75gl display fish ick outbreak!

[Ryanqk]

Hello folks,
My 2 month old 75gl display/20gl fuge has lots of soft corals and some lps/sps and inverts. I have a few various reef safe wrasses, gobies, and blennies. Recently my wrasses have become reinfected by ick after an initial treatment with paraguard. I once again began treating with paraguard about 5 or 6 days ago, i also raised the tank temp from 78 to 82 to speed up the ick lifecycle and added minced garlic to the normal food diet. I am seeing results on some fish but they still show ick spots, and one has a pectoral fin that is torn up a bit and has alot of white spots. I moved some corals such as a hammer coral that did not respond well to the paraguard in particular, those are in a friends tank for now. But all my corals show at least some negative reaction esp. when i add the daily dose of paraguard. My skimmer, carbon and purigen were turned off/ removed for the treatment and i am concerned about the effect the treatment will have on my corals if i must continue this treatment long term, but i am determined not to lose my fish. Are there any additional steps i could take or medications i should try that wont harm my coral? I really cant catch the fish to move them they are too damn fast.
Ryan

 

[kevin2000]

To my knowledge there is no "reef safe" product that will have any consistent positive impact on ich. People have been looking for a magic solution to ich for yrs unfortunately the only ones that consistently work will kill off corals.

If your serious about getting rid of ich you should consider qting all of your fish and treating with hypo or copper and leaving your ST without fish for 5-6 weeks.

 

[Ryanqk]

I found another product the LFS recommended called "kick ich" which is 5-Nitroimidazoles, I haven't heard much feedback on its use but am preparing to begin dosing it in the morning. I wont keep pumping that malachite green in paraguard into my system due to its stress on the invertebrates. As of today the majority of the white spots have disappeared so I am assuming it has reached a point in its lifecycle that takes it into the substrate or hibernation/reproduction, unfortunately I don't have the equipment to set up a long term QT tank nor the ability to move these fast moving, small hard to catch fish without totaling my system.
Ryan

 

[pinkie]

Without completely removing your fish and leaving the tank fishless for 8 weeks, you are going to have a very hard time eliminating ich for good without doing a lot of damage to your inverts. I haven't used kick ich, but from what I hear it is useless. I have used Ich-Attack, which is supposed to be "100% organic reef safe and effective" I used a LOT of this stuff when I had an outbreak and it did absolutely nothing. Ended up using Copper treatment since I don't have and don't plan on ever having corals and inverts. Good luck with finding an effective and safe solution.

 

[Ryanqk]

I had an occasional bout in my 30gl display during the year and a half i had the tank up, i was able to defeat it with paraguard and water changes last time, no other fish from that tank ever has had ich since. The only fish currently suffering are new additions to the tank since i set up the 75gl. I dont know if that infers immunity for some reason or what but i have a more resistant form now that has not manifested till 2 weeks ago, the original fish that survived the 30gl outbreak have not had symptoms for about a year now. Copper is not an option, I value my inverts much more than the fish, so if it came down to it, the fish will die, they are all small and impossible to catch anyways, so this will be an experiment in saving fish using paraguard and 5-Nitroimidazoles despite the reservations i have about effectiveness. I will not be abiding by the reccomended dose however and will supplement a slightly higher dose with 83f water temp and garlic added to food. I will perform frequent water changes and treat the tank for at least 2 more weeks or until symptoms are gone for 3 straight weeks, corals that begin to suffer will be moved to a friends tank, but only as a last resort.
Overall this is the only solution i can think of without destroying the tank to qt fish i am not prepared to do this and it is impractible given the fish (kind,/number /size) and cost of treatment in a long term qt tank

 

[Ryanqk]

Well, i lost alot of fish recently, however it looks like the ick outbreak may be over finally. Ill be waiting at least a month to add any new fish, and those will be qt with maracide for 2-3 weeks first. Fortunatly my inverts are doing well