I need some help and definitely some sympathy and handholding...
I bought a 29 gallon BioCube a month ago. It's got 30 lbs
live rock, and about 4" of sand. I removed the bio balls and replaced them with
live rock rubble. I found a Coral Beauty and Sea Bass that went into my 10 gallon quarantine tank while the tank cycled.
After about 15 days, the tank parameters were looking really good, and the CB was looking really cramped in the quarantine tank. So I got optimistic and dumped both fish in the BioCube. I sat down to admire them while they happily explored. And, in the better light, I saw several white spots on the CB's head. I about freaked, but...
I decided to get advice before I did anything, and I figured tearing the rock apart to catch the fish would just stress them out more.
The spots were gone the next day. A new one was on her side when I walked into the office that morning, but that one was gone also when I looked again in 10 minutes. After talking to the
lfs, I dropped the
salinity to 1.018 (from 1.022) over the next two days and watched. I bought 2 cleaner shrimp, one lived, one died immediately. :-( About average for me and shrimp. <sigh> Two days later (last Sunday), I dropped the
salinity to 1.014, the shrimp stayed active but I never saw him clean anybody. I've been dosing Seachem Reef Builder (carbonate) all along to keep the KH about 7 or 8 drops.
Last Tuesday it looked like the CB might have a couple spots on her forehead. I dropped the
salinity to 1.012 immediately. The shrimp stayed OK, and the Ich disappeared. Thursday morning (12:30AM) the Angel had at least 10 spots on her fins and head. I did everything except rip the tank apart, but I couldn't catch the shrimp.
I felt rather desperate at this point, and decided that the fish were more important to me. I dropped the
salinity to 1.010 before I went to bed and to 1.009 at noon Thursday. (The shrimp died in the meantime, and I feel really bad about that.)
The fish is spot free at the moment. Throughout all of this, she's eaten well and been very active. She has taken Formula One flakes, freeze dried krill, pecked at shrimp pellets, and grazed the algae on the rocks. She has NOT been interested in live brine shrimp or dried algae...? In fact, today is the first day since I've had her she hasn't had a long, firm, solid poop most of the time. I don't know why, and she's active enough, but at this point I'm jumping at shadows and freaking at everything... :-(
