Kick Ick worked for me...you all said it wouldn't

[lesleybird]

Hi, Over six weeks ago I made the mistake of placing a new flame angel in the tank without quarentine. All the advice on here said Kick Ick doesn't work. I did a dosing interval of half way inbetween the time listed for a regular infestation and a heavy one. It says to use it for a two week cycle that may be repeated. I decided to use it for a full four weeks. I think that the reason that it does not work for many people is that they either don't turn the skimmer off during treatment, don't remove all carbon type media, and only dose for two weeks and not four. When I read that these little things have a three week life cycle it only made sense to dose for a long time. Most medicines only kill the free swimming stage of these creatures, so the cysts can be lying in the rocks when it seems to be gone on the fish. I used it for a full two weeks after the spots were gone to kill all the hidden cysts lurking in the gravel. I finished using the product over two weeks ago and there are no more spots.
I think that without a protien skimmer one needs to make a few more extra 20 to 30 percent water changes during treatment (every 10 to 15 days maybe)....but it sure beats taking the fish out of the tank to do hypo. This product did not affect the benificial bacteria, did not kill the crabs, shrimp,snails,coral, or even the brissle worms, and it does not contain any copper! I would try this before the trying chore of trying to remove all your fish into another treatment tank or hypo. Lesley

 

[lesleybird]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I also used a probiotic marine formula at the same time that said that it contains antagonistic bacteria that help against many fish diseases like ick and velvet. I'm just trying to help you all treat this common but hard to treat disease. Lesley

 

[jlem]

I believe that most people say that it is hit or miss with that stuff because unlike hypo and copper that you can measure salinity and copper levels, you can never be sure that you have dosed reef safe meds correctly. No matter what the bottle of kick ich says for a dosage you will never be sure that you have dosed correctly since there is no way of measuring. So yes it is true that kick ich may have worked for you it is still hit or miss.

 

[lesleybird]

No way of measuring? What are you talking about? How about using a measuring cup? Or the dose measurer built into the side of the bottle. The stuff bio degrades in a few days. Lesley

 

[jlem]

How big is your tank. Now subtract the glass,rock,sand,filters,heaters and everything else that is not water. I you can figure it out to even 10% of how much water you actually have then you did pretty darn good. Now if you have a 150 gallon tank and you dose for 150 gallons then chances are you just wiped out your tank because your tank only holds 115 gallons. Now salinity is the same in a 10 gallon tank as it is in a 150 gallon tank and copper will read the same amount in two different tanks as well because the amount of copper in the tank can be measured exactly. There is no test kit that will tell you the concentration of kick ich in your tank and therefore you can never be totally sure that you are dosing the correct amount which makes it HIT OR MISS

 

[lesleybird]

You know.....I didn't even think about the rocks. I have a little forty gallon tank and dosed it for forty gallons and didn't think that it may be more like 35 gallons of actual water. It did not hurt anything dosing like this. Nothing died. I don't think that a tad extra does any harm, but I see your point. Lesley

 

[beth]

By "measuring" we mean that you can't test the water and see how much is in the water. There is no measurement or established parameters that say such and such ppt is a theraputic dose.

 

[daniel411]

I successfully used kick-ich the first time I had ich show up on a fish. Also remember though, depending on how heavily stocked your tank is, live rock, sandbed, corals, etc... they are all going to absorb some of the medication, taking an unknown dosage away from fighting the parasites

 

[tankedagain]

i used kick-ich too and lost lost everything, maybe it does work sometimes but its not worth the risk. unless you have no other alternative... take advice from the pros who have no monetary gain in giving their knowledge like terry and beth.

 

[mike6263]

I used Kick Ick befroe and had no sucess. I am in a similar situation again as my Powder Blue tang ha Ick. I have noticed that keeping the lights on 24 hours has kept it from getting worse. Someone mentioned to me that the parasite only lays eggs at night so keeping the lights on will help. Has anyone noticed the same observations? if so, will keeping only actinics on work as well.

 

[aquarius 1]

Lesley, how big is your tank? And what do you have for fish and liverock?

 

[lesleybird]

Originally posted by Aquarius 1
Lesley, how big is your tank? And what do you have for fish and liverock?
Hi, All I have is a little 40 gallon as this is the largest that will fit in the tiled entry hall by the half bath. I only have 4 fish....two full grown damsels, a flame angel and a six line wrasse. I have about ten hermits, two scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp, 7 snails, dozens of brissle worms, and just added an open brain and a closed brain coral and four tiny hairy mushrooms that glow, and an orange ball sponge. I did not add any live rock except for the one that the mushrooms came on. I used a starter culture of reef mud for the worms (and plankton) that keep the sand clean and only come out at night. I have coral (purple) algae on the rocks from the snails shells seeding it. My rock was lots of the dead limestone (I think), the kind with lots of large holes in it that the fish love to swim through. I don't know how many pounds. You can take dead rock and make it grow life by seeding it with a few live rocks. I am kind of afraid of live rock because one never knows if what is growing on it is something that you want in your tank. My brissle worms are of a type that does not bother anything, and my wrasse eats them before they get too big!
I would love to have a larger tank....and even could aford one, but I don't know where it would go that it would be by a bathroom to drain the water. Lesley

 

[bang guy]

I've never done anything for Ick and my success rate seems to be similar to that of Kick-Ick. Occationally a new fish will develop Ick in my Q-Tank and a few days to a week later it's gone and doesn't ever return. That really doesn't say as lot for the product.
I'm admittedly not well versed in disease treatment but if a products success rate is similar to (or worse than) doing nothing then just how good is it?
I am happy for you that your Ick is gone though. Congrats