I'm this close to calling it quits.

Took a step back today, decided not to jump

OK, so heres the deal. I took a step back and may not jump just yet.

The Chromis, Coral Beauty and Damsel are looking good again.. Whew..

I think I may not have treated long enough for the Flame Hawk originally, he is looking ragged and gasping again. That said, I have setuo a qt tank, but have a few questions.

If I can catch him,

1.) How long do you treat a fish normally ?
2.) All I am running is a heater, Air stone, Powerhead, Mechanical Filter pad in a HOB filter. With the normal dose of meds, do you make water changes , How often ?
3.) Now, once the fish is out I will perform water change and cleaning and such. I want to keep it running for new fish bought and incase of illness, so, when you use the QT tank for new fish, do you always treat with medicine ? How long before they go to the main tank?
4.) How long to acclimate the tank before adding the Hawk ?
5.) OK, so if I keep it running for a QT tank for new fish and stuff, how do you deal with the cycle ? Or do you not worry about that? Just keep amn eye on params and change as needed ?

I have the temp and PH the same. The salinity is 1.021 instead of 1.023, is that OK ?

The Alkalinity is higher than the main tank, not sure why. More blue than green with the Redsea test kit. Will that be OK ?

Any other tips on QT tank setup ?



Thanks for all the support.

 

Glad your back, couldn't find this thread for a while and was hoping you hadn't given up.

1. Not sure what you are treating for or with, but check the directions. There is something that I used and I can't find it right now but it is some type of blue die...works great for ick will also stain your silicone seal. If you do net one try for the damsel (cheaper) and try the fresh water dip. Use ro water if you don't have a tank fill a 2 liter with RO water and float it for a few hours to get the temp the same. Use a bowl or something and drop him in for 5-15 minutes. Keep an eye on him you'll know when to take him out, no more then 15. Watch while he is in there so you can see if things come off of him. Sometimes you can see them on the bottom or when they flake off.

2. This depends on the treatment but the water changes won't be that much different then normal. You want the water to stay stable while you treat. You have what you need for equipment

3. Good idea to treat for parasites, usually 7-10 days. Again the treatment directions will tell. Paraguard is a popular one.

4. The fish needs to be acclimated not the tank. I keep a hang filter on my main tank that I remove and put on a ten gallon when i need it so I would think that your tank would need to be cycled. Someone else may want to chime in on this.

5. I keep the hang on filter running on my main system so it has a bio-load already seeded.

Be sure to take your time acclimating since you know the shift in SG and alk. Other tips would be not to use LR or substrates they'll just absorb meds, use a piece of black acrylic to give the fish an A frame house to hide. Finally don't use carbon steadily. Meaning on your on your 3rd or 4th dose you may want to run it for 24hrs to remove the meds. Then take it out and dose again, this way you don't od the fish the carbon should remove most of the medication.

 

Scales falling off?

This happened to one of my old blue hippo's. He had dark grooves (or what looked like grooves) in his side as though he'd been in a fight or hit a rock repeatedly. he also became lethargic and refused to eat. I was hand feeding him kelp and dosing it, as well as the filter with small amounts of garlic extract. I don't think it's a fungus. I think it was from an open top tank in the room with a smoker.

You smoke?

 

Luckily no, finally kicked it when they hit 3.50 5 years ago or so..
I thought it may be a wound of sorts at first as well, but it was the same on three fish.

It either cleared up on it's on , or the Tetracyclin food dip helped. It did say it was for sores as well so who knows.


Not a one has trouble eating though, they all still fight it out during feeding time..

 

Glad to hear, this hobby has the tendency to beating you down and leaving you frustrated, but we have to stand up and keep on walking. Be strong my friend. I find that many ppl freak out for the littlest things. I know that we become attached to our pets, both emotionally and economically, but we have to remember that anything can happen and sometimes it does. When it comes to illness's, I personally dont do a thing about it, I just let it be and hope for the best. The same holds true with corals. If I where to worry about EVERYTHING in my tank, I think I've would have died of stress 20 something yrs ago. Also remember that by having an aquarium in our house, we're playing the role of God and as you know by now, we as humans, we're not God or prefect for that matter. So, just do the best you can, learn about the creatures you want to have and dont freak out when things are not going as planned. The only thing that we can do is to create the environment that they need to survive. Also keep in mind that you dont know where that fish/coral came from, how it was transported, where the proper conditions supplied, was it caught from the ocean and how or was it tank raised. Theres so many things that could happen to that creature before it gets to you. So in essence, every time you buy a fish or coral, your taking a gamble. I hope I made sense and kept you walking. Luna

 

Yes thank you, and thanks everyone.
I may just not quit after all

It is hard especially since I went though some disease that seemed to kill so quickly and was easily spread to the next. I never want to go through that again.

Since I went through he trouble of setting it up.
I will try and catch the Flamehawk to be my first patient in the QT tank. Doesn’t appear likely though. Maybe he will pull through as well. I treated the main tank with Paragaurd for 5 days and he got noticeably better, but seems to be reverting. Lack of color and gasping a bit. The Tetracycline does not seem to be helping him, but all others got better.


I will definately use it for new fish coming in though.


The journey continues...

 

If we didn't have failures and everything was easy, life would be boring, repetitive and not very interesting. Plus our mistakes of the past and present are our motives, dreams, successes and hopes in the near future.
TOM

 

I give up evry 6 mos or so, but then jump right back in....most of the time to the deep end.....karma for stickin with it!

 

Thanks again, one more question.

So I finally caught the FlameHawk and have him in QT. I am treating with Paraguard which seemed to work before, but this time I will do it longer than a week.

Question is, sine the QT for hospital is treated with something like Paraguard, and any new fish it is recommended to do the same, can I buy a fish while he is in there and kill two stone with one bird ?

He will be in ther for 5 weeks I guess and I saw a really neet looking Oscilaris Clown at a new LFS yesterday.

Anyone do this before ?


Thanks

 

double2mk, I know how frustrating this can be. Once you get your situation under control and your tank is thriving you realize the joy of having a sw/reef tank up and running...Hang in there...

Thanks, Reefer for such a detailed, yet simple explanation...