min. size tank for quarantine

I have posted a few times about my hippo tang and his ich. Well, he isn't getting better, and I noticed some spots on one of my clownfish yesterday. So my idea now is to remove all my fish into a hospital tank, treat with copper for several weeks, and let my DT lie fallow for 6-8 wks. My question is, my current QT is only 10g - much too small for 7 fish. What size tank would you recommend I buy for this hospital tank (I want the minimum, since I hope to never use it again). Also, I am assuming I don't need to use RO water for the QT if I do water changes every few days?

 

1 30 gallon rubbermaid container from wal-mart or target. Will set you back about 8 bucks and will sustain your fish for the period of time during the QT.

For the QT, keep in mind without the normal filtration that the water will foul quicker as there is no established bio-filter. When I do QT I check my water daily, and change some water every other day, but thats just me. You could use tap water, but it might be better to use the RO if its an option, just to keep the nastys out (like algae and such).

 

Couple good questions here but I am not sure you will like the answers...

If you are planning on putting ALL those fish into QT you will need at least a 55 if not more, you could try something smaller but you will deal with water quality issues as QTs have no biological filtration and you are adding alot of fish in there....Esp if you are planning on keeping them in there for 2 months!! Also if you are using copper you do NOT want to change water every day or even that regularly as you WANT TO MAINTAIN copper level and the water changes will constantly change the level, causing you to add more and test more frequently than you would otherwise.

This is another problem, say you have ick and take out ALL fish and treat them with copper and then put them in the tank after 6-8 weeks, I will almost guarantee that the ick will magically appear again. Recent developments have shown Ick will go dormant without a host and most likely reappear when the fish are added back(Delbeek&Sprung)
If you want to wait it out you need to trick the ick into thinking there are fish in the tank, what was used in the tests by Delbeek was adding water into the affected tank from a tank with fish everyday. It doesn't need to be a whole lot, maybe a quart or so, enough to contain fish pheremones to trick the ick into thinking that the ick is still present, THEN after 6-8 weeks of doing that the ick will die out with out a host, so yes ick will not make it more than say 6 weeks without a host, without a host they will go dormant and not die....

If it was me I would take out the affected fish and treat him, actually I know myself, I would keep the fish in the tank, do heavy water changes, at least 35% a week preferably more, at the shop I used to do almost 50% a day, and feed heavily. This will increase the fish's immunity, lower the icks numbers by dilution and keep the fish healthy, no meds.
If that wouldnt work I would use No Ick that is reef safe in the DT until the ick was gone.

Good luck!!!

 

Hmmm....very interesting information, Dr Frag. The truth is that I would really rather not do this, but I thought it was the only option to rid myself of the ich. I could try the 35% water change per week option with the no ich meds, and if that fails I could try the QT option. My hippo tang seems in good spirits and is eating well, he is just covered in white spots and scratches a lot. Do you find any additional benefit to medicating the fish food? I have some metronidazole left over.

 

I feel for you I have been here and both lost fish for leaving them in the display and saved them by leaving them in the display. What I do is more frequent water changes, and I feed daily by soaking frozen food or pellets in Zoe, Garlic, with a couple drops of Vitamin C to try to boost the fishes ammune system. I feel the moving the fish only stresses them and you out.. When a fish stresses Immune system drops Ich comes back. Another thing I do is keep my lights back to a min with them being off entirely some days.. (Every Reef has a cloudy day) This helps lower stress for the fish as well.. Just watch your corals.