Snapper tank Ich infestation

[donaldastwood]

Hi I have a 50 Gal salt water tank with 3 snappers. 1 Dog Snapper, 1 yellow tail snapper and one mutton snapper. They have been in the tank together for about 4 months now and get on great, but about 3weeks ago ich struck. But I have lowered the salinity to treat as i dont have access to copper based treatments at the mo. But after decreasing the salinity the white spots dissapeared fairly quickly (5-7 days), but re-blossomed like a week later and the white spots just dont seam to go away??

pH 7
Ammonia (Call it 0)
Nitrates are trace.

I have been doing large water changes (1/2 tank) weekly with lower salinity water and there really seems to be no change.

Any suggestions? Or is it a case of just being patient and waiting the full 6 weeks for the cycles to go through the motion? I feel bad for the fish as even the bait fish are not impressed, to the point where one of them jumped out of the tank????

 

[donaldastwood]

Ok, so no replies. Well can anyone tell me about "Preventitive" measures to avi=oiding marine ich? I am an experienced fresh water tank owner and i have had all sorts of fish sucessfully, from rift lake cichlids all the way to breeding dwarfs, with no real ich outbreaks like this. Are there any proverbial secrets? I do have acanister filter(Fluval 405) that i do cleaning on every 2 weeks, could this be a cause? I have been religiously doing 1/4 tank water changes weekly, and vaccuming the tanks sand in sections each time.

 

[donaldastwood]

Come on people, there must be some one that can help me??? My mutton snapper now has a cloudy eye, is hyper ventilating and resting on the bottom and leaning to a side.. I know from my time as a fresh water fish keeper that these are signs that are not leading in a good direction... so any thoughts on cloudy eyes?