help!

[75 gallon bow]

2 fish in my tank appear to have ick! it looks like white bubbles all over them. have a 72 gallon tank. this is my frst salt water tank. i started it up 3.5 weeks ago. my readings are 80 degrees ph 8.3.... ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 20ppm! waht should i do? should i clean the filter pad and do a water change? i was told i shouldnt use ick medicine because i want to convert into reef. should i do the water change and how much? should i raise the temp and incresase the air filtraton also?

 

[t316]

First response is...did your tank fully cycle?
But you will get a better response if you post this over in the "Disease & Treatment" section.

 

[hurleykid69]

they do sell reef safe ich medication

 

[75 gallon bow]

thanks! can get it at any fish store?

 

[mikeyjer]

I personally go with garlic food over meds any day.....When I first started, people tell me this and that about using meds. The meds caused me more problems then anything else and ending up losing all my fish. Then I started feeding Formula2 which it have added garlic. BUT it's been said that only fresh garlic juice works best, but formula2 worked for me and rid my fish from ich for good. It's how I saved my Naso Tang when it was dying from ich. Skin and bones and was laying on it's side. I personally feed it formula2 4 times a day and I stick my hand in the tank to feed it directly to his mouth since he was laying down. I didn't think he was going to make it, but he pulled through. He's one FAT fish now and still eat from my hands. He used to be a very shy fish, not anymore.....That's been almost 2 years ago since that happened. He's grown quite a bit since then. Good luck!

 

[75 gallon bow]

where do i buy the garlic juice? and can i get formula 2 at any fish store? whats in formula 2 thats makes it good?

 

[m0nk]

The only medicines that work on ich are copper based and you don't want copper in your display tank if you ever plan on keeping inverts or coral. What you should do, if you ID it as ich, is check out the sticky thread under the disease and treatment section:
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/127007/faqs-fish-diseases-treatments-quarantine-health-info
Read up on setting up a QT and doing hypo. What you'll basically need to do to actually get rid of the ich for good is use the hypo process on the fish in a quarantine environment, and leave your main display tank fishless for 6 weeks. That will ensure the ich is gone and that you don't get ich on any new incoming fish. Make sure to QT all new fish, running hypo on them in the QT before putting them into the display tank. Hope that helps, best of luck!

 

[75 gallon bow]

I don't have a qt tank set up though.....

 

[waterlogged]

Originally Posted by Mikeyjer
I personally go with garlic food over meds any day.....When I first started, people tell me this and that about using meds. The meds caused me more problems then anything else and ending up losing all my fish. Then I started feeding Formula2 which it have added garlic. BUT it's been said that only fresh garlic juice works best, but formula2 worked for me and rid my fish from ich for good. It's how I saved my Naso Tang when it was dying from ich. Skin and bones and was laying on it's side. I personally feed it formula2 4 times a day and I stick my hand in the tank to feed it directly to his mouth since he was laying down. I didn't think he was going to make it, but he pulled through. He's one FAT fish now and still eat from my hands. He used to be a very shy fish, not anymore.....That's been almost 2 years ago since that happened. He's grown quite a bit since then. Good luck!

Great story about tang.
My tank had ich. I tried 3 reef safe meds. They didn't work. Put fish in sick tank with copper and let ich in dt die with no hosts to feed upon.