Ich Dilemma

[jwildman]

Hi all,

I have 180G Reef system that has been up for about 2 1/2 years. Things up until now have been going well. I have ich now , especially on my Blue Hippo and a couple of others. All the fish are fat and still eat well. I have been researching ich and it seems the only answer is to remove the fish and treat them in QT. One thing to note I have NOT added any fish in 12 months. I have on occasion seen a spot or two on the Hippo, but they would disappear. Now I know Ich's lifecycle and know why.

I have a couple of questions;

1. How big of QT do you think I need for the animals below?
2. What kind of filtration would you use?
3. I plan on using copper to treat them or should I just stick with hyposalinity?

Thanks in advance ... what a pain it will be to catch them all.

John


Yellow (Zebrasoma flavescens)
Purple Tang ( Zebrasoma xanthurus)
Blue Hippo Tang (Paracanthurus hepatus)
Sailfin Tang (Zebrasoma veliferum)
Coral Beauty Angelfish (Centropyge bispinosus)
Flame Angelfish(Centropyge loriculus)
Six Lined Wrasse (Pseudocheillinus hexataenia)
2 @ Longfin Bannerfish (Heniochus diphreutes)
Blue Throat Trigger (Xanthichthys auromarginatus)
2 @ Blue-Green Chromis (Chromis viridis )
Pink Damsel (Chrysiptera rex)
2 @ Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)
Banded Watchman Shrimpgoby (Cryptocentrus sp.)
2 @ False Percula Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris)
Royal Gamma (Gramma loreto)
Tiger Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus bellulus)

 

[paulamrein]

Well, that's a huge list. Here is some alternative advice. QT doesn't have to be a tank. It can be anything that holds water. Storage containers, kiddy pools. The down side to these is you can't really see the fish, but, They will be in there recieving treatment. Filtration is really what ever you want. I have a canister filter, bio-wheel, and a skimmer on mine. Only because I had those readily available. You'll want to seed it with some established bio-filtration. whether it's a sponge that has been in the sump or some of the water from the display. But nothing replaces the thousand year old practice of water changes. My advice would be HYPO, it's just as effective and it's cheaper and safer than any copper. It should be at 1.009-1.010 nothing higher or lower. To master that, just replace your water with fresh r/o till you reach that range, than make a waterline mark and when ever you have evaporation top off to that line. it will garuntee that you will stay at that level. All water changes will be replaced with the water already mixed at 1.009. Leave all inverts in display and leave the display without fish for atleast 6 weeks.
During those 6 weeks nothing is done but routine maintainance, no meds. and those 6 weeks should suffice as treatment time for all your fish, or 4 weeks after ALL fish are ichless. Hope this helps. I should say that this should cure your system. As long as anything wet, rock, sand, inverts, coral should stay in it's own tank not sharing any water from your system for a month. You should be good to go. There are other parasites that aren't able to be treated with HYPO. So, be sure there are no symptoms of any parasite when you bring them into your display.

 

[jwildman]

ok ... will be noodling that through. Need to find a "tank" to put them in. Understand and agree with you on the Hypo after reading even more. Its funny, I guess I have had ich in my system for over a year and have just kept it at bay with healthy fish. Gonna knock it out for good. Can't deal with this cycle forever

Thanks for quick reply.

Regards,

John

 

[Mark NJ]

Hey John, just want you to know you're not alone. Had my 75 in operation for 11 years. Just noticed my first Ich infestation Friday. Funny, I was going to upgrade to a 180 in the summer. Maybe sooner now. I lost 3 fish and have 4 in the QT. Lowering the salinity as we speak. I added 3 filter sponges that I soaked in the main sump to the QT sump. also used about half tank water and the other half fresh mixed SW to the QT. Even bought a small skimmer but read they don't work well in 1.009 sg so I mixed 30 gal hypo-sal water, checked the pH and heated it to 78 degrees.for water changes. Spent the weekend removing fish and setting up a QT in the basement where I have all my filtration. Great advice from Paul as far as I'm concerned. You do have alot of fish. I added some live rock to the QT tank that I had in my "dark" sump. I know experts recommend against it because life forms will die in 1.009sg but I am on top of the water changes and figure they need hiding places to lessen stress. If you can afford it, you might consider buying some cooked LR to provide some hiding places for your fish. Good Luck!!