Ich in a newly started reef

gen

gen

Member
Help, I just started to convert my 85 gal fo tank into a reef and I added 70 lbs of lr a couple of weeks ago. I was about to change my lighting when I noticed ich on my yellow tang. My salt level was at 1.019 when I started, and the lfs told me to raise it to 1.024 and thats when the tang got ich. How do I treat it? Do I lower the salt back down to 1.010 or meds? I only have the lr no inverts or corals yet. I have a UV sterl. Thanks for any help. Gen
 
smalltimer

smalltimer

Member
My yellow tang, six line wrasse and mandrin goby all had small amount of ich....I fed daily along with adding to h2o, with no carbon of course.. Garlic xtreme, the fish ate great and ich slowly went away.. sounds weird but it worked for me. as far as changing the salinity that much, it needs to be done over a couple of weeks, very slowly or stress on fish and an ich magnet like a tang will break out...The garlic sound weird but fish that eat are healther, now if ich is so bad he won't eat and you can catch him, I suggest fresh h2o dip, set ph in fresh h2o to same as tank with ph up of some sort.. put in air stone before you put fish in make sure has lots of o2, net fish, put in fresh for about 2 mins. NET out do not pour back in tank, then try the garlic...good luck:)
 
ryebread

ryebread

Active Member
I also did a freshwater dip and feed garlic extreme and it seemed to help tremendously. My 2 cents.
 
gen

gen

Member
do you think that when i started bringing up my salt level that is what caused the ich? They were find before I did that. What is Garlic xtreme, is it something that I would mix with their food at feeding, like Zoe? I use Quick Cure on my sons freshwater tank and it works grreat, but it turned his drift wood blue. I'm afraid if I add the quick cure it will damage my live rock, and if I lower my salt to 1.010 it will also damage my live rock. I thought I read on a post once that cleaner shrimp ate the ich, but I'm afraid my grouper would eat them, he eats everything in site.
Thanks you everyones help. Gen
 
memnoch

memnoch

Member
Hey man, i feel your pain after several deaths and many dollars later i learned my lesson. What likely caused the outbreak of Ich was the ammonia spike caused by the addition of 70lbs of LR at one time. Even if it is cured all LR will have some die off when added in a new tank. The salinity or specific gravity should always be approx. 1.024 if you have LR and inverts. Much lower than that and things won't do well. The only sure fire way i know of to get rid of Ich is to take the fish out and place in a hospital tank. You must treat all fish not just the infected fish because they all likely are carrying the parasite now. Once in the hospital tank slowly drop the specific gravity to 1.009 over a 48 hour period by adding RO/DI or distilled water. Once the SG is 1.009 you must maintain the fish at this level for at least two weeks to make sure the reproductive cycle of the parasite has been fully interupted. I let them stay in HT for 3 weeks. I have been successful with this method although if you have a lot of fish you may not have time to get HT set-up before the fish start doing the death dance. Good luck whatever you decide. Garlic Xtreme has been useful to me as a preventative but didn't have much success with it as a cure. Definately do not add chemicals such as copper to a system with LR, unless you want DR. I feel for you man and hope everything survives.:(
 
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