Tank with ich

breaknrun911 · Sep 20, 2013

I know the methods of meds, hypo, etc. however my fish all croaked and I do believe its from lack of O2 in the tank. Bc many of the fish that have died did not have any signs of ich yet. So what I want to do is break the tank down wash the subdtrate filter media soak my live rock in freshwater for a few days then add some saltwater TLC. And add some fish shortly there after. Will doing this work or should I just go fish less for a few weeks. My daughter is wanting to know where dory and nemo are and I want this back up and running ASAP!!! Thanks

DragKnee · Sep 20, 2013

Well if your tank did have ich .. "a few weeks" should be at least 8 weeks. If you break it all down and soak everything in fresh water, you'll probably have die off causing some form of cycle again, therefore meaning that you can't just add fish right away.

Breaking it all down seems like a lot of work, and at the end of the day, you won't really be saving much time (In my opinion).

If you're sure it had ich, leave it fishless for 8 weeks.

You can get fish, just get a QT set up and put them in there.

breaknrun911 · Sep 20, 2013

Def sure I had ich. It's not the first time ice had it. This one just seemed to be pretty bad. It's not a big tank it's a 30gal rimless deep blue. If I buy live sand again tank should cycle quite nicely. What's the time frame if I do that?

Coraloliseffect · Sep 20, 2013

+1. 90 days no fish. Salt water tanks take time. Only thing happens ASAP is problems. It stinks I know have been through it twice my self. Now every thing I mean everything (No mater if fish is from a friends tank I Know the history of) all goes through quarantine.

DragKnee · Sep 20, 2013

I had a small cycle using all cured live rock and live sand - only about 2 weeks. But the rock had next to no dieoff.

A standard cycle would put you around a month.

I'm not too knowledgeable on how much dieoff would come from soaking live rock in freshwater (I'd assume quite a bit), and if that's the case .. you'd be looking at probably 1 month+

Also, a "dory", if you actually are referring to a blue hippo shouldn't be housed in a 30g tank. It will outgrow it fast, and while there are people (to keep their kids happy) who will buy a small one, and when it outgrows, sell it and buy another small one .. the issue with that becomes the simple fact that tangs, especially blue hippos, are very suseptible to ich. One fish that I'd definitely QT is a tang.

breaknrun911 · Sep 20, 2013

Yea the blue hippo was purchased at the size of a dime around Christmas and now it's the size of a half dollar. I have a Red Sea 106 that is currently in a cycle. So that's where it will be heading. But I pretty much got bored today and broke it completely down and started it over. New everything !! Didn't want to,.......

slevin · Sep 21, 2013

Leave the tank fish-less and add Ruby Reef's Kick-ich and you should be good in 2 weeks, but I would always quarantine for 30 days before adding any fish to your display tank. If you can't quarantine get some Safety Stop from Blue Life as a preventative before you add them to the display tank, it's not as good as a quarantine, but better than nothing IMO.

jedimasterben · Sep 21, 2013

slevin said:
Leave the tank fish-less and add Ruby Reef's Kick-ich and you should be good in 2 weeks, but I would always quarantine for 30 days before adding any fish to your display tank. If you can't quarantine get some Safety Stop from Blue Life as a preventative before you add them to the display tank, it's not as good as a quarantine, but better than nothing IMO.

No. Just no to everything but leaving the tank fishless.

A 72 day fallow period encompasses 99% of all strains of ich - that last one percent is a doozy, though, and I have one of them in my tank. 72 days is almost always enough, and you do NOT need to add anything to the water to 'kill' it, as the only things known to kill it are hyposaline conditions, copper, and starvation.

Dan1789 · Sep 21, 2013

I lost a over half my fish to ich until I finally caught them all to treat in copper. I'm now 30 days into my 90 day fallow period. Do it.

slevin · Sep 21, 2013

To Jedimasterben: you sir are incorrect: "KICK-ICHâ„¢ as a water treatment focused specifically on free swimming tomites, but without unwanted side effects and secondary activities. No previous manufacturer has been able to provide 5-nitroimidazole reagents in a neutral aqueous solution, nor in any aqueous solution that confers stability upon dissolved nitroimidazoles." Meaning... When the fish appear to be clear of the white spots, as the tomites are in the free swimming mode of their life cycle, typically when the fish are in light for a few hours (hence heavy or more noticeable coverings when you first put on your lights) Kick-ich's chemical makeup binds the tomites so they are unable to attach to the fish, if they cannot attach to the fish, they cannot enter the next stage of their life cycle and will DIE. For light infections 14 days of treatment for heavy ones 14 days more.

jedimasterben · Sep 23, 2013

slevin said:
To Jedimasterben: you sir are incorrect: "KICK-ICH™ as a water treatment focused specifically on free swimming tomites, but without unwanted side effects and secondary activities. No previous manufacturer has been able to provide 5-nitroimidazole reagents in a neutral aqueous solution, nor in any aqueous solution that confers stability upon dissolved nitroimidazoles." Meaning... When the fish appear to be clear of the white spots, as the tomites are in the free swimming mode of their life cycle, typically when the fish are in light for a few hours (hence heavy or more noticeable coverings when you first put on your lights) Kick-ich's chemical makeup binds the tomites so they are unable to attach to the fish, if they cannot attach to the fish, they cannot enter the next stage of their life cycle and will DIE. For light infections 14 days of treatment for heavy ones 14 days more.

You obviously realize that it only works on tomites, which are free swimming - and therein lies the problem. Most of the parasites are NOT in the tomite stage, a small percentage of them are. The ones that are NOT in the tomite stage will come out completely unharmed up to 72 days later and will continue their life cycle.

Those products do not work by design. They are meant to be purchased over and over and over because they do not do what they should do, which is eradicate the parasite.

Tahoe61 · Sep 23, 2013

slevin said:
To Jedimasterben: you sir are incorrect: "KICK-ICH™ as a water treatment focused specifically on free swimming tomites, but without unwanted side effects and secondary activities. No previous manufacturer has been able to provide 5-nitroimidazole reagents in a neutral aqueous solution, nor in any aqueous solution that confers stability upon dissolved nitroimidazoles." Meaning... When the fish appear to be clear of the white spots, as the tomites are in the free swimming mode of their life cycle, typically when the fish are in light for a few hours (hence heavy or more noticeable coverings when you first put on your lights) Kick-ich's chemical makeup binds the tomites so they are unable to attach to the fish, if they cannot attach to the fish, they cannot enter the next stage of their life cycle and will DIE. For light infections 14 days of treatment for heavy ones 14 days more.

Is this from the manufactures site? Is there any other documentation to back this up that is not from distributors or manufactures?
Fallow, Copper, Formalin, Transfer method are the only, proven by the experts, methods of treatment. Chloroquine phosphate and quinine sulfate might be promising.
If this were the magical product it's touted to be fish distributors globally would be using it like no tomorrow. You would see the product promoted to the mountain tops and beyond if it were the magical cure all. The industry looses millions if not billions of profit to Cryptocaryons irritians, I doubt this product is sitting under their noses unrecognized as an effective treatment.

jedimasterben · Sep 23, 2013

Chloroquine phosphate does work (and works very well, is super easy on the fish like Cupramine), it's just getting ahold of it that is the issue.

breaknrun911 · Sep 30, 2013

@jedimasterben chloroquine phosphate can be gotten from a pharmacy to treat malaria and other 3rd world countries is there no possible way to find a generic brand over the counter?

Deinonych · Oct 1, 2013

jedimasterben said:
Chloroquine phosphate does work (and works very well, is super easy on the fish like Cupramine), it's just getting ahold of it that is the issue.

+1

CP is the treatment of choice for many public aquaria, including the Steinhart at CAS, and I have found it to be every bit as effective as Cu treatments without the nasty side-effects. I use 60mg/g for general quarantine, and 75-80mg/g for active infections. It is hard to come by, but if you have a good relationship with your local veterinarian, you can get a script filled at a compounding pharmacy. I have also ordered mine online at Alfa Aesar (Alfa Aesar - A Johnson Matthey Company), a chemical supply company.

breaknrun911 · Oct 2, 2013

If I were to purchase CP where would I start? I read online that you can get it from a vet. But they have to examine ur fish. Anyone else know where to start