ICH IN REEF TANK

[guardian]

Just want to know how to cure our fishes when ich are found in our RT.

 

[ride928]

This is a problem that happens to a lot of people. First thing you're gonna do is get them out of the main tank and place them into a QT tank. The next step depends on the particular fish. The best method for killing ich is copper. However, some particular fish can't handle copper (ie tangs, some angels, etc). For these fish, I would raise the QT tank temperature to around 84 and drop the salinity to about 1.016. The fish will be strong enough to handle the temperary condition whereas the parasite will not. When dropping salinity and raising temp, dont drop more than .02 in SG per day and dont raise more than 2 degrees in temp per day. Leave the fish in QT for at least 3 weeks. After QT, I like to give my fish a freshwater/formalin dip before entering the main tank. Good luck

 

[robbinson]

Well - thats ideal - but in a moderate to large reef (mine is 120g) with lots of rock work, good luck catching the fish. The best approach I've come up with is the addition of biological cleaners (e.g., cleaner shrimp, neon gobbies - cleaner wrasses are great - but short lived), the use of UV and the saturation of food in garlic (kent garlic extreme is good - or use fresh garlic and make juice in a garlic press).

 

[john f]

"Well - thats ideal - but in a moderate to large reef (mine is 120g"


That is why you should not only QT every new fish, but actually treat them all as if they had Ick BEFORE they go into your main reef tank.


It is not IDEAL, but the CORRECT way to do it.

Anything else is Russian Roulette.



John