What size UV for Ich Management?

[Jet915]

I got a Pentair 40W for my 100 gallon. Since then, no ich but I also used selcon, fed nori daily and made my own food with clams, squid, fish eggs, mussels, fish etc...all of those things together seems to have done the trick for now, its been about a year and I have a couple of tangs who are very healthy.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

You are right in suggesting hyposalinity treatment . However , there are a few key points that the op should be informed about hypo treatment which are extremely
Important for hypo to work :-

1. Regular calibration of refractometer and maintain the hypo salinity always and always at 1.009 . It cannot deviate and hence you would need an auto top off depending on the op’s humidity level and evaporation rate . If not , the 30 day treatment time of hypo restarts .

2. Hypo will treat ich and some cases of flukes and will suppress but never eradicate velvet , brook or the worst of all - uronema . They will become evident once the salinity goes up .

Hypo is a chemical free treatment that’s gentle on
All tangs but comes with cost that’s mentioned above .


As far as UV goes , it’s just another tool to
Help you in the process of eliminating issues with parasites . The most important thing with UV is dwell time . If using pentair , I would call pentair and ask them about the flow eaten through UV . They have resident marine biologists at site and will help you to dial in flow particular to your case .
I did the same and happy as of now with it .


Regards,
Abhishek

1.009 not all fish can handle it, i experimented with it to buy back fish i lost due to ich when i was doing hypsalinity. Anthias, wrasse, butterflies, flame angels, even a baby blue tang i had. They cant handle hyposalinity. What happened was in 2 days of being in hypo the fish would start to retain water, it would bloat to huge proportions and start to porcupine its scales if it had scales, then it would die. This is due to the fish drinking water like all marine fish do, but due to the lower salt in the water the kidneys were affected and caused the fish to retain water, this is what dropsy is bloating and pineconing of the scales. The only fish i saved during this was the blue tang by immediatly tossing him in normal salinity.. Yea i took a risk going from 1.009 to 1.021 but he deflated in 24 hrs. I even bought new fish to replaced the others that died thinking it was a fluke.. nope.. lost 3 flame angels, 2 butterfly fish, 6 anthias, and 2 wrasse from hyposalinity.

Its just like Naso tangs, my blond naso tang had what looked like black ich, ppl said to use prazipro.. NOPE i used prazi and he swelled 2x his normal size. I took prazi out and he went back to normal. If you do some extensive searches youll see naso tangs cant handle prazi for some reason, just like the fish for hyposalinity i noticed lots of people had the same issues.. same exact issue.. bloating and death. I even did hypo on a flame angel slowely.. took a week to drop down.. Once he got to 1.013 he started to pine cone and died. But other dwarfs angels seem to handle it just fine at least the ones i tried.

Both hypo and copper have risks.. But the risks outweigh having ich in the tank.


I will completetly disagree though on comments on maintaining hypo. You make it sound like its hard and just a tiny bit of evaporation will change the salinity drastically. at 1.009 it takes ALOT of water to change it even 1 point. Think about it. To drop from 1.009 to 1.007 for example. Youd have to change nearly 25% of the water with fresh water. Thats a 2 point drop with 25% of the volume. To go up to 1.010, 10% of the water volume would have to evaporate. In a 24 inch tall tank, thats almost 3 inches of water. So if you fill a rimmed tank to the lower part of the rim, the tank would have to drop 3 inches below that to even go up to 1.010. Just saying.

 

[Fiesty]

So, in that case I'm thinking of getting the 57 watt aqua UV.

Do you think this would be adequate for my system or would the upgrade to the 80 watt version be worth it?

I have this unit and been very happy with it. Has worked woders for a 93 gallon system and now have it on a 220 gallon system and still doing its job. If possible, add a cleaner wrasse also.

 

[RobW]

Hey, I had a little 15 watt sterilizer on my old 55 gallon tank. When i switched to a 150 gallon i used the same one. Never had any issues in that tank. On my 280 I have dual returns and am running a 25 watt on each return line.

 

[Abhishek]

1.009 not all fish can handle it, i experimented with it to buy back fish i lost due to ich when i was doing hypsalinity. Anthias, wrasse, butterflies, flame angels, even a baby blue tang i had. They cant handle hyposalinity. What happened was in 2 days of being in hypo the fish would start to retain water, it would bloat to huge proportions and start to porcupine its scales if it had scales, then it would die. This is due to the fish drinking water like all marine fish do, but due to the lower salt in the water the kidneys were affected and caused the fish to retain water, this is what dropsy is bloating and pineconing of the scales. The only fish i saved during this was the blue tang by immediatly tossing him in normal salinity.. Yea i took a risk going from 1.009 to 1.021 but he deflated in 24 hrs. I even bought new fish to replaced the others that died thinking it was a fluke.. nope.. lost 3 flame angels, 2 butterfly fish, 6 anthias, and 2 wrasse from hyposalinity.

Its just like Naso tangs, my blond naso tang had what looked like black ich, ppl said to use prazipro.. NOPE i used prazi and he swelled 2x his normal size. I took prazi out and he went back to normal. If you do some extensive searches youll see naso tangs cant handle prazi for some reason, just like the fish for hyposalinity i noticed lots of people had the same issues.. same exact issue.. bloating and death. I even did hypo on a flame angel slowely.. took a week to drop down.. Once he got to 1.013 he started to pine cone and died. But other dwarfs angels seem to handle it just fine at least the ones i tried.

Both hypo and copper have risks.. But the risks outweigh having ich in the tank.


I will completetly disagree though on comments on maintaining hypo. You make it sound like its hard and just a tiny bit of evaporation will change the salinity drastically. at 1.009 it takes ALOT of water to change it even 1 point. Think about it. To drop from 1.009 to 1.007 for example. Youd have to change nearly 25% of the water with fresh water. Thats a 2 point drop with 25% of the volume. To go up to 1.010, 10% of the water volume would have to evaporate. In a 24 inch tall tank, thats almost 3 inches of water. So if you fill a rimmed tank to the lower part of the rim, the tank would have to drop 3 inches below that to even go up to 1.010. Just saying.

that’s why I said depending on humidity . It all depends how’s much of evaporation you are having on a small tank like 10-20 gallons .
Also hypo will treat ich and in some cases flukes but not deadlier diseases

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

They are eating and are active, however, there are a number of spots on the fish that don't seem to be improving. They've had ich for about 3 days now.

Here is a picture, I'm hoping the UV will help manage the number of parasites in my tank to allow the fish to fight it off easier.

Beautiful reef, sorry about issues, comrade

 

[Sailfinguy21]

that’s why I said depending on humidity . It all depends how’s much of evaporation you are having on a small tank like 10-20 gallons .
Also hypo will treat ich and in some cases flukes but not deadlier diseases

True, but looking at his pic, he doesnt have velvet, brook or uronema. Uronema "usually" only affect chromis not tangs which he has.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Hey, I had a little 15 watt sterilizer on my old 55 gallon tank. When i switched to a 150 gallon i used the same one. Never had any issues in that tank. On my 280 I have dual returns and am running a 25 watt on each return line.

FYI a 15w and 25w uv would only be useful for a viral, bacterial bloom or algae in the water.. Just saying. To kill parasites you need large amount of UV exposure, dwell time and power. You just never had ich or what not and you were lucky

 

[Abhishek]

True, but looking at his pic, he doesnt have velvet, brook or uronema. Uronema "usually" only affect chromis not tangs which he has.

that’s not true as am currently fighting uronema while qting anthias and tangs for a friend of mine . Ask @Reefahholic and he will tell you all about uronema

Anyways we can stay on topic and sorry for digressing it

 

[Sailfinguy21]

that’s not true as am currently fighting uronema while qting anthias and tangs for a friend of mine . Ask @Reefahholic and he will tell you all about uronema

Anyways we can stay on topic and sorry for digressing it

Must be a different strain then, green chromis drop like flies from uronema its why they get red marks and die a day or 2 later in stores. i had 6 or 7 die from it before i got a group that didnt, but none of my other fish were affected by it and i have 4 tangs. So i guess its a different strain ? who knows

 

[Abhishek]

Must be a different strain then, green chromis drop like flies from uronema its why they get red marks and die a day or 2 later in stores. i had 6 or 7 die from it before i got a group that didnt, but none of my other fish were affected by it and i have 4 tangs. So i guess its a different strain ? who knows

Uronema can affect any fish . Chromis is known to be most infected . But anthias are easily susceptible and so any fish for that matter .

 

[LesPoissons]

I tried a 55w UV for my tank. Had 0 affect on ich, just an fyi. It did make my water crystal clear and had a massive impact on decimating my pod population. Also no effect on algae. I would be careful thinking this will control ich. It will only potentially kill or incapacitate the free swimming hatchlings that happen to pass through the UV. All it takes is a few to reinfect fish and it starts all over. By the time the UV helps at all, the fish will probably be healthy enough to avoid reinfection or will have unfortunately succumbed. Just my opinion! Good luck!!!

 

[Stigigemla]

I have a shop and has used UVC only for 12 years now. In the quarantine I have clear tanks with no stones or anything. 2 tanks with sand for wrasses that sleep in the sand. 3 times an hour turnover. I have never seen Ich in the tank 8 days after the first spot. I dont see spots every year. In the shop I have 2 x turnover and I believe it is more than 5 years since I saw the last spot there.

For decorated tanks with a lot of stones it requires more UVC because it has to be circulation in every little crack that a fish can sleep in. The parasites can swim up to 18 inches a minute so thats the minimum.

Uronema is harder to get with UVC but the last time I tried an Oxydator together with the UVC and it worked. But it wasnt Chromis. Just a few wrasses and a Foxface in one of the quarantine tanks.