Hi, I thought that formulin was not safe for inverts. I could be wrong, but I used some formulin with malichite green combination in a hospital tank that said it was not safe for inverts and that you had to do partial water changes every day before each dose. The formulin alone may be different, but I don't think so. Read the bottle carefully. I think my LFS guy said that it could only be used half strength for inverts, but then it may not kill the ich. I have treated ich in my tank with Kick Ick which is safe for inverts, but some have not had great luck with it either. I have used it successfully twice in the last year, but a lot of people on this board are not as successful with it. In order for the ich not to come back using the Kick Ick I had to use it every other day for a full month, and leave off the skimmer and the charcoal type filtration for the entire time. Even though it says the treatment time is two weeks, it says you can repeat this two week cycle. It says to add a treatment and skip two days and add a treatment and so on, or it says for heavy infestation to dose every other day. It only worked for me when I did the every other day thing....with the lighter dose a few of the ich parasites would survive and I would have to continue treatment. I also do weekly twenty percent water changes while treating and not using the skimmer. It says that the medicine degrades in three to four days, but figure that this helps keep the level from getting too toxic to the fish etc. If you use this treatment or any other for ich you need to use it for a full month after the spots are not seen on the fish or, you will think it is gone, and it will be back within a few days to a week or so after the cysts in the gravel hatch.
I have never to my knowledge lost a fish to ich even though the Kick Ick is the only medicine that I have used for ich in my main tank because it is safe for corals, shrimp and snails. I have had ich several times due to not quarenteening fish that were too large for the QT tank. The people on the disease forum will tell you this treatment is junk, but it has worked for me. The worst thing about it is that sometimes the spots come back and you have to repeat the cycles of medicine which can get kind of expensive, but it has always got it under control for me after a while. On the disease forum they recommend removing all the fish and doing hyposalinity which is not safe for inverts and corals. I am sure that this must work the way they promote it, but I personally think that it sounds too difficult for the average person. Heck, I am an RN that cares for really sick people in the hospital all day long, and if a treatment sounds too much trouble for a nurse that deals with complex treatments all day....well what else can I say. I think removing all the fish and trying to keep the salinity properly low while doing the water changes that I do, and removing inverts or the fish is too much trouble.
I don't know what I would do to get the formalin out of your tank if you decide to treat with something else. Maybe a couple of water changes a day apart to remove a lot of it. If and or before you treat with another chemical. Or, at least remove your inverts to another tank during treatment. With any ich medicine I would put the treatment in the tank in the morning so that the highest concentration of the medicine is there when the cysts hatch. I read an artical on ich where in the reasearch they found that the infective swimmers nearly always hatch in the mornings. Good luck, I hate Ich.....the plaque of the saltwater fish tank! Lesley
i guess just watch your fish for a month or so, if no evidence of ick is visible, then i would say its safe...
