Long bad reef day!

[Droberts0724]

First we tackled the RODI and that was my earlier issue. Now I realized my tank of a little over 2 months has ich! No new fish but it came from somewhere and to top it off...I forgot to turn my UV sanitizer back on after first defense was added with fish. I turned it back on and now need to know what to treat my reef tank with! I can't rip every fish out at this point as...I have 100 lb of rock and 2 corals so what now! What works to help ich???

 

[W1ngz]

The only real way to eliminate ick is removing the fish, treating them (with copper or tank transfer) and leaving the display tank fishless for 76 days.

Short of that and you're stuck trying to manage it, keeping the fish in top shape and hoping nothing ever ever causes them stress and lets the disease get the upper hand.

 

[laverda]

There are other ways to eliminate ICH like the tank transfer method. I have never found any of the in tank remedies to be very helpful.

You can also do ICH management in the tank. While they say you will never eliminate ICH completely without fallowing a strict QT process, it can be very successful for some people. A lot depends on how bad the ICH out break is. Turning your UV back on should help control the free swimming stage if to flow rate is not to fast through it. It may not be enough to save your fish depending on how bad the out break is. Eliminate all sources of stress, keep the water temp stable within 3 degrees. Catch any fish you can and give a fresh water dip to remove some of the ICH. If possible put your corals in a small tank and reduce the salinity of your display to 1.019. You can do that quickly but remember to bring it back up slowly. To bring it back up put saltwater in your ATO until back where your keep your salinity.

I have found cleaned shrimp and neon gobies very helpful for ICH. Plus I like watching both interact with my other fish. I have always kept one or the other in my QT tank and display tank. I currently have both in my Qt and shrimp in my display. That is only because neon gobies only live 2-3 years and I have not been able to fine many recently. I was once given a clown covered in ICH. I put it in my QT with 3 neon gobies. They pretty much freaked the clown out as they all went to it right away and started cleaning it. The clown recovered and never showed symptoms again. I will say neon copies are not immune to getting ICH themselves as I tried doing the same with a larger fish with a severe case of ICH and lost it and my neon gobies.

I have fish 4 that were exposed to ICH early in my care that are now 20 plus years old. My sail fin tang and yellow tang both would show signs of ICH when I tried to keep the temp in my tank at 77, but it would swing to 82 on hot summer days even with the chiller running. Once I adjusted the temp to 79 they no longer had ICH showing. They are 26 and 25 years in my care. This was some 23-24 years ago. Since then they have never showed any signs of ICH, nothing else has either. They went through a tank move and I am sure other stressors in that time. Is ICH still in my system, I do not know, but I assume it is. I have never used a UV, but would if I had and ICH out break again.

 

[Droberts0724]

There are other ways to eliminate ICH like the tank transfer method. I have never found any of the in tank remedies to be very helpful.

You can also do ICH management in the tank. While they say you will never eliminate ICH completely without fallowing a strict QT process, it can be very successful for some people. A lot depends on how bad the ICH out break is. Turning your UV back on should help control the free swimming stage if to flow rate is not to fast through it. It may not be enough to save your fish depending on how bad the out break is. Eliminate all sources of stress, keep the water temp stable within 3 degrees. Catch any fish you can and give a fresh water dip to remove some of the ICH. If possible put your corals in a small tank and reduce the salinity of your display to 1.019. You can do that quickly but remember to bring it back up slowly. To bring it back up put saltwater in your ATO until back where your keep your salinity.

I have found cleaned shrimp and neon gobies very helpful for ICH. Plus I like watching both interact with my other fish. I have always kept one or the other in my QT tank and display tank. I currently have both in my Qt and shrimp in my display. That is only because neon gobies only live 2-3 years and I have not been able to fine many recently. I was once given a clown covered in ICH. I put it in my QT with 3 neon gobies. They pretty much freaked the clown out as they all went to it right away and started cleaning it. The clown recovered and never showed symptoms again. I will say neon copies are not immune to getting ICH themselves as I tried doing the same with a larger fish with a severe case of ICH and lost it and my neon gobies.

I have fish 4 that were exposed to ICH early in my care that are now 20 plus years old. My sail fin tang and yellow tang both would show signs of ICH when I tried to keep the temp in my tank at 77, but it would swing to 82 on hot summer days even with the chiller running. Once I adjusted the temp to 79 they no longer had ICH showing. They are 26 and 25 years in my care. This was some 23-24 years ago. Since then they have never showed any signs of ICH, nothing else has either. They went through a tank move and I am sure other stressors in that time. Is ICH still in my system, I do not know, but I assume it is. I have never used a UV, but would if I had and ICH out break again.

So I should turn my tank temp up?

 

[good.reef]

So I should turn my tank temp up?

I hate to say but that is all anecdotal information. There is some idea that freshwater ich can be effected by higher temperatures but although they have the same name they aren't the same thing. Also UV in order to kill ich would need to be very very oversized for your system and need to have slow water movement through the sterilizer and at the risk of killing of nearly all other beneficial free floating organisms and even then ich will be in your sand and rock and anything else it the tank. UV's powerful enough to kill ich will also kill copepods and other zooplankton. There is a lot of misconceptions about UV sterilizers but most people have them to kill algae. As others have said you're now at the point of elimination or management. Elimination requires removing all fish for 76 days of a fallow period and treating them outside of the tank. The tank transfer method works best to eliminate ich. Or you can manage the ich which will stay in your system by keeping your water clean, feeding nutritious foods with selcon and garlic, and trying to reduce and avoid stress to the fish.

 

[Droberts0724]

I hate to say but that is all anecdotal information. There is some idea that freshwater ich can be effected by higher temperatures but although they have the same name they aren't the same thing. Also UV in order to kill ich would need to be very very oversized for your system and need to have slow water movement through the sterilizer and at the risk of killing of nearly all other beneficial free floating organisms and even then ich will be in your sand and rock and anything else it the tank. UV's powerful enough to kill ich will also kill copepods and other zooplankton. There is a lot of misconceptions about UV sterilizers but most people have them to kill algae. As others have said you're now at the point of elimination or management. Elimination requires removing all fish for 76 days of a fallow period and treating them outside of the tank. The tank transfer method works best to eliminate ich. Or you can manage the ich which will stay in your system by keeping your water clean, feeding nutritious foods with selcon and garlic, and trying to reduce and avoid stress to the fish.

Well removing the fish is not really an option it's been months so something obviously stressed out the 1 fish or maybe my naso had it and it's now showing just 2 fish have it at this point....gonna just try kick ich keep the water clean and keep giving them garlic and add Selcon to the seaweed...ugh let's hope they survive it

 

[good.reef]

Well removing the fish is not really an option it's been months so something obviously stressed out the 1 fish or maybe my naso had it and it's now showing just 2 fish have it at this point....gonna just try kick ich keep the water clean and keep giving them garlic and add Selcon to the seaweed...ugh let's hope they survive it

That's normally what people do. There are some people that are hypervigilant and try to avoid allowing anything to ever enter their tanks but that requires extensive quarantining and techniques that many of us can't or don't want to do. I would say that ich lives in a vast majority of our systems but doesn't always catch hold of the fish. Do your best to keep them happy and healthy and hopefully they recover. Unfortunately tangs are like ich magnets. In the wild the swim in large schools for hundreds of miles and even in the largest of our aquariums they are severely limited. Some take to captivity better than others.

 

[Droberts0724]

That's normally what people do. There are some people that are hypervigilant and try to avoid allowing anything to ever enter their tanks but that requires extensive quarantining and techniques that many of us can't or don't want to do. I would say that ich lives in a vast majority of our systems but doesn't always catch hold of the fish. Do your best to keep them happy and healthy and hopefully they recover. Unfortunately tangs are like ich magnets. In the wild the swim in large schools for hundreds of miles and even in the largest of our aquariums they are severely limited. Some take to captivity better than others.

Thank you! I am going to try my best to get their immune systems up and going and hopefully they beat the ich virus. They are all eating and acting normal so hopefully the garlic works it's magic on my fish's immune system.

 

[laverda]

So I should turn my tank temp up?

No, but your temp should be stable with in a few degrees. I just found that when my temp would swing more than 4 degrees my fish would get ICH. Scientific research says ICH reproduces faster at higher temps. For me the temp swings were stressing my tangs allowing them to get ICH.

 

[Droberts0724]

No, but your temp should be stable with in a few degrees. I just found that when my temp would swing more than 4 degrees my fish would get ICH. Scientific research says ICH reproduces faster at higher temps. For me the temp swings were stressing my tangs allowing them to get ICH.

My temp never varies more than 1° I have the inkbird and set the parameters by 1°