arieln92

Advanced Reefer
Location
bronx, ny
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i have a blue hippo with ich in my 75 gallon reef tank. Need help with cure. i have a convict tang, blue hippo tang, yellow tang, purple tang, and two tomato clowns. 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 arrowhead crab, about 20 snails. 70 lbs of LR. I was looking into hyposalinity but was reading that it isnt too effective when it comes to ich. Ive had my tank since sept. The hippo is doing ok, eating and swimming normally.
 

KathyC

Moderator
Location
Barnum Island
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Techincally to get rid of ich in a reef tank, you need to remove ALL of the fish from the tank and put them into a QT tank and either treat them with hyposalinity or copper. Nothing else will kill the Ich parasite. They need to remain out of the display tank (DT) for a minimum of 8 weeks so that the Ich in the DT will die off with no host - otherwise once you put them back into the DT it is likely they will get Ich back again.

You cannot use the copper needed to kill ich in a reef tank, nor can you do hyposalinity in there as it will kill your corals and all of your inverts.

You cannot only treat the fish you can see it on as often you cannot see the Ich on a fish as it tends to settle in their gills (where it does most of it's killing).

There is some great info on treating Ich on a 'sticky' at the top of our 'Fish' Forum
 

Imbarrie

PADI Dive Inst
Location
New York
Rating - 100%
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You can also get through the ich by keeping everyone well fed and happy.
Removing ich from a reef tank is a long and cumbersome process that could stress the fish out resulting in another outbreak if it's not handled correctly. Especially with tangs.
The cleaner shrimp can help so can a couple neon gobies. They will pick parasites from the fish. Stay away from cleaner wrasse as they will slowly starve. The neon gobies will eat fish food also.
 
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