Reef safe ich treatment? - Page 2

mf2055 · #16 (**permalink**) 11-20-2009, 08:04 PM

marine ich is almost impossible to remove from a standard home aquarium permanently. To combat it API Melafix works a little bit IMO, but you will not want to run this with a skimmer on the tank. It will ERRUPT! I would remove your skimmer completely before beginning treatment, do a large water change with temp/salt like water to your system, then dose the proper ammount. If you can get the fish out of the tank without too much stress (at night or such) take them out and do a hypo treatment. running the tank without fish for 6 weeks will kill all ich in the system, they cannot survive without a host that long. and they cannot survive hypo treatment done properly at 1.010, the key is to be accurate on your salt levels or you will kill the fish/not kill the ich. and when it is time to come back up.. only bring it up as fast as evap allows (stop topping off with FW, use similar strength SW if needed to keep level up)

medwards9999 · #17 (**permalink**) 11-20-2009, 08:49 PM

+ for ich attack. All organic, never lost a fish, snail, or coral from use. Im also new school, havent been reefing for 20 years and set in my ways. The posters are right the only "proven" way to kill ich is hypo and copper. But i know your thought on how do i catch the fish, without killing them, hypo and blast them with copper and keep the tank fallow for 6 weeks. it works but is not practical. There has been mixed reviews on in tank treatments and no nasa backed test to say once and for all, this works or doesnt work. But if the qt wont work for you, I would suggest ich attack. Good luck. Also + one for garlic.

blennielove · #18 (**permalink**) 11-21-2009, 07:18 PM

Hello fellow reefers!
An update - Day 4 Ich Attack and Day 2 Herbtana - All invertebrates are not harmed, fishes more active looking today, they really line up for the cleaner wrasse. They are still eating very well with some scratching behaviors. Tank parameters: 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate, 0.5 phosphate (this has been STABLE in this tank since set up), ammonia 0, pH 8.2 (I will be adding some pH stabilizer to bring it up to 8.4 or maybe I should do a 25% water change).
I brought out my old Magnum 350 and I'm running the micro pleat cartrige as it will trap particles size 8 microns or less and Ich is 300 microns... We will see how this goes...
Need YOUR suggestion - As long as the fishes are eating very well and active, would YOU try to catch them and put them in a hospital tank? My hospital tank will only be a bare bottom, sponge filtered 55 gal...Sounds stressful to me but just wanted your opionion.
Thanks!

mf2055 · #19 (**permalink**) 11-21-2009, 07:52 PM

Sounds pointless to pull them out for 6 weeks if you don't think they are in danger of dieing from the infection at this point.

NewBostonConst · #20 (**permalink**) 11-21-2009, 08:09 PM

Uv.........

airplanes · #21 (**permalink**) 11-21-2009, 08:42 PM

agree on the uv Ive got one never had a problem and it helps on the alage

blennielove · #22 (**permalink**) 11-21-2009, 11:14 PM

I am afraid of them dying!

It's just so hard to figure out when they look so bad up close but then from afar they look fine - active, playful, happy...My UV is coming next week - I can't wait! They seem a little better since I'm running the Magnum. I hope that thing is sucking those nasty ich up! I went and picked up No-Ich today and I'm thinking of adding that into the mix. I know you are probably thinking - Ich Attack + Herbtana + No-Ich = disaster! I'll probably cut down Ich Attack to once a day and then dose the No-Ich 12 hours later. It's like using Tylenol and Motrin together...
Thanks for the input and support!

salty balls · #23 (**permalink**) 11-22-2009, 12:22 PM

Don't take my word for this as I'm not 100% sure if it is true, but I was told that keeping your photo period as short as you can will help kill ich. The story was that ich lays dormant when it does not have light, so your treatment will have a better chance of working on something that is not bouncing all around looking for a host.

Maybe some of the long time reefers can chime in on that?

As I said not sure if it's fact or fiction!

blennielove · #24 (**permalink**) 11-23-2009, 05:24 PM

Update on Ich-Attack (day 6) + Herbtana (day4)
My fishes are doing better.
During the treatment, I noticed that Herbtana may be slightly irritating to some of the corals (zoanthids, Elegance Coral) but only shortly, then after a few hours they open back up.
All the fishes continue to eat aggressively, Ich is still observable on fishes but appears to be less. I was going to add No-Ich to this but refrained thinking then how would I know what worked.
I'm seeing that I'm one of the only ones checking this forum, anyone else here?

loveaneighbor · #25 (**permalink**) 11-23-2009, 11:10 PM

I too just purchased some Herbtana, but I will not be starting treatment until after Thanksgiving. Even then, I am not sure if I will use it, because I am not sure I need it. Some of my fish are still occasionally rubbing on things, the only one that is showing physical signs of ich is my blue hippo. She looks a ton better than she did a few weeks ago.

Both of my tangs got ich pretty bad right after I changed tanks, which I feel was the "trigger". This got me thinking that the reason our fish get ich is because of some cause of stress that lowers their immune system. A lot of the instances I can think of where others have gotten ich in their tanks has started with a trigger, changing tanks, adding new fish, sub-optimal water quality, improper acclimation are some I can think of.

During the time my fish have had ich, I would attribute their ability to heal to a stress free, proper environment. I have been feeding garlic and always feed a high quality food. I feel this is the case because the only thing that has changed in my fish keeping is the tank change. Being the trigger that stressed my fish enough to allow the ich to take hold.

After seeing my fish battle this ich, I truly feel that if we as keepers can provide our fish with a stress free environment, we can stop ich before it starts, thus eliminating the need for "reef safe ich treatments".

scooterguitar · #26 (**permalink**) 11-26-2009, 09:53 AM

Good insight and a good thread everyone.
LIke a fool, I added a few fish to my reef that has been doing ok for 5 years...yep, today signs of ich! WHy, oh why was I such a fool and not QT!!!!!

yetiman5150 · #27 (**permalink**) 11-26-2009, 10:03 AM

I'm glad someone mentioned the problems with the skimmer... The kick-ich worked great, I also used garlic guard on my food for a while.

I don't think the kick-ich hurt the corals, but I could not run my skimmer during the duration of the treatment. That didn't do my SPS any good, but they recovered.

iyachtuxivm · #28 (**permalink**) 11-26-2009, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blennielove

Update on Ich-Attack (day 6) + Herbtana (day4)
My fishes are doing better.
During the treatment, I noticed that Herbtana may be slightly irritating to some of the corals (zoanthids, Elegance Coral) but only shortly, then after a few hours they open back up.
All the fishes continue to eat aggressively, Ich is still observable on fishes but appears to be less. I was going to add No-Ich to this but refrained thinking then how would I know what worked.
I'm seeing that I'm one of the only ones checking this forum, anyone else here?

Ok I at least am reading this and following along if not posting I am sure others are too. Please continue to update and let us know if this stuff works.

krizo · #29 (**permalink**) 11-26-2009, 08:20 PM

I've used kick-ich twice and it didn't work at all. Just my experience, doesn't mean it wouldn't work for someone else. It didn't bother my corals though. I did some reading and found that garlic is a kind of repellant to ich and other parasites. So I diced up some raw garlic, fish loved it, and within a couple of days my fish were ich free. I randomly feed my fish raw garlic as a supplement to their diet, and my tang and clown have been ich free for over 2 years now.

blennielove · #30 (**permalink**) 11-28-2009, 12:55 AM

Greetings everyone and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Well, the story is not what you all want to hear, but I thought I will share with you what happened. On November 25, my Kole Eye started doing the desperate rushing swim, he/she was flipping around in the DT and not looking good at all. I was lucky to be able to net him/her right out and immediately did a fresh water dip that lasted 10 minutes or so with aeration. This happened right before lights out on the tank so, I put her in a salt bucket filled with water at 1.022 specific gravity (measured with refractometer) and aeration and went to sleep thinking that she/he will die overnight. Much to my surprise next morning, she/he was swimming around looking fairly good. I then moved her to a newly set up hospital tank with water heated to 80 degrees, SG 1.022, and added some malachite green and formalin. She/he died 8 hours later - I'm thinking I over dosed the malachite/formalin but her skin looked really blotchy which I think is that she has had lesions on her skin from all that scratching on substrate and sand which allowed more formalin to penetrate her body and that killed her. I continued to treat my display tank double dose of Ich Attack at 11:30 pm and again around 7:30 AM because I've learned that the "Mature trophonts leave the host and tomites exit the theront/cyst in the dark" from Steven Pro's article. On November 26, after a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with family and friends, I came home to our Powder Blue Tang looking pale and completely coverd with fine powdered sugar and his eyes are loosing their brightness. These were the same symptoms I remembered seeing on the Kole Tang the night before, so I did it. I completely removed two hundred and eighty pounds of live rock and coral to catch all my fish, it was not fun on Thanksgiving night at 11:00 PM - Powdered Blue Tang, Flame Angel, Clown Fairy Wrasse, Cleaner Wrasse, Lubbock's Wrasse but my Filament Wrasse dove in the sand and is missing in action as I type this. The five fishes are in a 55 gallon hospital tank set up with PVC tube condo, a hang on back filter with bio wheels, and a sponge filter running on a power head. The tank's temperature is kept at 80-82, pH 8.3. I was planning on running it hypo saline but learned that I can't just throw them in there so I'm lowering it by 0.003 every day, currently at 1.013. I am still treating my DT with Ich Attack twice a day. I've stopped using Herbtana due to it's effect on a couple of my corals and since I may only have the Filament Wrasse (I hope it's still alive) to benefit from it. I also have Kick Ich that I'm dosing every other day for the "severe infection". I have been running my UV sterilizer Turbo Twist 36 watt with a dedicated Magnum 350 (I called Coralife and asked about the flow rate and the nice gentleman said the flow will drop down to the upper 200 gallon per hour needed to kill bacteria with all the twists in the UV sterilizer) for since November 24 and also the micron filter on another Magnum 350. My goal is to go through the 14 days of treatment with Ich Attack (why waste the meds that I've got) and the whole treatment cycle with Kick Ick at every other day dosing. I want to see if this will help speed the preparation of my DT for the return of my fishes. It will also be good to HOPE that my Filament Wrasse can benefit from this. Other wise, as those of you who's been following along with me have seen, Ich Attack has a funny smell but does NO HARM to inverts, corals, or bacterial flora at Double the dose, and can be used along with Kick Ich without apparent harm. I will keep you updated regarding inverts, corals, shrimps, and urchin as I continue to treat my DT. Best Wishes to YOU.