The beginnings of ick? and treatment?

[garychef1]

i think my foxface and one of my clowns has ick. I have a 4 foot 55 and i see a couple white dots on the clown and about a dozen on my foxface. These came about 2 days ago. The other clown, diamond goby, and six line wrasse are doing fine as well as the infected ones. All of my parameters are perfect but due to the hot weather my tank has had some small 3-4 degreee temperature fluctuations. I do not have a seperate tank for hypo. I am going to try soaking the food in garlic for feeding and trying out some reef safe ick meds. I know the meds are not the guaranteed route to cure ick but its all i can do. I read the FAQ for ick and all about the stages of the bug and everything. I dont want my fishies to die !!!

My skunk shrimp have been cleaning but i dont think it is working. Can ick affect my corals? I dont think it will but i really really would not like thse to die because all 16 of them are irreplaceable. Some one please help !!!

 

[garychef1]

anyone???

 

[donice]

I have been using garlic liquid soaking it in there food. My blue hippo is getting better, but now I'm hearing it won't kill it in my tank. They say lower the salt but I won't do that either It would shock your tank so I'm staying with the garlic until I hear of a better suggetion.

 

[nicetry]

Originally Posted by Garychef1
anyone???
Ich will not affect your corals, only fish. If a couple of fish are showing symptoms, all fish have been exposed and need to be treated. Garlic is not a cure, and the so called bottled "cures" don't work with any consistancy so you may be losing valuable time. It's your call. Go with a proven method, or experiment and risk losing your fish. A quarantine tank can be set up for cheap. In the long run, I think you'll wish you had gone this route.

 

[nicetry]

Originally Posted by donice
They say lower the salt but I won't do that either It would shock your tank so I'm staying with the garlic until I hear of a better suggetion.
Lowering salinty (hyposalinity) wil not shock your system if done properly. You can use it safely to treat c. irritans (ich) in saltwater fish. You can't have inverts or live rock in the tank during the procedure, but it is widely effective in treating parasitic outbreaks. Garlic is not a cure and this myth has been perpetuated by many hobbyists. It does have some mild immune function benefits, but it wil not kill ich.

 

[darreng]

hypo will work if you don't have any inverts in the tank, garlic will not kill ich just repell them (kinda like Mosquito spray and works about as well just so so)
I can tell you from a long history of fighting this little parasite that get a hospital tank or get prozac because it will drive you nuts. The sure way to deal with it is to move the fish and stave every single parasite out and treat you fish in the hospital tank, ich is relativly easy to kill when not in the main tank, copper, hypo, quick cure. all will eliminate it on fish but be sure to leave the fish out for long enough to starve it otherwise all you can do is sit back and let it drive you nuts.

 

[garychef1]

OK, i just got back from my expedition to save the fish. First i went to my LFS and i had 5 tests:
Nitrate - 5-10 ppm (using Purigen for 2 weeks now)
Phosphate - .5 ppm (using Phosguard)
Magnesium - 1200 ppm (just started using B-Ionic magnesium yesterday)
Calcium - 450 ppm (i have stopped using B-Ionic Part 1 since yesterday)
Alkalinity - 5.6 mg/L (i have stopped using B-Ionic Part 2 since yesterday)
All others are Perfect
The Calcium and Alkalinity levels are really really high. Could these little white dots be calcium deposits? The white dots are showing up on the overflow box as well. It also seems that the white dots have gone away from my Perculas and the only ones left on the Foxface are on its tail. Anyway, to be safe, i went to ***** and got a 10 gal QT tank with filter and i went into my basement and got a light and heater. So now, i can use hypo if necessary. I went to three LFS and they all told me that:
1. Hypo is the way to go
2. Garlic doesn't work
3. Have never heard of "reef-safe" ick killers
I didnt ask them about calcium deposits because i didn't think of that until i got home (LFS's are at least 30 minutes away).
Another possible thing is that there seem to be a bunch of white particles throughout the tank. I have read that they could be "Micro Bubbles" from my Protein Skimmer or nuicance algae. I read that those tiny bubbles can stick to fish and i think that algae may have as well. Another thing it could be is that the phosguard i put in (rinsed it before use) could be making bubbles/dust that may also cling to the fish. The phosguard is currently being used in a brand new PM Reactor.
If it happens to unfortunately be ick, i mentioned before that my tank has had some 3-4 degree temperature changes (temp has not gone below 78 or above 82) and my LFS's told me that can really cause fish stress and cause ick. I want a chiller really bad but i have 2 fans (1 skimming surface and 1 on sump) that seem to have had a great impact making temperature fluctuations only 2 degrees, raising and lowering over a longer period of time. I am also keeping my Metal Halide light off.
If ANYONE has ANY thoughts, suggestions, or helpful knowledge PLEASE POST IT !!!

 

[garychef1]

Now there are some more spots on the foxface and there are no other spots on any of the fish. Can anyone help me on this???

 

[mikelly02]

Wish I could, I'm reading these post trying yo figure out if I have ick, too!!! My temp's are really fluctuating, though. 86 degrees!!! Well, I'm off to deal with that, good luck, I really wish I could help you.

 

[garychef1]

thanks, i am just about to put the fish in the QT after reading some more stuff on hypo unless someone convinces me not to.

 

[garychef1]

OK, the clowns and Foxface are in the Qt and i am putting saltwater back into my reef tank. Everything is setup now.