Just Lost the(ich) battle!!

newreefer

Well, My 2nd damsel died today with the dreaded ich. I guess, i did not learn about the qt tank quick enough to help him survive. Now i have a newly(got my first good readings 3 days befor i noticed the ich) cycled 90 gallon tank with nothing, but live rock, and the dreaded ich. This is almost depressing enough to make me give up, but i will not. Now, i have read that i cant put any fish in my tank for like 8 weeks(this is longer than it took me to cycle) due to the ich possibly living on my rock and substrate. Can i add anything like a cleaner crew, snails, anything? also, how do i know its gone, and where did it come from? all the liverock, damsels, live sand, everything i have came from the same lfs. did i get it there? again this is a new cycled tank

What do i do to treat tank & do i still feed the rock??

Chitown1

Welcome to FTF!!!!

Sorry for your loss, but dont get discouraged. Yes you can add snails, crabs etc. as they are not affected by ICH, the tank will be ICH free in 6-8 weeks as long as you do not add any fish for that amount of time. The parasites need a fish host to survive, so without one they will die off. I would rec. you set up a small QT tank before your next introduction, you can use water from the display so the params will be the same in both tanks and then when you are ready to move the fish from the QT to the display, the acclimation will be much less stressful on the fish.

Crazy80

Do you have any idea what the caused the ich.
Water stress and temperature can play a part especially if you have cold spots in the tank. most of my experience with Aquariums is mostly Freshwater so i cant say much for saltwater. Hope the next go round is better

Ritko1

I would also like to know the answer to newreefer's question on wether or not to feed the live rock. I plan on cycleing my tank with live rock and want to know it I need to feed all those critters in the rock during the cycle process.

Thanks in advance,

Ritko

trust-e-man

If you try and treat ick with copper for your saltwater tank make sure you dont have any invertabrates, coral, crustations,and snails basicly if you treat it with copper make sure its just fish in that tank the copper will stress out and have a high chance off killing anything that isnt a fish. your live rock and sant filter, ect is fine. also make sure you take out the carbon in the filter so it doest remoe the copper.