Substrate in hospital tank
 

Should I use any or leave it bare?

Hospital tank - meaning you will be medicating - bare.

QT tank - I take to mean a place to put new fish to observe. My QT tank is like a little reef tank.

So, if you can't do both, you should possibly be prepared to treat the fish if you are prone to doing that kind of thing, which I personally am not.. :biggrin:

Unfortunatly, it is going to be medicated. The kick ick isn't going very well. I'm going to remove the fish from the main tank and medicate them there(HP tank). After 6 weeks I'll return them to the main tank, then I would like to start a seahorse/refugium in the HP tank.
I would also like not to have to medicate, but Nemo got the best of me and I don't have a QT so it effected the rest of the tank.

If it's Ick you are trying to get rid of then why not try hyposalinity first ? ... give the fish a freshwater bath then put in the QT tank and slowly drop the salinity to 1.009 ( over a few days ) and leave it there for 4 - 5 weeks ... then slowly raise the salinity back to 1.026 ( or whatever is normal in your tank ) ... Saltwater Ick cannot survive low salinity ... your display tank will be without any hosts ( fish ) so whatever ick was left behind will die in there also.

Cheers

The fresh water dip has always concerned me. I hate to stress the fish out like that. Leaving it there until it is in distress then pulling it out doesn't appeal to me. I would need to do that to 3 fish.
How long does ick live without its host?

Up to six weeks.

As a tang keeper, I don't fear ick anymore and treat with nutrition and water quality, and a little garlic.

But severe cases do require attention - if it were me I'd do the hypo, I've done it and it is slick. Skip the FW bath imo, it is stressful and CAN kill your fish although clownfish seem to take it exceptionally well.

Emilyb, My yellow tang was the first to show signs of ich after the clown. Maybe i'll give it a try. The clown fish is the worst It is getting into its eyes now.

Marty,

To effectively do a hyposalinity, you need a refractometer. The swing arm salinity meters are not accurate enough. Here's a page on the hypo treatment:

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/tr...osalinity.html

I would skip the FW dip, and use water from your main tank in your H-tank to reduce stress on your fish. Keep your main tank free of fish for 6 weeks to get rid of the ick there before re-introducing the fish in hospital. You may have to do top ups a few times a day during hypo treatment to maintain the low salinity levels. Watch pH and alk as well since you are dealing with water with about half the normal alk.

On another subject, if you are going to get seahorses, please make sure you get captive bred. Here's the best SH site to do research:

http://www.seahorse.org/

Here's my own pages on our captive bred H. whitei seahorses:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/hh-bw-28gal-whitei.htm

More seahorse pages and a gallery of seahorse feeding stations:

http://www.lostmymarblz.com/hippocampushaven.htm

HTH :smile:

Bev, I always try to get captive bred. Not always possible though. Thanks for the great links :smile: I don't have a refractometer so would I be better off going for one of the copper based medications?

martynm, if the clown has it on his eyes, I would do the dip. Equalize temp and pH. JMHO. Use an airstone in there as well and watch for signs of obvious stress.