Ich after almost 4 weeks in Hypo?

[stingythingy45]

I've had all my fish in a 20 long now for almost 4 weeks.I pulled them all after doing the ultimate stupid of adding a fish that broke out without QT.For the first 3-5 days I treated with Rid Ich +(formalin/malichite green)in a 10 gallon.
I moved my filter from my 55 over to the QT tank to help seed it with bacteria.I did this about a week after I moved the fish.Everything was looking fine this week.Even picked out a date to return the fish.Then today I get home from work and my male clown has Ich.
He's even flashing some,the female has a few specks also.The other fish(a few damsel,blenny and chromis) look fine.
I test the water for SG every day on a calibrated refractor.(1.010 SG)
Now what do I do?
Is this normal to have a break out while in hypo,due to the life cycle of Ich?
Will this breakout die now when it tries to encyst?
Should I consider copper now?

[nano mania]

Since you have lowered the salinity I assume you don't have inverts. I would treat the whole tank for 4-5 weeks. The cysts can lay dormant for a longer depending on the temp. Try slowly raising the temp to 82-83F. This will quicken the life cycle of the parasite

[Sk8r]

OMG.
We're not talking about treating the main tank with copper, please. Right? This is the qt tank? Good.
You should not have a filter in a reef, at all. If you have carbon in the filter, it has messed with the meds. Junk the filter. It never should have existed at all. I have never used malachite green in a marine tank. I don't know if it works at all.
The appropriate med for ich is either copper OR [if the fish will tolerate it, and preferably] hypo. Never combine treatments. The fish's kidneys have a hard enough time.b
Salinity for a reef tank is 1.025. Salinity for hypo, I think, 1.009, but check that level for accuracy in the Fish Disease Forum. Daily is good.
You're in for another number of weeks of treatment, unfortunately. But this is why we have quarantines. I imagine you will pull everybody through, but run some carbon [safe, in hypo] and get rid of the malachite green, and discard. You CAN safely run carbon in hypo.

If hypo is not working for your clowns, this may be a problem. If they were my fish, I'd establish two separate qts, one for the fish [clowns] with the problem, that you may lose, and who probably should be gradually restored to 1.025 salinity and treated with copper, and one for everybody else, who are not as ich-prone, and who may get through this with just hypo, and not copper, which does damage organs.

[stingythingy45]

Yikes.........NO,NO,NO.
I would never treat copper or hypo in the display.
I moved the fish to a 10 gallon,treated with Rid Ich + and then moved them to a 20 long tank with salinity 1.025.Then I slowly dropped that to 1.010 SG over a distance of 3-4 days.
I moved my filter,Aquaclear 50 from the 55(display) over that I run crbon and a filter pad that I clean often.The filter pad was due for cleaning and moved it to seed the QT tank with bacteria.
The 20 long(current QT) has actually gone through a cycle.I kept the ammonia level down with water changes and Amequel.
Last night I raised the temp. to 80 in the QT and dropped SG to 1.009.But I must say,I'm considering moving them back to the 10 gallon.Raising the SG back to 1.024 over 5 days and cupramine the situation.Or perhaps just treat the clowns.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...in+a+hypo+tank

[NirvanaFan]

When I've done hypo, the fish looked ich free in about 3 days. About 7 or 10 days after that, the fish had another outbreak. I've read that this is common. After the secondary outbreak the fish didn't seem to have any more ich on it. I usually leave the fish in QT for 4 weeks after the last sign of ich is gone.

[stingythingy45]

I think that my time table has been pushed back by moving the filter.But it sure helped getting the tank cycled and removing the worry of ammonia also.I'm just going to continue with the plan and keep the SG at 1.008-1.009.