Ich fish removed keeping it for 90 days but have questions

cvanchuck · Sep 17, 2019

Hello all so I made the rookie mistake of not qt a fish I purchased a few weeks ago and now I have ich. My main DT is a Reef tank so obviously no Copper treatment there. Here is what I did.

Purchased a too fin 55 gallon kit from PetSmart.
Got a few PVC elbows and t joints for hiding places
Went to LFS and purchased 4 small rocks from their tanks that have good bacteria on them. Also removed 3 from my tank as well that I didn't mind losing. Purchased small bag of live sand to put in a Tupperware bin in new qt tank just for instant cycle.

Took 55 gallons from main DT and filled new tank in different room

Took spare media reactor I've had laying around and ran 50/50 gfo/carbon to clean up water. Ran it for three days then removed all carbon and gfo

Am now running coppersafe and checking daily with Hannah checker and it's staying above 2.0

Fish are eating and doing fine. Here are my questions.

Only items in main Dt are corals Rose BTA cleaner shrimp. Snails and hermits. Planning on returning fish after Christmas

Feeding reef roids twice a week and mysis shrimp once a week to Rose BTA. The cleaner shrimp gets some of that food when I spot feed

Is that enough for my cleaner shrimp snails and hermits?

Thinking about removing my filter socks completely after a few weeks to allow the reefroids to keep flowing through. Would eventually get skimmed out. Is that a good idea. Or maybe turn off the skimmer?

Should I continue water changes in that tank?
Anything you think I'm missing here?

Thanks in advance everyone!!!

Old Fritz · Sep 17, 2019

that should be enough for your hermit crabs and cleaner shrimp. You should continue to do water changes (probably not nearly as often) just keep an eye on your water params and do water changes if anything is reading too high.

this is me just being a richard but I don't believe in that prepackaged live sand. Because its an air tight bag meaning no oxygen exchange and there is nothing in the bag is producing ammonia to keep the bacteria alive. I'm sure if the stuff is new its great but you never know how long that stuff has been sitting on the shelf. Thats just me being a nit picker though don't hate me

Ian Baxter · Sep 17, 2019

I'm going through the same thing. I just noticed ich on my PBT and Porcupine Puffer last night and I'm trying to figure out what size QT I should get. Both fish are about 4-5 inches. I also have 2 Clowns, 2 Azure Damselfish, 1 Cardinal, 1 Diamond Goby (although haven't seen him in two weeks since I bought it). All fish except the puffer and PBT are small. What made you decide on a 55 gal?

cvanchuck · Sep 17, 2019

Ian Baxter said:
I'm going through the same thing. I just noticed ich on my PBT and Porcupine Puffer last night and I'm trying to figure out what size QT I should get. Both fish are about 4-5 inches. I also have 2 Clowns, 2 Azure Damselfish, 1 Cardinal, 1 Diamond Goby (although haven't seen him in two weeks since I bought it). All fish except the puffer and PBT are small. What made you decide on a 55 gal?

Mainly price. But the tank is a little small for my fish. But for three months it would be ok.