Fighting ICH

I have a 225 show tank. Every time I get a new fish I just take 15-20 gallons out of the main tank and toss it in the hospital/quarantine tank. This water is already cycled. Most medications will kill the cycle anyway. As long as you keep doing water changes with existing main display tank water shouldn't have an issue. If you have an heater, tank and air stone/power head you could start medication today... Key factor here is not to put ANY water from the medicated tank into the display, FE using different water lines, buckets, ect...

Here is a GREAT youtube video if you need further assistance.

 

Check out the tank transfer method. I've used tank water or fresh/new saltwater. I do it for all new fish. It's a little bit of work, but never had to deal with Ich.

 

Hello Bill!

Sorry for the loss of your fish - most of us have gone through something similar testing fate without a quarantine tank and eventually learn the value of it.

A QT can be very simple and size is dependent on the size of the fish. I've used a 20g tank in the past and a few years ago converted a 12g Nano into a QT. The tank needs to be fairly sparse and needs basic filtration (unless you want to do very frequent water changes, i.e. small ones daily), a heater and somewhere for the fish to hide (I use large pieces of PVC). Don't worry about rocks or anything pretty as the medications will kill any benefits other than eye appeal. The QT will only have the fish in it as medications will kill any inverts so no snail, crabs etc. unless you're going for a non-medicated approach.

As Placid said water from the display tank is perfect. I currently have a QT setup for a clown beauty I purchased from Petco with ICH (I purchase sick fish frequently and rehab for my display) and every week I replace 2 gallons of QT water with display water during a water change. I can also instantly setup the QT by using water from the display tank as it's ready to go - I can have the QT up and running in 15-20 minutes.

I quickly skimmed the video above and took away they recommend proactively treating all of your fish. I don't agree with this and it's a personal choice whether you do this or not. I typically keep a fish in the QT for 2-3 weeks (4 weeks if treating) and if they appear healthy I won't treat them.

If you can get some sort of QT up and running quickly you should be okay with your coral beauty. I treated mine with Mardel Coppersafe and see results within +/-24 hours. My CB was completely covered and had some sort of open wound when I got it on a Sunday. By Tuesday spots were disappearing, by following Saturday were completely gone and by the next Wednesday the open wound was healed.

Good luck!

-Eric

My QT: