The real deal with ICH

[anthonynyc]

I took Beth's advice as well and am currently using hyposalinity.
I first bought a refractometer for a great price on e-b-a-y. I got it in 2 days and tested the overall salinity. My swing arm hydrometer was off by a lot!
I have a 72 gallon tank and remove 10 gallons of water a day. For each 10 gallons my salinity drops .003.
I have gotten the salinity down from
1.023
1.020
1.017
1.014 is where I am currently but in 2 days I should be down to 1.009
I know this his prob not the reason but since I started lowering the salinity, I do not see the ICK anymore but they could be multiplying etc..
Also before staring hypo I moved all snails, crabs, shrimos AND ALL LIVE ROCK to a 10gallon quarantine tank that I set up. I learned my lesson, from now on I will always use a QT tank, it's just not worth it having the fishes suffer like they are now.
Good luck with the treatment and post how the fishes are doing.
Anthony

 

[l8nitebly]

Originally Posted by L8NITEBLY
Im going to try COPPERSAFE today. My tank is at its worst and the worst that can happen will happen sooner than later if I dont try something. Thank you for all your posts. I will up date with the results later.
I dont know, but the coppersafe didnt seem to do a thing. ICH took over my tank like a plauge and seemed to get way worse after I did the coppersafe. I LOST MY WHOLE TANK!!! 14 fish total! Most recently (since I did the treatment) I lost a FLAME ANGEL, A MATED PAIR OF CLOWNS, a YELLOW TANG and (my fav) a DOGFACED PUFFER.

Im BUMMED. Back to day one for me!
Lots learned, but not worth the lesson.

 

[scubadoo]

Originally Posted by L8NITEBLY
I dont know, but the coppersafe didnt seem to do a thing. ICH took over my tank like a plauge and seemed to get way worse after I did the coppersafe. I LOST MY WHOLE TANK!!! 14 fish total! Most recently (since I did the treatment) I lost a FLAME ANGEL, A MATED PAIR OF CLOWNS, a YELLOW TANG and (my fav) a DOGFACED PUFFER.

Im BUMMED. Back to day one for me!
Lots learned, but not worth the lesson.

Sorry for your lossess.....I would wait 6 weeks before even attemptig to introduce additional fish. Do some water changes and run some carbon or other media to remove the crap from your system.
Take it very slow and use a QT tank in the future. Get a good copper test kit and make sure all that crap is not at a dangerous level.
Adding copper or any other product for disease treatment to your main display usually will cause problems either with fish, the system or most likely both.
I've been in this hobby for decades and have learned some very expensive lessons as well.
Just remember to QT all fish and take it slow. It probably will be a minimum of 6 months before you could even attempt to add inverts...with no guarantees.
If your system is not that old it may take it months to rebound from the damage casued by the copper. Take it very SLOW because of this.
Best of luck