Help! Velvet disease!

[bt]

Honestly, I'd probably just run it without the sponge.  I'd rather leave uneaten food floating in the tank until I go to siphon, and not risk the sponge trapping decaying matter that didn't get rinsed out.

Have some Prime or Amquel on hand too, just in case.

[Amy]

Alright, no sponge it is!  I bought Prime too, I had a hunch it would have been something useful...  Thanks again for the help!

[bt]

Just remember that if you're dosing Prime, most ammonia tests will not be accurate.  They will show the combined ammonia (toxic) and ammonium (non-toxic) levels.

[Amy]

Okay so I should only dose when the tests show up bright red then?

[Hookup]

you should consider water changes of 10+ gallons every two days.  This is important for two reasons, first it keeps the water awesome, which helps the fish... and second, it forces a habit of checking salinity very frequently.  If your salinity creeps up, even for a day or two, at least with ICK you're starting over on the 8 week treatment.

8 weeks @ 10gal every other day is 28 water changes or 280gal of salt.  Instant ocean should work just fine during this process so that $50 for a 200gal box and a bit more... maybe $65 of salt and some use on your RO/DI system.


Another word of caution is "Calibrated Refractometer". Ok, two words.

[moused]

you should consider water changes of 10+ gallons every two days. 

if it's a new tank set up without it being cycled.  There will be a lot more water changes then that.
I found with my QT tank controlling the Nitrates was very difficult.  I had to do a 90% change every 2 days to control the nitrates.  But once the bacteria builds up then it stabilizes.
I still have to come up with a method to get that QT tank up faster.  I heard that you just keep filter media (unused in qt tank) in your sump. then you can use it on the qt tank with the bacteria from your display.
I was also thinking of some sort of reactor filled with bioballs that I clean and put back into the sump once i'm done with QT (assuming I don't use copper)

Anyway...QT is a fantastic method on getting rid of Ick.  Nothing but success with this method (low salt and higher temps)

Note: I also heard that Velvet is species related.  ie if your tang has the velvet then your clowns wont' get it. (just what I read back in the day.)

[bt]

Okay so I should only dose when the tests show up bright red then?

You need a test that can measure free ammonia levels.  I know the Seachem "MultiTest: Ammonia" as well as their "Ammonia Alert" badge will do that.  There may be others as well.

[Hookup]

if it's a new tank set up without it being cycled.  There will be a lot more water changes then that.
I found with my QT tank controlling the Nitrates was very difficult.  I had to do a 90% change every 2 days to control the nitrates.  But once the bacteria builds up then it stabilizes.
I still have to come up with a method to get that QT tank up faster.  I heard that you just keep filter media (unused in qt tank) in your sump. then you can use it on the qt tank with the bacteria from your display.
I was also thinking of some sort of reactor filled with bioballs that I clean and put back into the sump once i'm done with QT (assuming I don't use copper)

Anyway...QT is a fantastic method on getting rid of Ick.  Nothing but success with this method (low salt and higher temps)

Note: I also heard that Velvet is species related.  ie if your tang has the velvet then your clowns wont' get it. (just what I read back in the day.)

There you go.. it's even worse than I thought...Even with IO salt, it could easily be over $100 in salt costs... time, etc...  this is just another rock on the pile as to why I never QT for fish related problems... what a huge tax pain... (HR block commercial reference)

Flame me now... i don't QT.

[mmaisonneuve]

Amy keep it simple.

Aquaclear is fine just put cheap filter floss (go to walmart get a large bag of the polyester stuff for blanket...it dirt cheap) change it every day...it's a QT tank you could not care less for denitrifying bacteria.....no sand bed not live rock just plastic pipe for hidding.

10% water change.......is the way to go. I was doing it every day...but it's a pain. I guess you could do it every 2nd day.

Water test......what for your changing the water (10% every day or so) don't worry.

do you treatment....bring them back to the healty side.

Once done with the treatment.....keep doing water change for 2-3 week with new water....then slowly bring water from the other tank for the water change....and again wait for a couple of week to see if the fish get sick. Under no circumstance you can add Live Rock or Sand in that QT tank. Once you are sure they are ok.....move 1 fish in the main tank and wait 1 week before moving a second one and so on.....this way you will ensure that nothing wrong is going on. If they get sink again bring them back.

Yes it's a lot of work but hey....tossing them and getting a new one would be to easy.....there is nothing like a good challenge.

[Amy]

There you go.. it's even worse than I thought...Even with IO salt, it could easily be over $100 in salt costs... time, etc...  this is just another rock on the pile as to why I never QT for fish related problems... what a huge tax pain... (HR block commercial reference)

Flame me now... i don't QT.

lol.. I don't QT  either, I didn't really believed in it (for ich most importantly) I still got my 60 running as a sort of QT but it's only to monitor the moorish idol.. I can overfeed without worrying about killing my acros. But now that I've seen what Velvet does do the fish, I really hope I won't have to deal with this again in my life... My naso tang had no flesh on his back for an entire day and I couldn't do a thing! I couldn't even catch him to finish him off...

I know I'll have to deal with ich all my life.. even if you think you don't have it, it's always going to find a way in your tank. That's my opinion... I work harder to make the fish feel at home and make them eat, then I wait for the ich to go away... Of course you may lose a fish or two, but you can also lose them while QTing too. It's still as stressful, if not more.

Anyway, thanks again for the help, I really appreciate it.

Of course I will try your method MMaisonneuve, I prefer curing them for sure. Buying another purple tang and hypo tang wouldn't be an easy thing to do, and not only because of their price range, but because I love them, no fish is replacable.

I'll go with a small daily water change, i'll test if I have too, I have the filter foam thing you're talking about. Doesn't look like a complicated process to me, and 4 weeks is not that bad. The blue tang's ich is almost totally gone today, I can only see like 5 spots, so that's an even greater news compared to what he looked like 2 weeks ago. I'll take it slow and observe the fish closely, and hopefully it will disappear completely.

I'll keep the 60 running longer and quarantine the futur fish for sure... at least if I have to treat them after, they will be easier to catch in the 60 than the 210! It's almost impossible to get the purple tang lol...