I need all the luck with Ich and brown algae

[2014FishKiller]

Friday morning when I feed the fish, I noticed that the yellow eye tang have ich that covering 1/4 of his body, and not moving much, breathing fast, and is about to be gone, I need to go to work in 15 minutes, what should I do? I decided to feed them Omega One micro Pellets with garlic, after put in to water, than I realized my fish don't like the food I decided to add flakes food with Kent Garlic Xtreme, 3 drops into the food and 4 drops into the water, and turn off led light. When I come home after work, the yellow eye tang is still alive and 75% of the ich are gone. I also find out Sailfin tang is getting the ich as well, all three fish breathing fast I feed them flake food with three drops plus 9 drops into water. This morning I get up to look at the fish, all fish are getting better, again I feed them Flake food with 2 drops and 2 drops into the water. After 6% water change add 2 more drops, Now all fish looks like are going back to normal routine, two tang have couple spot with ich in their body, but both going back to eat their brown algae.

Here is my plan,I will continue use Kent Garlic Xtreme for two weeks to make sure no ich in any fish bodies, and lower salinity to 1.021 (i know 1.009), hopefully the corals and inverts are okay. The shrimp still alive and corals are doing good.

 

[Bryce E]

Do you have another tank that you can use as a hospital tank so that you don't have to lower the salinity in your coral tank?

 

[2014FishKiller]

I do have another 30g tank, I have two fish in that tank (Blue tang and the cardinal) , It is hard and stressful to add more fish to that tank.

 

[2014FishKiller]

I don't mean lower salinity to 1.009, I only lower to 1.021 for the fish convert to fight the ich.

 

[Bryce E]

Yeah plus if there's already fish in there without ich you don't want to put them in there. Well I've used the hypo salinity method with great results but it's going to be hard to do that enough in a tank with inverts and coral. And I would advise against the use of any medications in that tank as well. (Even those advertised as reef safe) with limited options the best thing you can do in my opinion is to try and help the fishes immune system to fight it off. It also helps their slime coat and the better their slime coat the less likely they will contract the ich in the first place or again when the ich is in the free swimming stage looking for a host. Garlic extreme is a good start. The problem with ich is the multiple life cycles it goes through so you can think you're winning just to see another full blown outbreak. The white spots on the fish is the end of the cycle when they bore their way out of the fish to start the cycle all over again. The time to kill the ich is when they are in the free swimming stage. Do you have a UV sterilizer? It's not the "solution to the problem" but it can certainly help.

 

[beth]

All the fish in that tank are now exposed to ich. What type of tank do you have? Do you have live rock and corals in the tank??

 

[2014FishKiller]

Beth,

I have a 110g reef tank with 75 Lbs of live rocks, 7 small corals, snails, shrimp plus two tangs, and 3 clowns. Believe it or not I believe the ich are now under control

 

[2014FishKiller]

UV sterilizer is not helping last time and I have took them out.

 

[beth]

WOW....that is why it is essential to quarantine all fish going in to a reef tank. This will be a task to address. You will need to be prepared to remove all your fish or remove all your rock, corals, inverts. You can set up large Rubbermaid containers for the livestock and rock, but be prepared for a chore that is going to last a few wks. I'd recommend hypo for the fish, this can be done with fish remaining in the tank, but with all other live things taken out, or visa versa.Think about what you want to do and let us know if you need guidance.

 

[2014FishKiller]

Thanks Beth,

I have done move all rocks to qt for 4 weeks in 2014, but it seems to me that now all ich are off the fish. My plan is keep using Garlic Xtreme for another two weeks, if no ich showed up, than I free save for the fish. If did happening again, I will move all corals, inverts and rocks to qt.

Does brown algae effecting fish?

Thanks again

 

[beth]

If you wish to try garlic, then use real, freshly minced garlic. Any garlic in the bottle is useless. Garlic is effective because it has allcin, which is a naturally occurring component of fresh garlic that has antimicrobial and anti protozoa qualities. Allicin activity, however, only remains potent moments after garlic has been crushed. You need to mince the garlic, soak your fish food in it, then rapidly feed it to fish. Try this 3x a day.

 

[2014FishKiller]

If I did freshly garlic, I have a tool could only take the joicy, should I add little garlic into to it. 3 times a day, would it be over feeding them?

 

[beth]

Do light feedings. I just crushed quickly in the dish I was going to put the food into so that nothing of the garlic was lost. You can separate out some of the chunks, if you like, but you might see if your fish will actually eat the garlic (some of my fish would). The idea is to get as much as you can to them as quickly as possible. I would do this for at least a mo. Then another month after you stop to closely observe the fish for disease. You may even want to stress the fish a bit after all is said and done to see if they break out again. You will need to adjust the feedings as you see is necessary if 3x is too much.

 

[2014FishKiller]

The fish won't eat garlic, but one of my coral did eat one big piece. No sign of fish get stress yet. March 15th should be the target day.

 

[beth]

You may want to try daily water change out as well since you won't be demolishing your reef to get to the ich. The idea is that you dilute out free-swimming ich with each water change which lessen free-swimming parasites. The less free-swimming, the less population which will hopefully effectively remove the ich from your system. Of course, this is a big undertaking to do daily water changes, but for me it would be worth it if you are successful.

As to stressing fish, I was suggesting that once you feel the ich is gone, test this by stressing the fish a bit. Perhaps a good cleaning of aquaria so that fish are chased around and hiding due to you cleaning glass, filters, water change, etc. Stress will usually stimulate an outbreak of ich in the aquaria and you will be able to assess how effective this process has been. Just don't cut corners here.

 

[2014FishKiller]

I have done 6% water change since Friday, will continue until the salinity to 1.021, I have cleaned the glass for the last two days be cause of brown algae. Since the fish is not eating the garlic, it will be very hard to feed 3 time daily, plus the left over garlic will still in the tank.

 

[beth]

If they don't eat the garlic directly, then just soak the food in the garlic juices and pick out any bits before offering to fish. What food are you offering? I usually recommend fresh foods or frozen for garlic since it will soak up in to the food.

Reducing salinity will not help at all unless you completely lower to hypo conditions (which you can't do in a reef tank). For your corals sake, go ahead and return slowly within regular parameters.

 

[2014FishKiller]

I use flake food from New Life Spectrum. The reason I lower salinity is to make fish more comfortable to fight ich, right now is at 1.023-1.024, I will not make any water change today to lower salinity.

 

[beth]

Flakes are not going to absorb.

Also, you may want to continue daily water changes for the reason I gave above.

 

[2014FishKiller]

Is it 1.024 is a regular salinity for my tank?