Ich in show tank

[wyvern]

Hello, I'm new to message boards as well as marine tanks. My 100 gallon. tank has been up for 8 months. My neighbor gave me her purple tang. Now it has ich. Last month, it looked like my blenny had ick, but after a couple of days the white spots were gone. Didn't think much about it then. Now I'm thinking that my tank has ich. Here's the kicker, I don't have a QT. If I drop the salinity in the tank, will the LR, Live sand, and the snails be ok? Thanks for any help.
100 gallon
sp 1.022
pH 8.2
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
temp ~ 78
(I promise to get a QT as soon as I have $$)

 

[ledzep fan]

Welcome to the boards! Well if you drop the salinity the inverts in the tank will die. Hope your purple tang makes it!
~The Zep

 

[mcsd22]

You cant hypo LR, inverts or corals. You can use stop parasite or kick ick which are both reef safe. Both have mixed reviews but I have used the kick ick and it worked for me. Never used the stop parasite but some like it. Hypo is the best coarse of action but I am in your boat without a QT. Hope that helps.

 

[wyvern]

Thanks. I think i'll try the kick ick. I don't want to kill my LR. My husband wasn't very happy when I spent $50 on 1 rock.

 

[3m]

perhaps a large plastic tote will work for you inverts and LR and then you can treat you display

 

[mcsd22]

Just make sure you pull any carbon media out of your filter before using kick ick. I also would raise your salinity to 1.025.

 

[teresaq]

Also try feeding your fish garlic. helps thier imune systems

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by TeresaQ
Also try feeding your fish garlic. helps thier imune systems
I'm in with the garlic treated food!!!! I suggest in feeding it 3-4 times daily until symptom goes away!!! :happyfish

 

[scubadoo]

There is nothing...big ZERO contained in reef safe products such as kick ich that will kill parasites. How can this product kill one invert and leave all others alone?
There is no proven science to support the claims the makers of this so called miracle cure make. ...NONE!!
if you plan on being in this hobby for a long time...your best option is to set-up a QT tank.
For treating the display, you could remove the inverts to a rubber maid tub with heater and power head and treat the display with hypo as earlier suggested. Garlic soaked and vitamin soked food may also help, along with elevating the temp in your system which speeds up the life cycle of the disease.
The only additive proven to be effective against ich is copper which also can casue some issues with fish....and one should never use this in the display.
Also, copper is quite effective against all inverts as far as killing goes.....yet Kick Ich can zero in on only one invert with all others being safe? Currently, there is no product on the market with any proven science to support "reef safe" claims...NONE!!!!!!!!
There are many reasons why disease outbreaks occur...and as these conditions improve the disease may apper to go away. The hobbyist often thinks it is the voodoo mixture they added. Nothing but coorelations with no science to back up the outcomes.
Also, I find it intersting that many producers that offer reef safe produts that they claim are effective, also offer copper based products.....why the need for copper if the reef safe really works?
Kick Ick will kick money out of your wallet...and will also use up valuable treatment time. Sorry for the windy response.....just my .02
Best of luck

 

[stanlalee]

Originally Posted by ScubaDoo
There is nothing...big ZERO contained in reef safe products such as kick ich that will kill parasites. How can this product kill one invert and leave all others alone?
well thats sort of true. Sometimes what will kill parasitic inverts will only stress other inverts. I've used Kent RxP and when I used it at recommended dosages it didn't seem to affect anything including corals. shrimp, snails ect. So I upped the dose enough that the corals would slime a bit and all the livestock would hide out for a while from it and sure enough ich left and never came back. Also these products dont claim to kill ich hosting fish (at least RxP doesn't) only free floating parasites. You have to use it a minimum of 2wks. Alot of these products are hit or miss and most claim you must use it very early even it you THINK what your seeing is a parasite to have a good chance of working. The thing is if you dont have a QT tank set up NOW you really dont have much choice but to try a reef safe product. All I can say is this stuff worked in my case (most claim its snake oil, but a few people have said it worked for them including me). On the other hand lesson learned. I wont add anything else without a QT and just because it hasn't come back doesn't mean there is no chance for ich to come back.

 

[mrdc]

I have ich in my tank which I contribute to being under control due to my neon gobies, shrimps and heavy feeding with added garlic and vitamins. There is no way I can remove all the fish w/o breaking the tank down. If my fish ever fully succumb to ich, I will not buy another fish until the tank is fish clear for at least 6 weeks and then go with a QT tank. I did use Stop Parasite one time but it didn't do anything for me. My friends tankk has just developed ich about a month ago and wiped out everything except for his yellow tang and I think it's alive because he went with a cleaner shrimp and garlic and vitamins based on my results. The fish has looked great for a month so my buddy bought 3 more fish this week (I advised him not to) and two have died already from ich. That just shows that as long as a fish is in a tank that has ich and everything looks good, the ich is still there.

 

[mystic7]

My cleaner wrasse keeps the other fish so clean they never so much as scratch their noses against the rock, ever. And contrary to what some people will tell you, when there are no parasites they will in fact eat brine shrimp, so they will NOT die when they have used up the parasite supply.
btw, mrdc, some person here related how he kept his tank fish free for almost 5 months and STILL got an ick attack after returning his qt'd fish back into the tank. So the 6 week rule is not to be taken as fool proof.

 

[mrdc]

Originally Posted by mystic7
My cleaner wrasse keeps the other fish so clean they never so much as scratch their noses against the rock, ever. And contrary to what some people will tell you, when there are no parasites they will in fact eat brine shrimp, so they will NOT die when they have used up the parasite supply.
btw, mrdc, some person here related how he kept his tank fish free for almost 5 months and STILL got an ick attack after returning his qt'd fish back into the tank. So the 6 week rule is not to be taken as fool proof.

Thanks for the info. I just threw 6 weeks out there. Not sure if my patience would last that long

 

[scubadoo]

Originally Posted by mystic7
My cleaner wrasse keeps the other fish so clean they never so much as scratch their noses against the rock, ever. And contrary to what some people will tell you, when there are no parasites they will in fact eat brine shrimp, so they will NOT die when they have used up the parasite supply.
btw, mrdc, some person here related how he kept his tank fish free for almost 5 months and STILL got an ick attack after returning his qt'd fish back into the tank. So the 6 week rule is not to be taken as fool proof.

If your cleaner wrasse is only eating brine shrimp it will die eventually. Brine shrimp after hatching use most of the deisted nutrition within the first few hours of their life as they develop quickly. After about an 8 hour window, they lose all of the desired nutrition as a food source. You might as well feed the cleaner wrasse potato chips. Unless he is eating freshly hatched....he is getting little to no nutrition. I would try another source of food.
THe perosn that let his sytem run fallow probably never fully cured the disease in a QT tank. . I doubt the disease was still present in the display...but was still present in the QT tank or whereever the fish were kept for 5 months.
If I assume ithe story is true the individual never cured the disease in the QT system...and that is how it was reintroduced in the display...as opposed to the parasites living in a tank running fallow for 5 months. THat defies known science in my opinion.

 

[mystic7]

oh, well we can't defy known science, can we. I don't remember all the details but I remember that the responses covered every possibility that he screwed up and the final consensus was that the 6 week rule better be rethought.
As for my cleaner wrasse, he also eats mysis and spinach (all soaked in vitamins). If he does die I'll let you know so you can send flowers.

 

[lion_crazz]

mystic, there's no reason to get another thread of yours closed again because of sarcastic and offensive comments. I am not saying this to purposely attack you, but for the sake of the original poster. If you and ScubaDoo want to fight about cleaner wrasses, take it somewhere else, please.
Like stated, the best way to really get rid of ich is a quarantine tank with hyposalinity, allowing your main display to run fishless for 6-8 weeks.
Also, if you are going to get an animal to remove ich from your fish, I would STRONGLY recommend to stick with the neon gobies or cleaner shrimp. Cleaner wrasses should not be removed from the wild, as this could have very severe long term effects if it continues. Neon gobies can be born in captivity, and do just as good of a job, if not better. Mystic, I am glad yours is living well, but most do not. Just because yours is living does not make it right to have hundreds of them die at the LFS.

 

[wyvern]

How long before the fish die? I found my old 20 gallon tank. If i use the water from my show tank, how long before I can put the fish in the new QT tank?

 

[lion_crazz]

Put a sponge in your display tank for a day or two so that it can pick up the biological bacteria from your display tank. This will help prevent a cycle in the quarantine tank.
Then, when the sponge is full of bacteria from your display, then you can add the fish.
All you need for the QT is a cheap hang-on filter and a heater, along with some PVC piping or cheap decorations for the fish to hide and hang out in.

 

[wyvern]

Thanks for all the help. I'm going to try the Kick Ick first. Wish me and the fish luck.

 

[lion_crazz]

Well if you are going to use any "reef safe" med, I would much rather recommend Stop Parasite. I have found it works a lot better than Kick Ich. Just make sure you have an alk test kit if you use Stop Parasie though.