Ick

Whats the best solution to get rid of ick, need something that's reef safe?
The bottom line is that there is no reef-safe ich treatment. There are only 2 chemical treatments that are actually effective with cryptocaryon irritans - copper/chelated copper and chloroquine phosphate. Both are deadly to invertebrates.

Besides these two, the only other means of killing off ich (and saving the fish) are to remove them to a quarantine tank and either do a tank transfer procedure or a hyposalinity treatment. If you have a very new reef tank with few invertebrates and want to save your fish, you can remove the inverts to another tank, and drop the main display's specific gravity to 1.015 (today! - fish will not last long with an active ich infection), followed by a drop to 1.009 tomorrow. You're essentially practicing hyposalinity in your main display tank. Any inverts that you don't move or catch will die, so you need to be ready with big water changes if you get an ammonia spike. The good news, however, is that your bacterial base in the display tank will survive.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%

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