Help!!!

[Steven Lee]

Hi anyone out there can tell me what to do? Almost all my fishes in my new422 setup is infected with white spots 7 my purple tang just died yesterday, can anyone tell me what to do?

[KaLiB]

What are the water parameters? Poor water parameters would affect the fish overall health and therefore weaken the immune system and make the fish more susceptible to ich(which causes whitespot). Correcting the water parameters will help. Since you mentioned the tank is new, did you stockup the tank very quickly?

Do you have corals/invertebrates in the tank? Certain chemical medicines cannot be used as they contain copper and this will harm corals and invertebrates.

Tangs are known to be more prone to the ich parasite so don't panic too much here. You could be seeing this problem quite often if your keeping Tangs.

I believe these are the more common ones that we use:
- Using a UV sterilizer to kill whatever floating parasites in the water
- Giving the affected fish a fw dip(if i'm not wrong 30s is enough but do monitor very closely for signs of stress and cut short the treatment if necessary) to kill the parasite via osmotic shock
- If the fishes are feeding, feed food soaked in garlic juice as this helps boost the immune system
- Hyposalinity(If the fishes don't respond well to fw dip as this is less stressful)

Here's some more articles for you to find out more about the disease and its treatments:
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/tr...marineich.html
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

[Steven Lee]

Originally Posted by KaLiB

What are the water parameters? Poor water parameters would affect the fish overall health and therefore weaken the immune system and make the fish more susceptible to ich(which causes whitespot). Correcting the water parameters will help. Since you mentioned the tank is new, did you stockup the tank very quickly?

Do you have corals/invertebrates in the tank? Certain chemical medicines cannot be used as they contain copper and this will harm corals and invertebrates.

Tangs are known to be more prone to the ich parasite so don't panic too much here. You could be seeing this problem quite often if your keeping Tangs.

I believe these are the more common ones that we use:
- Using a UV sterilizer to kill whatever floating parasites in the water
- Giving the affected fish a fw dip(if i'm not wrong 30s is enough but do monitor very closely for signs of stress and cut short the treatment if necessary) to kill the parasite via osmotic shock
- If the fishes are feeding, feed food soaked in garlic juice as this helps boost the immune system
- Hyposalinity(If the fishes don't respond well to fw dip as this is less stressful)

Here's some more articles for you to find out more about the disease and its treatments:
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/tr...marineich.html
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

Thanks bro, unfortunately another of my powder bown died yesterday, I think I did cycle the tank quite well. 1 week running with only tropical marine salt & bacteria, added live rocks and cycled another 2 weeks before adding a 4 damsels and another week to add in a powder brown / 1 power blue/ 1 yellow tang/ 1 brown tang/ 1 purple tang/ 1 maroon clown & 2 anthias. last week I added a plate & jewel to it. The rest of the fishes seems quite sick except for the damsels & maroon clown.

[KaLiB]

I think the cycling period is too short though your method isn't wrong(referring to what you've done for the first 3weeks). Usually, the cycling process would take 4weeks. However, for a confirmation that the cycling process has been completed, ammonia and nitrite has to be measured and both readings must be 0ppm. This does not mean that the filtration system is matured however. It just indicates that the tank is ready for the first fish as there is bacteria within the system to deal with the current bioload(which is die-offs from the LR in your case). The cycling process is just to kickstart the bacteria population and letting them establish within the filtration system.

Damsels are generally very hardy and are not so susceptible to illness. From what you've describe, the cause of the whitespot problem could very well be poor water parameters. If the water parameters isn't good(especially due to the presence of ammonia and nitrite), fish health would suffer and make them more susceptible to illness. The ich parasite could have started spreading from the Tangs(those species you've mentioned are tougher species and more prone to ich). Correcting of the water parameters plus feeding of garlic soaked food(if the fishes are still feeding) should help alot in the problem.

The root of the whole problem would be adding to many fishes within too short a period of time. This is a very common mistake that many people make. Although your tank setup can take so many fishes, but the filtration system would not be able to handle such a large spike in bioload within such a period of time. Reason being, you must give time for the bacteria population to multiply and cope with the new bioload. The bacteria population will only multiply to whatever is the bioload(assuming here food is the only limiting factor).

Let me explain in a little more detail:
- Assuming cycling completes in 3weeks and you add in the 4damsels. The 4 damsels would create a small spike in bioload, which could result in a small spike in ammonia and nitrite. However, this isn't a big problem as if no more livestock(coral/fish/invert) is added for the next 1-2week, the bacteria population can multiply and cope.
- 1week later, you add in another 8fishes. Now, this will cause a rather big spike in bioload as the number of fishes added in is alot and Tangs produce quite alot of waste. This will cause ammonia and nitrite to spike. If the bacteria wasn't able to cope in time to the addition of damsels the week before, ammonia and nitrite levels will rise further.
- Even if the bacteria did manage to multiply and cope with the new load(the 4damsels) from the pervious week, the bacteria definitely will need quite alot of time to cope with the new load from the 8fishes.
- Ammonia and nitrite is very toxic even in small amounts like 0.1ppm due to the high pH of saltwater setups
- Hence, its very likely that there's ammonia and nitrite in the setup which caused the fish to be stressed and fall ill.

My advise would be to just try to stabilize the situation first. After which(i would advise giving a short break of about a month), then you should start stocking the tank. In marine, the slower you go, the better it is though i can understand sometimes it very difficult and very tempting to stockup the whole tank with colourful fishes.

Bro,
You should cycle and follow through your cycle by checking your NH3,NO2 and NO3.
When all is zero than your can add in LS slowly and not what you have done so far.

Regards