Whitespot - Marine Tank

[Loobyloo22]

Hi,
Have been running my tank for 3 months, with a pair of Clownfish and a Royal Gramma, plus 3 Turban snails, 2 hermit crabs, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 fire shrimp, 1 sand sifting snail and 1 Pom Pom crab. We set up the tank with live rock over a 6 to 8 week period to get the water correct and to establish the bacteria on the live rock (with the advice of the local aquarium stockist).

My problem is this, we have lost the Royal Gramma to Whitespot. He was removed from the tank ASAP (and has subsequently died) but has now passed it on to the Clown fish. I have read about the treatments on the forum and have a few of questions as the spots can be seen on the fish and they have started "flicking".

1) Will raising the temperature and increasing salt levels harm plants and the live rock bacateria ?? If so how do we treat plants ??
2) If we treat the tank by increasing temperature and salt or by using chemicals do we remove the live rock from the tank ??
3) Can Invertebrates such as the crabs shrimps and snails catch Whitespot ?? and how do we treat these ??
4) Is it advisable to totally replace the sand/gravel bed as opposed to "hoovering" it ??

All help would be very much appreciated.

 

[rabbut]

Do you have a Quarantine tank? You cannot treat the main tank with invertebrate present (snails, shrimp, corals, crabs e.t.c)

The two most effective marine whitespot treatments are copper and hyposalinity. Both have to be used in Quarantine to prevent invertibrates in the tank coming to harm...

You could let the disease run it's course, but that may lead to heavy casualties.

You can also use a bucket of freshly mixed salt RO, a heater and an airline. You move all the fish into the bucket, and move them again to a new bucket of freshly prepared salt RO every 24 hours, sterilising all equipment and buckets after each 24 hour session with the fish in treatment.

You invertebrates will not catch whitespot, so they should be safe

The main cause of Whitespot is stress. You need to work out what caused it to prevent re-infection. Do you have a test kit to hand, and if so, what are your water stats? How long did you have the gramma before it went down ill?

All the best
Rabbut