Ich!

[bababooey]

Hello everyone after years of paradise without any problems. I just noticed two of my fish rubbing against the sandbed and live rock. It looks like ich. My royal gramma started showing these signs as of yesterday and now my new favorite fish - copper banded butterfly fish is showing a small fuzzy cotton on top of his fin. I have also seen him rubbing against the rocks. Now I think I have to relocate them to a 35gal tank that I have not used in years and treat them there with copper. My question but I think I want to make sure is should I remove all fish inhabitants (tang,hawkfish,damsels,clownfish)to the quarantine tank as well.

If I do for how long should I leave my tank empty? Will the ich latch on to my corals?

Any advise would be appreciated.

[REEFLIFE]

If it were me (just my opinion), I would just move the sick fish until you see others showing signs. If everything was going well for so long there is usually a reason for the outbreak. Check all parameters and make sure nothing has changed. What led up to this, anything different you can think of. There are some "reef safe" ich type treatments available. I have heard great success and not so much success. I have a bottle of no-ich just incase this happens. Some would say add a cleaner shrimp or wrasse but it sounds like more than just ich (small white spots). If you can, catch them, move them to sick tank and treat. If you cant catch them try the reef safe stuff if you can get it quick. See what others say.