Please Read This...

[smndfi]

Just to start off, I am going to explain everything as best I can and I ask for any help you can give...



I have about 35 lbs of fiji live rock in my 29 gal tank. I had a pacific blue tang, blue devil damsel, and 4 corals. Those corals were a yellow leather, hammer, bubble, and a colt coral. About one week ago I received a powder blue for free. I had it in my tank for about 3 days and then it started to get ich. I treated my tank with "Rid-Ich." I did not know that Rid-Ich basically kills everything without a backbone. I treated my tank for a couple of days and then my powder blue died as well as all my corals. Now my tank has killed everything, including my live rock, except for my pacific blue tang and my blue devil damsel. I would like to move my live rock and my two fish into two seperate tanks. I have a 10 gal and a 20 gal tank. My tanks are mixed with R/O DI water and salt, so they are ready for live rock, but I am not sure about my fish. Since I am basically starting over, would it be ok for me to add my fish and my live rock into those tanks?

[sandram]

Why do you want to move the fish and rock into two seperate tanks? I am not quite understanding the question I guess. Why not do a major water change and start over? Get more live rock too. Plus I think that a powder blue tang really needs a bigger tank than what you have. No offense

[sandram]

but you should definately start up a qt tank.

[smndfi]

I was going to do a 100% water change on my tank though. Won't that be a big affect on my tank? I know I should not do a 100% water change if I have fish in there, right?

[murfman]

put one of your fish in the 10 and one in the 20 and treat for the ich. do a 50% water change on the tank with your lr and test for a cycle, once the fish are cured and 6 weeks has gone by, you can put them back into the bigger tank

[sandram]

but you should definately start up a qt tank.

[smndfi]

1) I should tell you, I don't see any ich on the fish. Should I treat just in case?

2) I do not need live rock in either tank?

3) Will the fish be ok in the tank even though they are just now getting set up?

4) Will they be ok without live rock?

5) Should I put atleast one piece of live rock in the tanks?

[sandram]

the fish will do fine without live rock, put each in the tanks do a change and let it cycle again. You may need to get more live rock, but try leaving it in the main tank and letting it cure again, that might help im not real sure.

[smndfi]

I was acutally told to do that. Now, what if I put the fish in the 20 gal tank together? Do you think that will hurt anything?

[wsg]

the pacific blue should go to a bigger tank anybody that is recommending that you put this in a smaller qt tank just to return it to a 29g should reread the post from the beginning. Don't mean to sound like a jerk but you have made some mistakes the first step in correcting this problem is get rid of the tang unless he is very small then you could probably keep him for about 6 months before giving him up I have a couple tangs in a 45g hospital tank and feel cruel. The reason I suggest this course of action is the stress you are putting this fish thru will make survival a difficult thing.IMHO

[wsg]

BTW if you need to start a quick tank take some water from your larger system say 50 % put it in your smaller tank add more water make sure the paramaters are close to original tank for transfer some people will put clay pots and pvc pipe for hiding spots for fish HTH

[smndfi]

The main reason I am keeping the tang around is because I am looking to get a 125 gal if everything works out...

Once my water is heated in my other tank, can I put the fish in there?

Also, the tang is very small. He might be around 2 - 4 inches (if that)...

[smndfi]

Should I put the two fish in a bucket and then acclimate the fish?

[thedude]

Ok, you need to just slow down a bit here. It sounds like Rid Ich killed your corals, and did nothing for your sick fish.

I'd say put some carbon in the sump, do a 20% water change (50% is pretty severe and could cause more problems). Let the carbon do it's job for a few days, then do a 10% change. That should clear out the chemicals sufficiently, and let things get back to normal.

As for the QT tank, at this point it is a good idea for future fish. If your current fish are showing signs, then maybe put them in the QT tank and treat. If they don't show any signs, you could supplement their food with garlic, that seems to keep it away. Moving your fish into a new tank with new water could stress them out and make them susceptible to ich.

When you setup your qt tank I would do it completely bare with some pvc for fish to hide in. Don't waste live rock in it. Throw a cocktail shrimp in the tank to cycle it.

I would not take water from your main tank and put it in there. You would just be moving the ich from one tank to the other. Same goes for the live rock.

As for tangs in a 29 gallon, that's a big no no. They need room to swim, give them to a friend or an LFS.

[rjwilson37]

Ok, The stuff you used to treat your main tank for ich is going to be on the LR, In the Filter Media, powerheads, sand, everything is going to have traces of that Medicine. If you do not want to ever do corals or inverts in the main tank again, then leave as is and do a 50% water change and use carbon media to clean out the medicine. But, Inverts and especially corals can not have any traces of the Medicine in the tank.

If you want to do corals, you will have to scrap all your LR and LS and do a really good cleaning on tank with a bleach/water mix and rinse it very thoughouly. You also need to soak your equipment, powerheads and filter/skimmer in a vineger solution, not sure exactly how much vineger/water mix and such. But rinse it all very, very, very well after your cleaning. Get fresh carbon/filter media if you were using such and then get your tank going again. Fresh LR/LS and go through a cycle, in which you should be ich free, since it is fresh with no fish. And then put your QT fish after 6 weeks into your new fresh tank setup. Then you can do some soft corals after 2-3 months and LPS after 5-6 months.

Good Luck!

[sandram]

I agree with scrapping the lr and possibly live sand, And washing out all equipment. I also think that you should still get rid of the tang even though you are supposed to be getting a bigger tank, something could come up where you cant get it and there is a fish in there miserable because it has no room to swim. IMHO I think that you need to just call it quits for right now until you can get the bigger tank and start from scratch and just learn as much as possible in the meantime.

[nanocat]

I have a 29g. and I'm sitting here staring at it trying to imagine a 2-4" tang :(

You do realize when you look at it, how small your tank is right? I have a blue tang that I won at a club meeting last month. It was slightly smaller than a dime. I took it home knowing I would let it grow a bit, and then give it to another club member with a MUCH larger tank. I thought I'd have it for 4 to 6 months. Well, within 4 weeks, the little guy is now the size of a quarter (right around 1"long) and I'm ready to see him go to a better home. Tangs grow pretty fast if they're eating well, and I kept him stuffed with tang heaven algae and mysis, krill, and formula one. :)

Please consider letting your little guy get adopted by a friend with a 100g. tank or larger.

[rjwilson37]

You are going to spend alot on corals and some (the expensive ones) are touchy and just those traces still hanging around can cause you problems. You may not think so but after a few die here and there and your trying to figure out why, you will sort of know why. Then you have to break the whole tank down after losses and such and it is better to be safe and do it now before you spend a bundle on more corals.

[thedude]

Perhaps all of you that are suggesting that smndfi should scrap all of his live rock, and tear his tank down show some proof that formalin will soak into LR, sand, and stick to equipment.

According to my knowledge and research, only copper binds to calcium carbonate. Everything I've read about formalin is that it breaks down quickly. Granted it does nothing for corals, and other inverts.