setting up a qt system without mature filter media

[brunobear]

I thought everything was going according to plan after the fish move, but over the weekend I noticed my clown had a pretty bad outbreak of white spot. I've since moved him to a 10g tank with some LR and an external canister filter with polyfilter and a small UV unit.

The thing is, I'm in a bit of a bind - I can't use copper meds with the LR or polyfilter in the system, and I don't have any mature filter media to fall back on.

To make matters worse, it looks like my Royal gramma might be infected too, and my lyretail anthias has been acting strangely - not very active, but no visible marks or color loss.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. Without mature filter media, I'm limited in my options. I was thinking maybe a FW dip or hypersalinity treatment? Should I just treat the fish that are showing symptoms, or try to treat all of them? Ideally, I'd get all the fish out of the display tank long enough for the Ich to die off, but that's not really feasible right now.

[rileyon]

They all need treating, mate. I'm in a similar situation, got all my fish crammed in a tiny tank, it's all I had room for. Got a big UV waiting to go on the main tank, just need to get the pipes sorted. I've got a chunk of live rock in the small tank, but I'll be boiling and washing it repeatedly after this ordeal. They're on meds, but I'm not convinced they're the right ones. I've cut back on feeding and keeping a close eye on the stats. For future reference, I'm planning on getting a couple of small internals and cycling one set of media in the sump, then when I need to quarantine, I'll just swap that media over to the other internal and bin it afterwards.

[brunobear]

I'm thinking along the same lines now. Putting some bio balls or rings in the sump for emergencies makes sense. In the short term, I might need to grab some ammonia lock - not ideal, I know. Going to be a challenge with 8 fish in a 10g tank for 8 weeks.

[rileyon]

same issue here, 8 fish in a 10G tank, nightmare scenario is losing the lot and having to start from scratch, basically the end of my tank as I know it

[ocean9]

Fingers crossed for a positive outcome for both of you, really hoping the fish pull through this tough time.

[fleeton]

Hope you guys manage to get on top of the issue. If you have a spare container like a large plastic bin or even a big garbage can, it'd be better than a 10g for quarantine.