Ich problem/Opinions

[arbaugh]

Long story short. I had ich. I hypo treated for 7 weeks. I should have waited 10 weeks. I did not tried to save one fish that died anyways.

I turned off my downstairs heater last week. It was 73 degrees outside. That night it decided to freeze over. Thanks GA weather. Tank is in big open living room, it dropped about 3-4 degrees over night with heaters running in tank. Just a stupid mistake on my part.

Turns out Ich wasn't gone. I had cured it from fish during the QT but not all of it died off in the tank. Powder brown has it. Other 3 remaining fish seems to show no symptoms currently. (2 cardinals have had it before, fairy wrasse never showed symptoms). Tang has gotten bad within 2 days. I'm not sure if he'll make it a few more.

QT is out. It restarted cycle after hypo and nitrites are taking forever to drop. Thought about a FW dip but it doesn't seem to be a long term solution. Specially since it would take me 2+ hours to get him out of tank after taking rocks out. So the actual question.

I have 2 options.
Option 1- See if he fights it off. My hopes are low. (very sad)If he dies, remove all fish. Go fishless for 3 months. Insure no Ich is in the system. Let QT sit and cycle. Come back to it in 2 or so months. Get some fish in QT. Figure out how to QT and stop ich during that phase. I'm guessing preemptively treat for it?

Option 2- I've read this in at least 40% of the outdated posts I skim through on google. But some people recognize their tanks are going to have ich. They concentrate on stabilizing tank and just do their best to not shock the system so the fish don't stress and show symptoms. How many people on here actually do that? Like you know, good chance that fish X has Ich. And you just live with it see signs of it from time to time but they go away.

I've read tons of posts online. (ever notice that most posts you find on topics are 5+ years old?) But I'd like to know what some in the local community do.

Thanks in advance.

 

[brandonmason]

Start feeding twice a day frozen with metro and focus. Keep your hands out of the tank to reduce stress

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[arbaugh]

Hah, actually started that soon as I saw the spots. He's hardly eating now though, just hiding in the back. I'm not sure if he's grabbing any food that goes by his face.

 

[brandonmason]

You can reduce light time too. Might help him get comfortable

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[1percula]

I've had a number of bouts with ick. I find that the tangs are the primary carriers. Ick exists in sand, can come in on coral or cured rock. I find the best thing to do is to suck it up and ride it out. Some fish are going to make it but most aren't. I've tried QT and still lost fish. You will make your self crazy with kick ick, hypo, drop temp, kill lights, etc. and then you hope not to take a toll on your coral and the overall condition of the rest of your tank.

It will pass, just one of those things you have to deal with. Strange thing, my tank is just finishing an ick episode. I did nothing. Lost a couple of angelfish, blue tang (culprit) 1 clown and 4 anthias. However, 1 clown survived, showed no symptoms, yellow tang and both leopard wrasse made it.

I've tried it all, I find it best to ride it out, let the cycle run and replace the stock when the time comes. Get off the tang addiction, it goes a long way toward avoiding ick. Yellows, seem to hold up well, all others hit the wall. I've learn to love my coral more than the fish.

Ignore the online stuff, you'll just make yourself crazy.

 

[arbaugh]

1Percula, probably the best answer I've read yet. Just curious are you QT'ing new fish? If we don't QT new stuff, besides ich what is a big problem?

 

[greg]

If the first thing you do when you approach your tank in the morning is inspect your fish(for me it was always my Powder Blue) for ich, get a UV sterilizer. I will never have another tank without one.

In the past, I've lost so many fish to ich. If the ich didn't kill them, the hospital tank did either by added stress or ammonia levels. I tried everything.

The UV sterilizer needs to be at least 55W and bulbs should be changed every 6 months tops. I bought a cheap one for outdoor ponds for $80 and the replacement bulbs are under $15. There has only been one ich outbreak in the last 2 yrs since putting it on my system and I realized it was because my bulb was 8 months old. After changing the bulb, the fish were all healthy a couple days later. Every once in a while, I will see a spot or two on my PBT's face, but it is gone the next day and that only happens the day after I do a WC where I vacuum the sand. So, basically, the ich is never gone, but the UV sterilizer keeps it out of the flowing water or at least at low enough levels that the fish can fight it off.

Just adding the new equipment wasn't enough, though. There were adjustments I had to do to get it right. First, my Sterilizer is rated for 600gph, but I found it works best at 350-400gph. Also, don't let the water flow in your tank drop too much at night. I used to turn the flow way down at night because I thought the fish wanted it that way when they sleep. All this does is make it easier for the ich to attach to the fish that are basically sleeping near the sand bed.

Sorry for my babble, I just wanted to share what finally worked for me(huge tang addict).

 

[arbaugh]

So few questions.

I can't fit a UV in my current plumbing. But I could run a line from one side of the sump to the other and put the UV in the middle. Would that be efficient enough to at least get the tank started in being sterilized?

I hear you on the water flow. I think I need a small mp10 towards the bottom that stirs up some flow down there. The mP40 is near the middle and that's all the flow tank has at the moment. That thing goes pretty low at night so could be an issue like you said.

Thanks for the advice, really am glad to read I'm not the only one just living with Ich. Tang died this morning. He was rough I scooped him up tried last min fW dip. Probably just finished him off. So now wife and I are debating going fishless for a few months or just trying to stabilize fatten up fish in QT and see if new ones can survive in the tank.

 

[FutureInterest]

Currently with where you are at, I would recommend going with Option 1. You have a QT system and can have an ich free system as you don't have a lot of fish in there. That's the dream.

The reality is that most of us are living in Option 2. I only know of two reefers that have been able to keep up Option 1. They are very proud of it and rightly so.

 

[brandonmason]

FutureInterest;1110005 wrote: Currently with where you are at, I would recommend going with Option 1. You have a QT system and can have an ich free system as you don't have a lot of fish in there. That's the dream.

The reality is that most of us are living in Option 2. I only know of two reefers that have been able to keep up Option 1. They are very proud of it and rightly so.

Connie sent you a pm. Could you please reply to her.

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[1percula]

You should QT fish. But fish aren't the only carriers of ick. I have 2 aqua 57 watt uv's on my system, running water thru at 300 gph. I can't do anymore than that. QT the fish. Some advise against it, but you might want to hit all new fish with copper treatment before putting them into your main tank. I've tried that before, but still endured an ick episode at a later date. I may have had too many fish at one time. Just be smart, play the odds, and if/when ick happens, let what's going to die, die. Wait it out and try again. I have a 180 in my office with 4 tangs and no ick in 4 years. Go figure.

OPTION 2!!!

 

[jennm]

The only sure fire way not to have ich is not to have fish.

I don't care how careful one is, all it takes is one little varmint and it's on like Donkey Kong.

The biggest part of managing it is to determine what the stressor(s) is (are) and address that. Otherwise any other attempts to mitigate it are a waste of time.

Jenn

 

[ralph atl]

After 2006, my tank nor any of its inhabitants ever had Cryptocaryon due to healthy purchases from the most trusted sources in the industry to QT.
Formalin is a reasonably non invasive cure for marine itch in a QT tank. There is no reason to ride it out and pray that it doesn't kill anything...imho.

 

[greg]

I'm sorry about your tang.

arbaugh;1109997 wrote:
I can't fit a UV in my current plumbing. But I could run a line from one side of the sump to the other and put the UV in the middle. Would that be efficient enough to at least get the tank started in being sterilized?

Yes. I used to run all my return water through the UV, but I now feed it from the manifold back into the sump. I found this works better since I can control the flow. It may not sound as efficient, but the water does find its way there eventually and flow rate is key.

arbaugh;1109997 wrote: I hear you on the water flow. I think I need a small mp10 towards the bottom that stirs up some flow down there. The mP40 is near the middle and that's all the flow tank has at the moment. That thing goes pretty low at night so could be an issue like you said.

I'm not sure what size tank you have, but I use 2 MP40s on a 180. I raised them from 10% at night to 30% constant and that seemed to do the trick. I guess ich hatches at night, so the increase flow will help get them into the sump when they are active so the sterilizer can do it's work.

Please understand the UV sterilizer will never rid your tank of ich. It will only keep levels low enough that your fish can fight it off. Before I used a sterilizer, I added a new fish and realized he had a single spot of ich on his fin after adding him to the tank(didn't quarantine). Within a few days he looked really bad and within 2 weeks, all the fish had it.
I don't recommend not quarantining, but now that I have the sterilizer, the ich doesn't ever spread to other fish if one gets it and is gone within a day. Perhaps it is giving me a false sense of security, but I don't quarantine new fish with ich I acclimate them and put them in the sump for a few days before adding them to the tank.

 

[mot]

This is what I have been doing.

http://www.tanktransfermethod.com/node/1">http://www.tanktransfermethod.com/node/1</a>

Hope that helps.

 

[enderg60]

Im also one of those people who has had constant ich. I have done full fish out of the tank for 3 straight months, TWICE, with the fish in dips of everything from copper to quanine sulphate.

I still have ich, and now simply accept it. But I dont do it quietly.

Get yourself a BIG UV and make sure its sized right and the flow rate is right. For 8 years I had a 57w UV pushing 150 gpm serving my system and it works VERY well for keeping the ich rate way down. I just upgraded to a second 57w unit to get the tank turnover up, and then decided to go even bigger so I can turn the tank over once an hour at the kill ich flow rate.

Besides that, make sure they are eating a LOT. I have never seen a fish die from ich when its eating well.

Keeping my fish fed and a UV on the system and I have not seen more than a single spot on my blue tang and it never stays long, and not a single new fish has gotten it in years.

If you need a UV Ill have two for sale in a week or so.

 

[seth the wine guy]

No system IMO is ich free. It's just a matter of whether your fish become stressed, then weakened, and show signs of it. Just like your home, it's full of pathogens that can make you ill. If you have a weakened immune system, you're more likely to get sick from them. Big UV is key. Haven't lost a fish from ich in 6 years after getting one. I run a thermal nuclear reactor on my current tank. (480w Emporer) I have no fear of any pathogen that has a free swimming stage of its development EVER doing damage in my tank. I run only one or two of the 4 ballasts half the day to maintain water clarity. If I make a new fish addition, or first sign of an ich spot, and I fire up on all cylinders. It's like throwing a nitrous tank on a 911 Turbo S.