Velvet or Ich???

[SCH14]

Hey everyone,
Just went 90 days fallow after having velvet. After the 90 days was up I put my Achilles tang in an acclimation box for a few days was all good - has been in tank for 3 weeks no issues.

Added a blue hippo, purple and yellow 2 days ago all after 40 days of copper power 2.40+ multiple prazi treatments.

Blue hippo had all kinds of spots yesterday and now they are all over the Achilles.

Currently trying to catch all fish to re-qt.
Question: Can I remove all rock and sand- nuke the tank with copper power at like 4.0 or 6.0 for 4-5 weeks then when the fish are done w QT add them back to the display?

 

[SCH14]

Video on blue hippo is just how the Achilles looks- little spots over the whole body

 

[SCH14]

has to be velvet

 

[LAReefer4Life]

Sorry for all your troubles. That sounds super frustrating. I have had the fallow period fail me in the past too.

Copper shouldn't be used in your display as it can leach back into the system, inverts and coral are super sensitive to copper. You'll have to go fallow again unfortunately and wait it out. You can however set your aquarium to 81 degrees to speed up the life cycle shortening the timeframe to 45 days.

Ich life cycle is much slower than velvet so the 2 day turn around seems more like velvet but in the videos, it looked a bit more like ich to me. Are the fish breathing fast? Typically the extremely fast respiratory rate is a better indicator prior to physical symptoms.

Common reasons why fallow period or QT fails:

1) During water changes the copper went added into the new batch of saltwater prior to water change which causes the copper to drop below therapeutic levels.

2) Cross contamination of supplies or tools

3) QT setup not 10 ft away from display aquarium

4) New coral or inverts are additions to display during fallow period causing the clock to start over again

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hey everyone,
Just went 90 days fallow after having velvet. After the 90 days was up I put my Achilles tang in an acclimation box for a few days was all good - has been in tank for 3 weeks no issues.

Added a blue hippo, purple and yellow 2 days ago all after 40 days of copper power 2.40+ multiple prazi treatments.

Blue hippo had all kinds of spots yesterday and now they are all over the Achilles.

Currently trying to catch all fish to re-qt.
Question: Can I remove all rock and sand- nuke the tank with copper power at like 4.0 or 6.0 for 4-5 weeks then when the fish are done w QT add them back to the display?

That does look like ich. Rather than using copper as a sterilizing agent (with the copper absorption issue) why not use chlorine bleach and sterilize the whole tank and then rinse it well and reset the biological filter? Freshwater can also work, but I like to do FW and a light bleach dose (200 ppm)

 

[MnFish1]

Sorry for all your troubles. That sounds super frustrating. I have had the fallow period fail me in the past too.

Copper shouldn't be used in your display as it can leach back into the system, inverts and coral are super sensitive to copper. You'll have to go fallow again unfortunately and wait it out. You can however set your aquarium to 81 degrees to speed up the life cycle shortening the timeframe to 45 days.

Ich life cycle is much slower than velvet so the 2 day turn around seems more like velvet but in the videos, it looked a bit more like ich to me. Are the fish breathing fast? Typically the extremely fast respiratory rate is a better indicator prior to physical symptoms.

Common reasons why fallow period or QT fails:

1) During water changes the copper went added into the new batch of saltwater prior to water change which causes the copper to drop below therapeutic levels.

2) Cross contamination of supplies or tools

3) QT setup not 10 ft away from display aquarium

4) New coral or inverts are additions to display during fallow period causing the clock to start over again

Great summary - I would suggest that improper Copper testing is also an issue. EDIT - @Jay Hemdal posted before me and apologize I didn't see it - so ignore the duplication

To the OP: I agree with others - about 'nuking the tank with copper' I would not do that since that also will almost be like setting up a new tank. you should have better results if you follow the quarantine protocol - and BTW - Great that you're treating the other fish - many people don't realize/forget.

Additionally, if you DO want to take out the stuff in the display tank and clean them - there are many things to use besides copper. However, it's a moot point since the rocks and tank both have the same problem - i.e. exposed to ich (so the most sensible thing is to just do the fallow period again) Sorry its a frustrating period. I do wonder -how the tank got re-infected? Were the newest fish not quarantined?

Lastly - thats a lot of tangs - curious - can you show take a pic of the whole tank?