and I am losing.
Since March 6th I've been battling a horrid outbreak of ich. I set up a new tank, 125 gallon in Feb. Transferred into the new tank was 2- 20 gallon reef tanks. One had a watchman goby, false perc, lawnmower blenny and a royal gramma. In the other 20 I had a yellow tang that was basically in QT for 5 months--the only fish in that tank.
I had bought a PBTang and 9 chromis that was in a 50 gallon rubbermaid tote in QT for 5 to 6 weeks. The tangs were healthy, no signs of ich or problems with eating.
Since keeping saltwater tanks, I've never had an outbreak of this until now.
After 3 weeks in the new tank, the PB showed signs of ich. I started treatment immediatly with Kich-Ich and the tang showed improvement the next day. I've been following the treatment instructions, added a 18w UV and also a 9 watt uv yesterday. The outbreak overtook the gramma and the yellow tang three days ago. The powder blue tang is covered.
This morning my Royal Gramma died.
(yeah, I cried--he has been with us since the beginning--2 1/2 years ago.)
Now I know that I should have done something different. For the first time since I've had him, the PBT did not want to eat this morning. I'm not sure what steps to take next.
The system has a Euroreef RS-250 Skimmer, a 55 gallon sump/fuge. Liverock from small tanks and 50 #'s of base rock. All new sand except for the couple cupfuls of live sand from the established tanks to seed.
The readings are normal, except for elevated nitrates.
Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20ppm
pH 8.4
I've not used the skimmer since starting treatment, but have used filter socks that I change daily. I treated the tank again this morning (for two days in a row) with the Kich Ich. I still have a 20 gallon established tank set up with lr and ls and some cheato that I've not taken down. I was thinking of using some Metronidazole tablets and putting the tangs in there for treatment. ?
I do also have an empty 50 gallon acrylic that I could fill with aged sw to use for hospital tank and do hyposalinity treatment. I have an aquaclear filter I could use for filtering or a HOT Magnum that has a sponge cover that has been on the 20 established tank. I don't know if this will be enough for filtering.
I also have a bucket of ro/di water with a bubbler to oxygenate since this morning in case I need to do a FW dip--?
Which way to go? Any suggestions?