ich again!!

[adampw]

So a couple weeks ago my blue tang got ich. I put her in a QT, and 2 days later she died. I went and just looked at my tank and 2 of my clowns both have ich. I have 3 clowns, a BTA, a sand sifting starfish, a fire shrimp, a hermit crab and 2 turbo snails. I run a tetris skimmer with just the fiber filter with phoslock inside of it, a remora pro skimmer, 2 power heads with 30lbs of LR.
My parameters are as follows:
Temp: 78
SG: 1.0238
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5
PO4: 0.1
dKH: 11.2
pH: 8.1 - 8.2ish
CA: 400ish

I know that ICH is apparantly always in your system, but this is the second time within 3 weeks my fish have got ich, and 2 of them this time. I'm not sure what to do at this point. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here are a couple of pictures of my clown that has it the worst.


The one below is of my other clown. Not quite as bad as the first.

[Bifferwine]

Hmm something is stressing them out. I would guess, based on your parameters (which are good) that maybe having three clowns (which can be pretty territorial and aggressive) in a 29 gallon might be too much...

[adampw]

Ya know, I thought that too. I have watched them alot, and they don't act aggressive towards each other at all. They are always in there little group (3 of them). You never see them apart. At the moment it seems they are hosting my powerhead lol.....and they all sit there together, if one swims away they all swim away...

[Bifferwine]

I would put all three fish in quarantine and treat them all.

[adampw]

yeah thats what im going to end up doing....I purchased some medicine today so I will need to set up my QT Tank again...Hopefully it works this time.

[adampw]

Well here's an interesting development. My MH lights just came on, and I noticed all the white spots on the fish are gone. Should I still QT them and treat them?

[Bifferwine]

I would still treat them.

[jhnrb]

You need to keep your main tank free of fish for about 3 months. the ich will drop off and come back like a vengence. after you treat your fish for ich you need to treat for secondary bacterial infections. good luck.

[Nu2Reefs]

3 months??? I thought the ich cycle was 3 weeks. Not arguing with you just questioning because I've had all my fish out for about 2.5 weeks and was looking forward to putting them back in in another 3 weeks. Added a couple just to be safe but I hadn't planned on 3 months. Does it really take that long to clear the tank?

[adampw]

I have a question about my QT. Should I use freshly mixed water, or should I use the water from my current tank to fill up my QT tank? My QT is 10g and I currently have 10g of mixed saltwater that I was going to use for a wtr chg.