Getting Ich Out!!! HELP

[220gallon]

I had lost tons of fish about a month or so from ich and the ones that lived are doing great. The only thing that lived was my eel and the damsels. I had treated the tank and not added any fish for about a month. I finally got a blue hippo tang, yellow tang, and a Emperor Angelfish. All was good for about 3-4 days and then the hippo and the angel got ich. The hippo has is worse then the angel. I have been trying to treat them in the tank with not much luck with the hippo. The angel seems to be getting a little better, but the hippo does not seem to be getting better but not worse. I am going to get a small tank to hit them with copper treatment to kill this darn ich. What can I do to make sure there is no more ich in the main tank????

If I drain the main tank and clean out everything like the filters and stuff how long would I not want to have water in the tank to kill the ich that might be in the gravel and the live rock? Or would I have to rinse them with freshwater? Or what? I have lost to many fish and WAY to much money and learned a hard lesson.

Would it be worth draining the main tank and starting over to make sure the ich is gone?

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[teen]

let the main tank sit for like 35 days without any fish in it. this will cause the ick to die because there is no host for them to live off of. you may wan to bump the temperature in the main tank up to 82ish, ive heard this will spead up the life cycle of the ick causing it to die off qiucker.

 

[lemadl]

Hi 220 Gallon,

Well misery loves company. I have now experienced the same thing in my tank. I had to tear down my reef to catch all my fish. It was a big job, taking the entire day. I lost one coral in the process.

As for the fish they are in a large QT tank. They will be there for 6 weeks. I have lost over $1,000 not to mention the loss of the fishes life.....talk about stress!!

As for my reef, it will sit without fish for 6 weeks. This will kill the parasite.

Even in the QT there is no guarantee of your fish surviving. This year I have lost more money due to this Ick, than an entire 15 years of fish keeping.

Everyone is complaining, even the LFS in my area.

All I can say is you are most definitely not alone. Do yourself a huge favor. Remove your fish, hypo them in a QT tank, or use Cumpramine (copper). Wait out the 6 weeks, and learn from your mistake.

You are not alone in dealing with this!

I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Puffer Queen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8504945#post8504945 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by teen
let the main tank sit for like 35 days without any fish in it. this will cause the ick to die because there is no host for them to live off of. you may wan to bump the temperature in the main tank up to 82ish, ive heard this will spead up the life cycle of the ick causing it to die off qiucker.

The ich will continue to live & breed as long as there are fish in the tank - the eel and the other survivor allowed the parasite to continue its life cycle - they may have developed a limited immunity - unfortunately all new fish will not have it and will suffer.

Increasing the temp will decrease the oxygen levels in a tank that has fish that have decreased reserve and increased need for oxygen secondary to parasitic infection. While increasing the temp may speed up the cycle by a couple of days - as long as there are fish in the tank, it is a mute point. Tank needs to set fallow for at least 6 weeks, preferably 8 weeks.