbubbles for ich, or the cysts have fallen off, so I've got the filter floss down yonder, and have bought a 29 Gallon (will return if ya'll think this is far too small) and am filling it with RO to salinize as soon as I fill it. I hope i was just crazy last night!
 
All of what Scott said is good stuff. Hopefully it was just micro-bubbles, but if your fish are well seasoned, they could have just gotten through the initial outbreak quickly. Watch them closely for the next few days to a week for the second attack. I?d keep that floss cooking just to be ready. Since you?ve already bought the 29 you should go ahead and set it up. I think one of the biggest killers of fish in hypo is the time it takes to set up and cycle the hospital tank, the other is keeping a steady PH in a BB tank. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. If it turns out to be ich, you?ll be ready with a cycled Hospital tank. If it turns out to be nothing, you will have a cycled QT TANK for all new arrivals. :wink:


Good luck and Please keep us posted.
 
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