My Journey with Ich

Jongalt26 · May 26, 2016

I apologize for the wall of text.
TL;DR: ich sucks but there are worse things i guess.

So i upgraded my mixed reef tank from a 93 gallon cube to a 150 with the intent on re-plumbing the 93 and turning it into a FOWLR. In doing so I put a flame angel and some LR in my 29 gallon QT for storage until the FO tank was done. (The flame angle loved nipping at softies / polyps etc). I had a very difficult time finding a purple tang and jumped on the opportunity when i could so i added the tang to my QT as well.

So somehow somewhere along the way my 150 main display tank and my QT ended up with ich. I could have cross contaminated by re-using a powerhead or heck even my arms. I will be more careful in the future..... The ich showed up in my DT on my 2 year old hippo tang and then on the fins of my juvenile puffer, it was on the purple tang in my QT.

QT
In my QT i decided to run Ick-shield
So i pulled the LR from the QT and tossed it into my DT sump for storage. Im sure someone will say that this was a bad idea to place infected rock in another tank but since both tanks are infected i decided not to worry about it. I know ick shield isn't chloroquine phosphate so therefore it should not break down and have the LR leech the phosphate but I was more concerned with spikes from algae die off on the rock.
So now my QT is running bare bottom with an air pump and an aqueon 70 HOB filter. In the filter is a sponge, aqueon ammonia reducer & aqueon bio media. The carbon has been pulled and i removed the lights (i know that there is some evidence that the lights dont break down CP).

I added my puffer to the QT so the QT just has the puffer, purple tang and flame angel. I didnt want to add the hippo tang due to some reports of hippos not making it through CP treatments (although i dont know if that same theory extends to Ick-Shield)

I dosed with ick-shield and the trophonts have fallen off the fish. Everything there is running fairly smoothly except im constantly battling ammonia and high pH levels and its a brutal fight. I was using prime and yesterday added some Ammo-lock, looks like i will have another WC tonight. I've been using soda water to increase CO2 levels to reduce the Ph therefore the toxic effects of ammonia. Measurements are done with a Seneye as well as the seachem / innovative marine ammonia alert badge.

Any advice on controlling ammonia would be very beneficial.

Hospital Tank
I decided to run Hypo in the HT but may run ick-shield
So i had my old 93 gallon that i was re-building. I didnt really have any new equipment yet so i set it up with my old gear and is bare bottom with some glorious PVC fittings. I'll run my DT fallow for 76+ days while I treat my fish in the HT. To prep for the fish transfer three days ago I added some Dr Tims, two days ago I added 2ish ppm ammonia and last night the API test showed 1ppm. I'll re-dose ammonia tonight to continue to strengthen the bio filter.
The hippo tang will be the first addition to this tank.

My QT is in the basement so i can control light, my DT and HT have skylights above them so they receive some natural light.

Do you guys think I should run Hypo or ick shield in the HT?
It is my understanding that hypo will reduce the ability of the bio filter from cycling the ammonia but can it be any worse than what I am experiencing now?

On a side note, is there a thread or info on making a diatom filter with a nu-clear canister and an inline pump?

I'll post updates here.

Thanks for reading
Jason

Fish stock:
Main Display
Bonded Pair - Black Snowflake Clowns
Hippo Tang (ich)
Golden Midas Blenny
Lawnmower Blenny
Firefish
Orange Spot Rabbit
Possibly a diamondback sand sifting goby but i havent seen him in weeks.

QT
Purple Tang (ich) in QT
Porcupine Puffer Juvenile (Ich) in QT
Flame Angel (ich) in QT

melypr1985 · May 26, 2016

Jongalt26 said:
On a side note, is there a thread or info on making a diatom filter with a nu-clear canister and an inline pump?

@Paul B has built or re-built diatom filters and may have some tips on how to diy one yourself. I know there is another guy @robert I think that has knowledge about diatom filters and could lend a tip or two also.

Jongalt26 said:
Do you guys think I should run Hypo or ick shield in the HT?
It is my understanding that hypo will reduce the ability of the bio filter from cycling the ammonia but can it be any worse than what I am experiencing now?

I've never used Ick shield and it's my understanding that the CP used in it is dubious at best when it comes to purity and where it's sourced. I don't particularly recommend hypo either because of the difficulty in maintaining it correctly for the entire 30 days - and also there are hypo resistant strains of ick out there. I think, if you can do TTM then Copper would be your best bet here.... at least when it comes to reliability. A chelated product like Coppersafe is much gentler on the fish than cuppramine. That is, unless you can get a Rx from your vet for pure CP?

Humblefish · May 26, 2016

I started a thread on DE filters awhile back: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diatom-filter-for-treating-external-parasites.212429/

As for Ick Shield, it's CP sourced from China confirmed by NLS themselves @ MACNA. China's QC standards are not on par with that of a US, Canadian or European compounding pharmacy. CP from the latter is food grade, meant for human consumption (to treat malaria.) You screw that up, make CP that's not 99% pure, and some rich guy gets malaria while on safari in Africa ... next thing you know you'll have the FDA all up in your business!

Jongalt26 · Jun 9, 2016

Oh man I completely forgot to respond to this (read it on my phone).
Thanks a lot for your comments, i appreciate it.
So they use chinese CP as a precursor for I,4-Pentanediamine, N4-(7-chloro-4-quinolinyl)-NI,NI-diethyl . That stinks.
I'm treating a puffer so going with copper on him wouldnt be recommended. I'm 23 days into my CP treatment so i will stick with that on my small tank then observe for a few weeks

Humble, i read that whole thread a few times, i wasnt able to find how to connect the pump to the filter but after some research it looks like i found a way to do it.

So far everything is going well. The ick-shield seems to be working at this point and my 93 gallon hospital tank is almost done cycling. Hopefully i'll be able to catch all of my fish to transfer them haha.

Jongalt26 · Jun 15, 2016

Update, just in case anyone reads this in the future.
TL;DR - ick shield did not work but could have been user error.

Today is day 30 of the Ick Shield in the QT tank. Tank was kept bare bottom, carbon removed (which left the sponge filter and bio media). 50-66% water changes occurred every three days, sometimes two. New meds were added to compensate for the removal. All measurements were done with a milligram scale. The only lighting received was from some dimmed overhead lights. Bottom was run bare throughout. All equipment used on the tank was tank specific (Buckets, tubing, WC pump etc) . Salinity was

All the fish appeared to be doing well then 3 or 4 days ago my purple tang developed new trophonts.

While I was out of town for five days I had my wife add some Prime due to elevated ammonia, per my seneye 0.145. (I performed a WC before i left and she had done one when I was gone). I remember reading somewhere not to add ammonia reducers so this could have been an issue.

Another possibility is that it just didn't work.

Regardless, i was cycling the HT and the hopefully the final nitrites clear in the next day or two. Everything will go in there for a hypo treatment. If that turns out to either not work or be too much of a PITA then i'll switch to copper.