Ich woes, weighing my options before going full nuclear. Any help appreciated

[MnFish1]

Ouch Okay, at least I know what I'm working with

Yes, so I ordered the copper and hanna checker already. I can get the ball moving on that. I've dissected the sticky and watched an absurd amount of videos on qt and treatment this week lol

Would a stock tank (Horse trough) make the most sense for this? This is the part I'm struggling with most. Or is best course getting a 40 breeder/55 something like that and then treating them inside of that AND keeping them there after medicating? The hardest part of this would be the actual location. I read (Not sure if sticky or just randomly online) that the tank has to be 10ft+ away from infected tank, ideally in separate room. That part is tough. Is Ich REALLY airborne? or is this a safety measure to avoid cross contaminating water ?

So the hard part with this is I'm already due for this upgrade.. But staying the course is probably best. Or getting the new tank and putting it where rubbermaid stock tanks would go. It's so hard for me to rationalize all the struggle involved with both scenarios. If I get upgrade tank at least the fish will be golden after treatment and rock can begin to mature. So when I do move it's already ready and will just be waiting on coral dt to run through fallow period.

The treating in batches thing would be to ease off the current tanks bioload (Particularly to dial in how much nitrate/phosphate I'd have to dose while fallow) and to ramp up the new tanks bio filter to handle all these fish.
Once treated the fish would not be going back to the DT tank. It would end up going fallow after probably 2 rounds of treatment. Does that make sense or am I thinking too much about stability? (It's like being worried about a candle burning when the building is already on fire lol)

Really appreciate your time, thank you!!

I think in the end it comes down to your personal preference. Remember, that if you use copper in your new tank you will have to remove it before re-adding inverts/coral. I believe that ich can be spread by droplets - more likely is through equipment, thus the 10 foot rule However, if you're treating with copper in one tank the ich should be gone. Without fish in your display (while it's fallow), ich will die either way. I think the 10 foot rule is more important in the situation where let's say you have a display tank with fish, and then have a new fish that you want to quarantine. In your situation you will be treating all of the fish - so IMHO, the rule is somewhat less important.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks for the reply Jay, been thoroughly enjoying your threads. (I read over ich management, which was suggested to me by a fellow reefer) I think I'm past that point, at least for this particular fish. I could pull just this one to treat and manage the rest. Treating if/as they get sick. But the leads me right back to the original problem of where to keep them after treatment.
I have another system running for anemones currently but it's not enough space for all of my corals, nor do I have the proper equipment on it (IErobes, dosers, etc) for me to feel comfortable with the viability of moving all my coral there to ride out the fallow/hypo period.

Regarding Hypo, I might end up going that route on another avenue. Since I have rock cycled in the nem tank, in theory can I just pull a bunch of that out, add new biomedia/dry rock and seed it with my VERY aged rock. Putting all of that into a temporary tank (Or the upgrade tank if I go that route) and run it Hypo while the display tank is fallow? That might be the best option for me honestly. Keeps my current system running and easy to monitor while also giving me a temporary solution for housing my fish. And potentially makes the upgrade path/moving to new house easier as I will have two tanks to work with.
Potential plan:
Setup temporary home/upgrade tank. Move aged rock that has bacteria on it, add some extra media (Or pull the media from DT tank). Transition fish and rock to hypo. Ride out Hypo treatment and fallow DT. And then hopefully be ready to move houses: Transition fish back to 35 ppt, put back in display, move upgrade tank to new house. Get running, and then move fish and coral over simultaneously.

Is this a viable solution? Most practical?
Sorry for the wall of text lol. I owe so many of you a beer/coffee!!

That seems like a viable solution.

Here is my hyposalinity article and thread:

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2021 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[MnFish1]

That seems like a viable solution.

Here is my hyposalinity article and thread:

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2021 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

Great idea.