I hate ich!!!!!!!

[saltfisher]

Had to remove my blue tang back to QT this morning. Noticed more ich on him yesterday. Left home for about 4 hours. Got home, about double the Ich was on him. Woke up this morning, He looked like he crackhead that had way too much. I knew right away he would not make it until I got off work. Here I am in dress clothes fishing a Tang out of my tank at 7am. A friend gave me a bottle of "No-Ich". I know people say there are no true reef safe chemicals, but I had to use it.
My next step is this. Remove all inverts, give to a friend and just run copper in my DT. I did this years ago and never had a problem. I'm tired of transferring fish, maintaining multiple tanks, etc. Some say leave DT fallow for 6 weeks, some say it could last 6 months fallow. Some say they do the 8 weeks and Ich comes right back to fish. ARGH!!!!!! So frustrated with this!!
Rant over. Going to dose "No Ich" for several days.
Thanks for listening

 

[beth]

You are totally wasting your time and the health of your fish tank.
If you want to deal effectively with ich, please see the info on hyposalinity I have posted in the FAQ Topic at the top of the Disease Forum.
There is no easy way to deal with ich once you have it in your tank. You have to bite the bullet and go through a lot of trouble to clear your fish and your tank of the problem, or just let the chips fall where they may.

 

[saltfisher]

Beth, I just read your hypo article. Tell me if my thinking here is off. It took about 3/4 weeks for my tank to cycle when I started it, to the point I was able to add fish. Why would I start a hypo cycle that could go one for minimum of three weeks, then take 5 to 7 days to raise the salinity back up. Would it be quicker on my part to totally drain my tank, clean my equip, soak my LR in fresh RO water, fill the tank back up, add all new sand, wait 4 weeks, add my fish back that are in my QT?

 

[beth]

What is the depth of your sand bed, and is your tank just live rock, or does it have any corals, etc?
In your situation, if you set up a QT on the spot, you would need to keep the system from cycling.
How many fish do you have?

 

[saltfisher]

My sand bed is about one to two inches. I have a 20g QT set up right now with one blue tang that has been there since I bought it. This morning I added a second blue tang that went from good to near dead in less than 24hrs. I checked him when I got home today and he's living, but rapid gill movement, color is way off and his eyes look hazed. I think he may die. My DT still has two gobies and a chocolate tang. Neither of which show any signs of ich. I put a few drops of garlic xtreme in the tank, then soaked some spectrum with it and dropped it in. The gobies ate it. The choc tang began to and then started spitting it out.
I plan to dose no ich again tonight and continue with the garlic soaking. I don't want to hypo because I have no place to put my inverts and anemones.

 

[beth]

I would recommend setting up a large rubbermaid (like a 3-4 footer). They are cheap and can make good QTs. You will never get all those tangs in a 20gal together.
You have to be prepared to do daily 20% water changes once in hypo. It will be rough going, but can be done.
What is the current water conditions in the QT?
No ich is wasting time, and probably hurtful for your tank. If you want to get serious about dealing with this. Let me know.

 

[beth]

I'm thinking of setting up a rubbermaid with powerheads, and housing your live rock in there for the duration of hypo treatment in the display. Leave LS in the display.
Answer my questions in the PM before proceeding.