ich frustrations!!!!!

saltyfish dude

saltyfish dude

New Member
I currently have an ich problem in one of my three saltwater tanks. I have been keeping saltwater for about a year now. My first was my 100 gal reef, the second, which is the one I am having the problem with, is a 72 gal bowfront with about 80 lbs of live rock. And I also have a 50 gal corner tank which is currently cycling. My problem is the ich that is mostly affecting my auriga butterfly in my 72 gal. I understand the whole "quarantine" and "hospital tank" concept, and I have had success with it. However I am extremely frustrated with this method, although it works great on the particular fish itself, I will admit, the problem ultimately is the ich is already in the main system by the time you notice the problem. There is all this info on prevention and individual fish cure, but this helps me none. Does anyone have experience or an opinion on getting rid of the problem in the main system, keeping in mind the live rock. Do you know of any way to treat the main system without tearing it down, there has got to be a way. Please share your ideas..........Neal in Grover Beach, CA.....
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
If you want to permanently remove ich from the main system, remove your fish for 6 weeks. Treat them in a seperate tank and allow your system to run fishless for 6 weeks. If you re-introduce them too soon then dormant ich have a host and the cycle starts over again. Once ich is gone from the system QT ALL new arivals. I mean ALL new arivals. Not just fish. Ich can lay dormant on any surface.
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
Unfortunately Neal, there are only two ways to treat ich. They are copper or hyposalinity. You cannot use copper in your display tank, and hyposalinity cannot be down in a tank with live rock or invertebrates. The much safer route, however, is hyposalinity. Copper can hurt many fish, such as a sensitive butterfly.
As stated, if you want to remove ich from the display tank, the fish need to be removed for 6 weeks, or you need to perform hyposalinity in the main tank.
The point of the quarantine tank, however, is to prevent you from introducing ich or any disease into the main system. If every live thing is quarantined, there should be virutally no way you can introduce a disease (unless you do not monitor it in the quarantine and treat appropriately).
 
ifirefight

ifirefight

Active Member
Originally Posted by lion_crazz
If every live thing is quarantined, there should be virutally no way you can introduce a disease (unless you do not monitor it in the quarantine and treat appropriately).
I have been wondering about this myself. I do not have an ich problem. But if I QT all fish before adding to DT, is that 99.9% sure ich cannot be transfered? Or am I just monitoring them in the QT and looking for an outbreak? Or do we treat all fish as if they have ich and hypo them just to be on the safe side? And how to make sure inverts arent a carrier,I cant hypo them
I know everybody wants what is best for their tanks,it is very confusing though.
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by ifirefight
I have been wondering about this myself. I do not have an ich problem. But if I QT all fish before adding to DT, is that 99.9% sure ich cannot be transfered? Or am I just monitoring them in the QT and looking for an outbreak? Or do we treat all fish as if they have ich and hypo them just to be on the safe side? And how to make sure inverts arent a carrier,I cant hypo them
I know everybody wants what is best for their tanks,it is very confusing though.
EVERYTHING should be qt'd if you want to be certain that ich is not going to be introduced. This includes your inverts and corals (ich can be lying dormant on their surface). If it has been in a tank with fish it should be considered a risk to place whatever you buy into your display. To be completely certain, qt them all no matter where they came from. In the case of non-fish, you just qt them for three weeks. Any ich lying on the surface would have hatched by then and died off without a host. For fish, it is up to you if you want to hypo them or just observe them. Different people do it differently.
 
finding nemo

finding nemo

New Member
I have sucessfully used a product called Kick Ich in my display tank. It's milder so I did have to go thru the reatment cycle twice. But it worked. Amd its completely reef safe
 
X

xoxox

Guest
My advise would be to move the rock (or anything you don't want to die) to the 55 once its done cycling and drain 72 dry. Let it sit dry for a few weeks then reanimate it. This will also allow any of those litte nasty ich buggers that might be in the sand to die. Leave the 55 fishless until you get the 72 going again then move the rock back. Any fish with ich must be dealt with in a hospital tank.
 
X

xoxox

Guest
Originally Posted by Finding Nemo
I have sucessfully used a product called Kick Ich in my display tank. It's milder so I did have to go thru the reatment cycle twice. But it worked. Amd its completely reef safe
I had an ich outbreak that drank that stuff for breakfast.
It might work for a minor infestation but if the ich get to mutiplying, look out..
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Draining the tank is not necessary and does not guarantee that the ich will die. Unless you remove all sand as well. Kick ich will not remove ich from the system. There are two treatments for ich. Hyposalinity and copper. Either one has to be done seperate from the other inverts and copper should never be used in a display. If the fish are treated in a qt then the display has to remain fishless for 6 weeks to ensure that all ich are dead.
 
X

xoxox

Guest
If you dry the sand the ich will die...
Its just a matter of time before hypo will become problamatic, they have found strains of ich that can survive lower salinity. It works for now, but will it in the future?
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by XoXoX
If you dry the sand the ich will die...
Its just a matter of time before hypo will become problamatic, they have found strains of ich that can survive lower salinity. It works for now, but will it in the future?

Correct, if you dry the sand then the ich will die. I appologize. I did not realize that you ment to dry it. If it was left wet the ich would live.
As far as hypo goes, we have had cases where ich has survived hypo. The fish were then treated with copper. It is not the preferred treatment because some fish are sensitive to it. Hypo also needs to be done correctly for it to work. It is the same as any other treatment. If done incorrectly it is likely to fail. We have had MANY more success stories using hypo on these boards than we have had stories of failure. Bottom line is that if all living things introduced into a system are properly qt'd then there will be no problems. Prevention is the best medicine IMO.
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by i.b.dat.fo
i was wondering can ich die off by itself when there is no fish in the tank but have inverts???
Yes, absolutely. Without a host ich will indeed die. It takes anywhere from 3-6 weeks of a fishless system. I recomend 6 weeks to be certain it is gone.
 
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