Tired of this already!!!!

[Kornele23]

If you havent heard my sob story already, then I'll give you a quick recap. Bought a 75 gallon tank, cycled for 3 weeks, tested water okay. Then proceded to put 9 fish in my tank in the next 3 weeks. I know I know, ROOKIE mistake. Too much to soon! Well the Powder Brown Tang got ick and then so did all the rest of the fish (except the Chromis' I still have). I learned my lesson and this time I'm taking it slow. I've done water changes every weekend and i'm letting the ick cycle out. I'm in week 3 of the cycling out process and decided to buy some fish. My wife bought a Yellowstriped Maroon Clown and a Koran Angelfish. We put them in the QT 2 days ago for there 3 week stay. Everything was fine UNTIL........

Yesterday I noticed that the Koran had some white stuff (not spots) on his fin. My wife thinks it's Ick and I think its Lymphocyctis. I cant really tell, I've looked at pictures and I'm not sure right now. But thats not all!!!

Last night we were watching TV and sparks started flying and smoke was coming from the QT. The freaking heater blew up!!!! I dont know what happened but the fish seemed fine. I dont have another heater, so what am I suppose to do. I had to put them in the DT. I REALLY REALLY didnt want to do that with the Koran have white STUFF on him.

Now, today I look at them and the Koran looks the same, but the Maroon has something below his top fin on his body. Its some type of discoloration. Not white, but a dry glue color of almost clear to off-white. Not a big spot but noticeable. I think its stress markings. They arent eating much either.

This sucks and I'm losing my mind!!! Sorry this is so long. :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

[jadeguppy]

Sorry to hear that. If it makes you feel any better I started keeping fish as a kid and still sometimes get impatient and make "rookie" mistakes. I nearly crashed my entire fw display about a year ago. It took two months to finally get everythign right again.
BTW, I like your choice of fish. Hang in there, maybe someone will have a way to help you out. I think it takes 6 weeks with no fish in a tank to completly kill ick by breaking the life cycle.

[Kornele23]

yeah I planned on waiting 6 weeks before I put anymore fish back in the tank. I had 3 more weeks to go and wanted to QT the fish for 3 weeks. I just cant catch a break!

[DrHank]

Plan on 8 weeks to be safe. Don't rush. I'd keep the tank fed during the down time to keep the bacteria going. All you need is a pinch of food every couple of days.

[Kornele23]

I'm not sure that yall are getting the jest of my story! I know that i need to wait 6-8 weeks to cycle out the Ick. I was 3 weeks into the process, BUT like I said in my first post. My heater blew up last night and I had to put the 2 fish into my DT. My QT is not occupied anymore and I have the 2 fish in my DT with problems as I stated. I was trying to fix the Ick problem and wasnt able to complete the process. Now I have new problems:

1. Not being able to finish the Ick cycle.
2. Possible Lymphocyctis or Ick on the Koran Angel.
3. Not sure what the discoloration is on the Maroon.

[jadeguppy]

I got that part. I figured you intend to get another heater and start the process over when you put the fish back into the qt.

[Kornele23]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10439833#post10439833 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jadeguppy
I got that part. I figured you intend to get another heater and start the process over when you put the fish back into the qt.

Ahhhhhhhh! I see now. I guess I could do that. Ya think I would have to start over the cycle in the DT? I really hope not... I'll pick up a heater tomorrow.

[FishF00d]

The Ich Cycle would have never finished. You still had the chromis in the display tank, which meant that the ich still had a host. So keeping the other fish in the QT wasn't doing anything for them, other than seeing if they had anything or getting them to eat.

If you want to clean the tank of Ich you must empty the main tank so there is no host for it after it goes through the other stages, which is said to take 30 days. At the same time you need to treat the QT tank.

So what needs to be done is you need to catch the fish in the display and put them in the QT after you get another heater and then treat them with meds or hypo, for at least 4 weeks, if you want to remove Ich from the tank.

[blacktone]

I've been running a stealth heater fully submerged, so far so go I've heard others liked it as well for it's ruggedness. Infact mine is weighed down by rocks. I know what your saying though. If it's not one thing it's another. In the end your hard work should reward you with a beautiful tank with abundance of life till your heater explodes again or a fish gets ich or some pipe breaks and floods the house or the display tank breaks cause some kids where playing around in the living room with bats. Hah! yeah frustrating...

[jadeguppy]

Display tank breaks because kids were playing with a bat in the house! I think I'd have to count to a very large number to keep from doing serious damage to them, not to mention saying something I would regret! I shudder to think about that.

[IslandCrow]

Man, how cold do you guys keep your houses that you need a heater in the summer?

Anyway, I have a possible suggestion that may or may not be a good idea, so you'll probably want to wait on some second or third opinions. It sounds like you have a lot of fish, most of them sick, and even if it weren't for the heater issue, you're probably running out of room in QT anyway. This is almost never advisable, but what about treating the main tank? I can't remember for sure, but I'm thinking you don't have any corals. Can you remove at least some of the live rock to a clean QT. . .one that hasn't seen medication, even if you have to get a new, cheap tank from Walmart? When you treat the main tank, you're going to kill all the nitrifying bacteria and start the cycle all over when everything's said and done, but it sounds like that may be the least of your worries at the moment. Oh, and you definitely wouldn't want to use copper as a treatment in this case. Once that gets in a tank, it's not coming out. I would think Hypo and antibiotics would be "safe", though.

Anyway, like I said, I'm thinking outside the box here, so there may be some very big flaws in this idea.

[jadeguppy]

Pulling the live rock into a safe qt will help jump start the cycle when he puts it back in the tank. It will need to stay out long enough to ensure that the ick doesn't hitch a ride back into the main tank, but that sounds like a possible plan.

[60Cubed]

Your biggest problem is catching the fish back out of your DT! I remember my wife had a powder blue in her tank. She bought a QT tank, set it up and the fish still died. I told her she was spending more to save the fish than she spent on it AND it still died! Now she has a clown fish all by itself! This is an expensive and frustrating hobby. You are trying to replicate nature for more than one species of animal. They don't all live in the same conditions unfortunately!