Upgrading Tanks - Should I treat for Ich?

Discussion in 'Diseases' started by rwlopez713, Apr 19, 2013.

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  1. rwlopez713

    rwlopez713 Plankton

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    I am currently have a 72 gallon reef that I will be moving to a recently set up 300 gallon system. I do see ich in my tank from time to time but it has always been the occasional spot or two. It has never really caused me any real issues and I have had most of my fish for several years. Since I am switching tanks I will never have a better opportunity to catch all the fish and treat them all at once. I am trying to decide what to do in the situation since I have the 72 gallon that I can use as a hospital\quarantine I can either treat with hypo or Cupramine. I am concerned however about putting all this stress on otherwise very healthy fish. I wanted to get opinions on whether or not to treat and if I do treat what method would be preferable. Keep in mind that I have a flame angel and a spotted mandarin. The mandarin I was going to attempt to train to eat frozen in a breeder box in the hospital tank. I have never been overly concerned with ich since I have never lost a fish because of it and it’s so difficult to keep out unless you want to quarantine all frags, hermit crabs snails etc for 8 weeks. My biggest concern is Velvet so I’m wondering if it I should move everything over to the new tank and then quarantine new fish long enough to rule out velvet, which a much faster acting pathogen. Then I would dip all frags and at least rinse invert to remove LFS water. Any one’s thoughts\opinions on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
     
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  3. Swisswiss

    Swisswiss Caribbean Reef Squid

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    I live with ich in my tank (like you the occasional spots) if you're making the jump then you might as well. Once established move your corals and inverts to the 300 and let it run for at least 8 weeks with no fish. This will insure that if the parasite did grab a hold to an invert or some of the water present on the coral that it will die off from lack of host. In the meantime once you removed all inverts and corals from your old set up then your good to go to treat it with copper.

    My 2 cents...
     
  4. Swisswiss

    Swisswiss Caribbean Reef Squid

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    But b ready to set up a qt for any new addition you will add from hence forth
     
  5. rwlopez713

    rwlopez713 Plankton

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    Thanks Swisswiss. That is probably what i'll do. The difficulty is in trying to quarantine sensitive corals and provide the right lighting flow etc in quarantine. For corals is dipping \ short quarantine enough to reduce the risk?
     
  6. Swisswiss

    Swisswiss Caribbean Reef Squid

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    Can't help you in terms of qt as I personally don't do it but others will chim in. I understand your concern about unnecessary stress for fish hence why I don't QT, but its one of those things where I guess you're better safe than sorry. If you've lived with it all this time it means your providing your animals with the correct environment for them to fight it off naturally.
     
  7. rwlopez713

    rwlopez713 Plankton

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    Ok, anyone else have any thoughts on this?
     
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  9. Swisswiss

    Swisswiss Caribbean Reef Squid

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    Can't help you in terms of qt as I personally don't do it but others will chim in. I understand your concern about unnecessary stress for fish hence why I don't QT, but its one of those things where I guess you're better safe than sorry. If you've lived with it all this time it means your providing your animals with the correct environment for them to fight it off naturally.