Tank Problems.

[duce]

If you have forgotten I have a 30 gallon reef tank which contains[ed] about 25 lbs of live rock, yellow polyps, brown polyps, mushroom polyps, star polyps, open brain coral, and a goniopora flowerpot. I also had a yellow tang, maroon clown, humbug damsel, coral beauty, and a mandarin. My tank was flourishing and has been for the past 3 or so months but all of a sudden my yellow tang came down with ick. I quickly gave him the "freshwater" bath and he was soon cured but only a few short days after not only did he come down with it again but also my clown, humbug, and coral beauty got it. I again quickly gave them the bath and all died except the humbug (figures). It didnt' seem to bother the corals except for my brain and the anemone, the brain looks like it's about to die and the anemone looks as if it already is dead. I don't have any clue what happened. I also have some red algae growing at the bottom if this can give you any leads. Please help me restore my tank!
Thanx, Duce

 

[kmatysek]

It would help to have details on all your water conditions.
We've got a relatively new setup as well, and we've got a couple fish who have sported ick-like white patches for months now but have been doing fine otherwise. My understanding is it's almost impossible to avoid with a reef tank.
We've also got red slime algae - it can be caused by poor water quality (alkalinity, phosphates, salinity), as well as poor circulation and too much nutrients (over-feeding).

 

[harris]

This is from memory:
Ick if it is not on a fish becomes "crystalized" in a dormant state. These "crystals" can last up to about a week or so in a tank without a host. When they do not get a host in that time they die. I bought a blue damsel to keep my clown company, well he came with ick after about a week. I created a fresh saltwater batch as a hosp tank. I freshwater dipped the clown until he was listing, just to make sure. The damsel met the flusher(not somthing I advocate). about 8 days later I introduced the fish back into my display. No problems ever since, even after introducing new fish. So what about the rock? didn't it still have ick? Well if it doesn't find a suitable host-no it dies.
What do you know the same LFS I bought the damsel fish from was selling this beatiful live rock for cheap out of the tank that had a dying tang in it, (go figure I think the Damsel got it from the H20 filter). I jumped on the deal and they looked at me like I was crazy. Well I bought almost all of that rock, beatufilly encrusted had many polyps. I put the rock in a hosp tank for about 2 weeks to make sure and then introduced it into my main tank a piece at a time. I never once had an outbreak of ick on my fishies. Be advised exoskeleton creatures cannot(not positve but almost) contract it, becasue they are encased by hard shells. Moral of the story, go fishless for a while and it will go away, and from now on dip everyone before you put them in your tank, I always do...and have not been dissapointed yet. Maybe a UV sterilizer down the road sometime.....

 

[dseiler]

Originally posted by harris:
This is from memory:
Ick if it is not on a fish becomes "crystalized" in a dormant state. These "crystals" can last up to about a week or so in a tank without a host. When they do not get a host in that time they die. .....
That would all be correct except Ick can live without a host for almost three weeks.