Sick fish need to setup a QT.

Discussion in 'New To The Hobby' started by Sincere, Dec 30, 2005.

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  1. Sincere

    Sincere Plankton

    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2005
    Messages:
    20
    Ok I originally purchased a 20 gallon tank(november) to setup a saltwater tank and took it home. Went later that day to a petstore to get stuff for my sugarglider and saw a 55 gallon tank and I said to myself you know what its time to upgrade that little 20 gallon. ;D So I did.:) Now my intentions were to setup the second tank as a QT tank or just a second tank. I was never able to set it up because my wifey wanted to place the christmas were I want the tank well she won ::) Now Christmas is over tree is going DOWN but so are my 4 damsels. They have what I believe is ick lots of white spots when I woke up this morning. Now I believe the best course is to try to get my 20 gallon setup ASAP as a ER but don't know hot to go about it exactly. Here is my setup:
    55 gallon:
    Heater (main tank), Coralife superskimmer (sump and output goes back into the micron bag), 25 micron bag (sump) via aqua pump 1800 (sump), probably only 6lbs of live rock, small little area of cc ( maybe 10% max) the rest is sand. Hard to tell if ammonia is 0 or a little above zero because of its color, nitrite is 0, and nitrate is a little below 10. Also I have a crap load of brown algae which I understand is nts (new tank/tap syndromea and planning on doing a 10 gallon water change with RO water)

    Stuff already avaible for my 20 gallon:
    Heater, single marineland bio-wheel filter, dual bio-wheel marineland 350 was used to cycle my 55 till last week when I place the sump in there then I removed it since then I have kept the wheels in my sump. Should I not do it I just did not want them to dry out? I also have some CC sitting in it.

    Any help is appreciated
     
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  3. blue_eyes53813

    blue_eyes53813 Flamingo Tongue

    Joined:
    Jan 30, 2004
    Messages:
    106
    Location:
    Lancaster, WI,Wisconsin
    Well first of all. I hope you know that the life cycle of the ick will have to die off in the 55 gallon before adding more fish, which I believe is 4-6 weeks ( Anybody please correct me if im wrong) You actually have two choices. Leave the fish in the 55 gallon and see if they can fight it off. NEVER add meds to main tank unless you are 100% sure it is reef safe. It will kill liverock and taint anything in the tank.If the fish dont pull through waite a month or more for the ich to die off. Without a host it will die.

    Second choice, Fill 20 gallon , use filter( dont use carbon, ) Just use it for water movement. powerhead and a heater. Treat the 20 gallon with ick meds.
    Fish need be clear of ick for 4-6 weeks before adding back to main tank. Make sure you waite the whole time or as soon as you add them back into main tank it could come back. DO the meds as directed and dont rush it.
     
  4. Trickman2

    Trickman2 Bristle Worm

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2003
    Messages:
    141
    Location:
    San Diego,California
    Any Corals or live rock. Also how hard is it going to be to remove them? I guess they are only Damsels. Qt is probably the best way to go but I believe in treating their food most of the time now. Below are the chemicals I use on their food. Not sure it really matters if you take them out at this point.

    http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=31254;category_id=2233

    http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=31254;category_id=2233

    http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=28211;category_id=

    http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=28207;category_id=3463

    http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=28213;category_id=3463;pcid1=2233;pcid2=
     
  5. My2heartboys

    My2heartboys Fire Worm

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2005
    Messages:
    174
    I have just a penguin biowheel and a couple of heaters on my qt tank. I also put in a plastic dish with a small glass dull edged jar on the inside of it so that the two fish in there have someplace to swim around or hide in if they want. There isn't any cc or sand on the bottom and no live rock. I was told that this setup was necessary so that you can do water changes and vacuum up the stuff (dead parasites) off of the bottom of the tank easier.

    Anne