FarmerTy

Free powder blues! My favorite!!!

It's the drugs... He can't control his emotions.

My resolution is to have the tank as stable as possible... And then blow it up all again and remove all the corals and fish just for fun.

Haha, that's what I was hired to do... Sass people... Actually, I don't think I was ever hired but... Well I have Nuxx's hippo tang now so I'll tell you if I ever see any spots. If you want, I can tie a fake shark to his tail and have it constantly chase him around the tank if you want to induce some stress. [emoji12]

Oh yeah, give me another hit of that Mg! Daddy needs 1300 ppm!

I honestly don't think ich is as prevalent as we all think. Just my personal opinion. It's the concentrating of the fish from multiple sources at a LFS or wholesaler that really amplifies the incidence of the parasite. Good Greef, you just mentioned you'd like a better test than just a net chase but then you said you lost fish to the exact same scenario. I'd say catching a fish with a net and destroying the rockwork is pretty stressful then, am I right? I'm totally razzing you by the way. [emoji12]

Yeah, I personally wouldn't trust the Finnex controller, but the titanium heater by itself is awesome.

There's always that one guy! [emoji12] The tub has a 200 watt heater with its own controls hooked up to my Ranco temperature controller as a redundant heater controller. Boom! [emoji16]

If it did happen in my system, the chiller would just fight it the whole time until I noticed. Haha. Even if the heater was stuck on, the apex would turn off my lights to reduce heat and turn on the fans to cool along with the chiller. It would also text me that my temp is too high. Either case, I'm pretty sure I'd notice before things weren't awry.

Buy a Finnex titanium 800 watt heater (rated 140-265 gals) as the main heater and run it off your Apex. Then use the 300 watt as a backup.

I would imagine so on the lights but if it was me, I wouldn't run them just in case. The fish will be fine with ambient room light for the duration of the treatment.

Wrasses, they'll always find a way! Sorry about all the fish troubles Jimbo. That's why I recommended the freshwater bath. The parasite that causes marine velvet is a dinoflaggelate and readily drops off in a freshwater bath, unlike ich which is a protist and burrows under the skin and is less affected by a freshwater dip. Just stick to the instructions of the CP treatment and you'll be fine. Don't mix it with any other medications, don't run carbon or a skimmer, and don't run a light over the treatment tank as CP is sensitive to UV light and it could diminish its effectiveness. Since there is no test kit for CP, just keep track of water changes and dose the same volume back as removed. For instance, 10 gallon water change, when you replace the 10 gallons, just dose 10 gallons worth of CP dosage back into the water. There is a large margin of error for CP, unlike a copper treatment, so it doesn't have to be perfect. Good luck!

We do have a running example of an ich-free tank, Nuxx has one. I got to see it myself the other day. He even did a stress test with catching a yellow belly hippo out of the display and neither the hippo, his black tang, or any of his other fish showed any spots during this time when he was running around like a mad man with a net, moving his entire rock scape to catch the hippo. He said the hippo looked like it was going to have a heart attack when he finally caught it. Hippos are highly susceptible to ich but not as much as powder blues or achilles, but enough so that I would assume a stressful event like that would cause it to surface on the hippo. Ich-free isn't an illusion or a false hope, it can scientifically be done. We know the life cycle of the parasite and know the QT methods to keep it from entering the system. Everything HAS to be QT'ed outside of the DT and observed and treated if necessary prior to introduction into the DT. I personally would not have taken this step to remove ich from my system if it were not for three things: 1) I am done stocking and have almost all the corals and fish I want for my system 2) I want to keep a powder blue or achilles tang 3) I plan to QT everything in a separate tank prior to introduction into my tank from this point on. Here's my thoughts as I have now been on both sides off the discussion for keeping an ich-free tank or doing ich-maintenance. If I was to keep a tank without a powder blue, powder brown, or achilles tang, I would just run an ich-maintenance tank like I've done since I've kept reef tanks. (I've done this for 12 years without fail, until I added a powder blue! Then it didn't work anymore.) I would know ich is in my system but barring stressful events, they would never be overwhelmed with ich. They would get a spot from time to time but nothing would ever overtake them and kill them. Perfect example of this is Juiceman's tank. He has a myriad of tangs, including an achilles and black tang, that will get spots from time to time but never overwhelms the fish population in his tank. He does not run UV. I have not seen any info on dips killing ich in any form but I would imagine they do have some effect on the non-encysted form of ich. But if I had a truly ich-free system, I would not chance it with a dip. QT is the only way. Speaking of dips, they are not surefire in any sense. I dipped everything going into my old 125-gallon and I got bryopsis, red bugs, and AEFW in that tank over the years. Sure, it helps minimize potential threats but I would focus on the word minimize, not assume it fully eradicates the chances. Think not 100%, but maybe more 90% chance you didn't let something in, which is useful in its own right, just not 100%. [emoji6] Regarding UV, most know I have a giant 57-watt UV on my tank and it was running during this time the tank broke out in ich. I have no doubt it was effective to a certain degree and probably saved my whole fish population from an awful demise but it was not effective enough to overcome a powder blue and it's ridiculous inability to resist ich. Bear in mind that this powder blue lived in my sump for 3 months in my sump without a spot of ich on him, it was only when I put him in my DT with the rest of the fish is when all this started happening. I could see a scenario where I was more lightly stocked that this wouldn't have happened, either less fish total or less volume of fish (smaller fish). Anyways, that's my two cents from my own experience on the matter. Hope it was entertaining for someone to read. [emoji4]

Covered in ich prior I don't have an "after" pic since its hard to capture in a tub but just imagine that same emperor without a spot of ich on him. [emoji16] I'll definitely be doing the TTM with any incoming fish from this point on and then observing for a few weeks afterwards for signs of anything else prior to going into the DT.

Oh, I guess I could have mentioned the tank transfer method for eradicating ich has been completed and my fish show no signs of it anymore, which is impressive because the emperor and the orange shoulder tang were entirely covered by it. Not a spot anywhere! Amazing! No chemicals involved whatsoever! Now I'll just complete the 64 more days of leaving the tank fallow for the total 76 days.

Yikes! Hopefully the prime will hold them over until the morning when you can get some saltwater.

I would just trust me implicitly. [emoji12]

+1, I have 3 that are over 3" in my system. Make sure you're looking at zebra turbo snails and not just the regular turbo snails.

Home... sweet... tub??? Say hello to the next 64 days of your life my fishes.

Zebra turbo snail. Mine have never crawled out of the system but there's always a wacky snail or two. I'd doublecheck all water parameters though, just in case.

Pm'ed

I'll take it if it hasn't been spoken for Dan. It'll be a good backup.

For stuff that I auctioned, unless it was common, my starting was $5. I'm not sure of the actual rule but that's what happened at the first auction at Dan and Megs.

Welcome!

Welcome! Come to the meeting for sure. People are getting awesome frags for $5-$10/frag during the auctions.