Have a couple questions in a tank I'm acquiring today

[youdunnome]

Hello all!

I'll be picking up this tank today and tomorrow. Most of the fish will be given away due to their size or aggression. The few fish I decide to keep will go into a quarantine tank before either placing them back in the original tank or adding them to my display in the living room.

I have a few questions:

1. If ich is present (no current signs), how long can it and its eggs survive outside of water?
2. What is the safest way to treat ich in a quarantine tank without using copper? (I’d prefer to reuse the tanks)
3. What other diseases or parasites should I watch out for?
4. Pray for me—the amount of aiptasia is wild!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello all!

I'll be picking up this tank today and tomorrow. Most of the fish will be given away due to their size or aggression. The few fish I decide to keep will go into a quarantine tank before either placing them back in the original tank or adding them to my display in the living room.

I have a few questions:

1. If ich is present (no current signs), how long can it and its eggs survive outside of water?
2. What is the safest way to treat ich in a quarantine tank without using copper? (I’d prefer to reuse the tanks)
3. What other diseases or parasites should I watch out for?
4. Pray for me—the amount of aiptasia is wild!

Looks like a nice tank. Ich can survive out of water several weeks as same with mosquito eggs, when dry and they again become wet, they can (not always) come to life. You will want to set tank back up and also start a quarantine tank and make quarantining a practice and preventative measure for future ich. Let the tank run 6 weeks, even 7 weeks without fish to assure any remaining parasites have died off without a host fish.
Run the quarantine tank with coppersafe for a full 30 days at treatment level 2.25 and then do a good water change and follow with PraziPro treatment applying
dose at 80% of recommended and apply initial dosage known as an interval for 8 days, do a water change and do one more 8 day dose interval
Use airstone with prazi as it does reduce both oxygen and appetite. If running a skimmer, leave cup off first 24 hrs as skimmer will go nuts from the glycol solution in Prazi.
Monitor copper level with a reliable Copper Test kit such as Hanna Brand- No API brand. Also monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit
A quarantine tank can be as simple as a tank from a second hand store or a starter kit from Walmart which most of the needed essentials.
For Aptasia, You cant beat a Kleini Butterfly BUT must be the bluehead- NOT the yellow version. The yellow will go after coral too but bluehead as pictured will eat aptasia like candy, then eat all dry and frozen food offered, colorful, friendly and stays small. I will note that a couple of persons who got the blue had their kleini nip zoa. if so- easy sell, or place in sump as aptasia have likely made it down there already

 

[VintageReefer]

That’s a really nice tank
Why are you worried about ich? Did the prior owner mention it or have it in the past?

Get some berghia and they will have all the aiptasia and babies gone in 2-3 months. I just finished a round of berghia a few months ago. They even made their way in my overflow and into all sections of my sump. I’d find them in the return section and move them back in the display.

Once that display aiptasia is nearly eradicated they will make their way everywhere looking for more

 

[youdunnome]

That’s a really nice tank
Why are you worried about ich? Did the prior owner mention it or have it in the past?

Get some berghia and they will have all the aiptasia and babies gone in 2-3 months. I just finished a round of berghia a few months ago. They even made their way in my overflow and into all sections of my sump. I’d find them in the return section and move them back in the display.

Once that display aiptasia is nearly eradicated they will make their way everywhere looking for more

The lady I'm picking the tank up knows nothing. One of the LFS "maintenance" it every other week. If it did have ich she probably didn't know.

I'm simply just wanting to play it safe and with 20 plus fish it's a lot on the move.

I was thinking of picking up some berghia I would imagine with a butterfly they would destroy the appraisal population

 

[youdunnome]

Looks like a nice tank. Ich can survive out of water several weeks as same with mosquito eggs, when dry and they again become wet, they can (not always) come to life. You will want to set tank back up and also start a quarantine tank and make quarantining a practice and preventative measure for future ich. Let the tank run 6 weeks, even 7 weeks without fish to assure any remaining parasites have died off without a host fish.
Run the quarantine tank with coppersafe for a full 30 days at treatment level 2.25 and then do a good water change and follow with PraziPro treatment applying
dose at 80% of recommended and apply initial dosage known as an interval for 8 days, do a water change and do one more 8 day dose interval
Use airstone with prazi as it does reduce both oxygen and appetite. If running a skimmer, leave cup off first 24 hrs as skimmer will go nuts from the glycol solution in Prazi.
Monitor copper level with a reliable Copper Test kit such as Hanna Brand- No API brand. Also monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit
A quarantine tank can be as simple as a tank from a second hand store or a starter kit from Walmart which most of the needed essentials.
For Aptasia, You cant beat a Kleini Butterfly BUT must be the bluehead- NOT the yellow version. The yellow will go after coral too but bluehead as pictured will eat aptasia like candy, then eat all dry and frozen food offered, colorful, friendly and stays small. I will note that a couple of persons who got the blue had their kleini nip zoa. if so- easy sell, or place in sump as aptasia have likely made it down there already

Thank you you have been helpful a couple times now!

So in your opinion copper is the best solution? Only reason I want to resume this tank is they're lagoon 20s I plan on long term using for frags. (If I come home with another tank I think I'll be signing divorce papers) Haha

 

[Sump Crab]

Considering there is a blue hippo tang in their I would think ich isn't something to worry much about. That being said you need to take whatever steps necessary to sleep at night with a clear conscious lol! It's not worth cutting corners on something that will just bother you/cause doubt. If it were me I would not qt anything but I never qt anything lol.

 

[VintageReefer]

The lady I'm picking the tank up knows nothing. One of the LFS "maintenance" it every other week. If it did have ich she probably didn't know.

I'm simply just wanting to play it safe and with 20 plus fish it's a lot on the move.

I was thinking of picking up some berghia I would imagine with a butterfly they would destroy the appraisal population

Ah makes sense

Remember berghia are pack hunters
I would recommend start with 10 and divide them into two packs of 5

Turn off flow and lights and put one group on the left rockwork together and the other group on the right sides rock together. They spend their first few weeks laying eggs and once you get some colonies then they will munch all that aiptasia down.

I’ve done this twice. The first month you’ll barely ever see them day or night. Then you’ll notice aiptasia declining and then you’ll start seeing them out at night. When you start seeing them in the day time the battle is nearly over

 

[MnFish1]

Hello all!

I'll be picking up this tank today and tomorrow. Most of the fish will be given away due to their size or aggression. The few fish I decide to keep will go into a quarantine tank before either placing them back in the original tank or adding them to my display in the living room.

I have a few questions:

1. If ich is present (no current signs), how long can it and its eggs survive outside of water?

The usual quoted time DRY is 72 hours or so. wet - 6-8 weeks.

2. What is the safest way to treat ich in a quarantine tank without using copper? (I’d prefer to reuse the tanks)

Hyposalinity. With copper, though, if you use non-permeable materials (i.e PVC and glass) - you only need to clean the tank. Copper is only a problem when it has adsorbed onto rock and then can be released

3. What other diseases or parasites should I watch out for?

Assuming that you're not adding new things, it might be possible for a disease to be lingering, and that could be brought out by stress of moving. I would watch for any new symptoms - as it could be anything (including non-disease issues) - however, transfers like this are often without problem.

4. Pray for me—the amount of aiptasia is wild!

I would use Berghia nudibranch - making sure you're using the proper number for the tank. If you can remove some aiptasia when you do the tank transfer (ie. manually) thats also a good idea.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you you have been helpful a couple times now!

So in your opinion copper is the best solution? Only reason I want to resume this tank is they're lagoon 20s I plan on long term using for frags. (If I come home with another tank I think I'll be signing divorce papers) Haha

Coppersafe and yes. Its safe and will assure ich and any ich addressed