"ICH FREE TANK" Quest Begins

[guitarfish]

I'm way late to this thread. I have an ich free tank, but only after having been burned by ich a few times and losing some prized fish. Last year I invested a few bucks in a 2nd tank to be my permanently running QT tank. After removing all my fish from the main infected tank, I performed hyposalinity on them, and a couple months later they were clean, and the main tank was as well. I returned the fish to the tank - they've been ich free for almost a year now.

I have 4 fish in my QT now who have just come out of hyposalinity, they will be moved into the main tank soon.

Bottom line rule for me: anything "wet" - corals, snails, rock, plants, and of course, fish, will go into QT. Fish will by hypo'd. Non-fish will sit in QT at normal SG levels for several weeks so that any ich will die off. Nasty, nasty parasite.

 

[plaz]

Bon Money,
Mandarins do get ich. They are just more immune to it than other fish, but can apparently get it.... read here:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/manddisfaqs.htm

 

[AquAsylum]

Bon Money-

You said you can see ich on the walls of your tank. I highly doubt that it is ich. When our tank was fairly new, we had an outbreak of spots that ended up being a hatching of good pods...

Your fish could indeed have the parasite, but the walls of your tank probably don't.

 

[Triggerfish]

So, I had some Kick Ich sitting around (never used it after reading that it was hocus pocus) and thought it was worth a shot. Yesterday finished our first 14 day treatment. The ich has not worsened.

so, as you indicated, the kick ich did not seem to fully work during the 1st treatment round.

i think the fish will be fine over a long term period if the parasite population stays very low and hopefully the irritan cells will just begin to die off. as long as the gills do not get severely infected the fish should be fine. supposedly the population should increase during each subsequent cycle, until the population begins to die off beginning at the 9-11 month point.

the current strain i have has been around since MAY and who knows how long it was in the system where it came from. I may though have introduced another strain along the way.. so i will count 11 months beginning with this current month..

again,,more spots seem to show up on my angel than other fish - some i do not see anything on..or perhaps they are just easier to notice.

i have a 2L bottle arriving Friday. will report on its effectiveness or lack thereof.

 

[guitarfish]

I tried Kick Ich as a last ditch effort about a year ago, it didn't work, so that was that. Hopefully you'll have success with it.

 

[guyguerra]

Can Ich be seen on the tank? I've never heard of this.Is it possible to get a picture of it. We made it thru Wilma OK, but the power just came back on and is still out in a lot of areas. I intend to install a generator that will kick on automatically when the power goes out, and to use a propane fuel set up. I actually had to run back to my house just as the storm was picking up to top off the gas tank so that it wouldn't run out during the height of the storm. My son lost everything in a nano cube that we didn't have a generator to run it. Good advice for all of us in the Gulf Coast. I'll start a separate thread on this. Sorry for digressing from the topic. I am very curious on see Ich in the tank, I've only seen it on fish. The fish that are in my QT are doing well, except a coral beauty that didn't make it. I'm so strict on treatment that I stay at the top levels allowed with Cupramine figuring that the most important thing is that my fish become Ich free before they make it into the big tank. Cupramine has to be tested with a Seachem kit, don't try a different kit. Done properly with the dosage checked every day, the Ich WILL die. The loss of one fish doesn't bother me near as much as introducing Ich to my Ich free 230 gallon tank, which would be a disaster.

 

[pecan2phat]

Hi guys,

Hope you don't mind that I chime in on this thread. I've read and followed this thread with great interest. In the past as others have mentioned, the sure fire method was hypo salinity or copper treatments. Ive also tried Kick-Ich, Rid-Ick, Chem Marin, yada, yada.

I just wanted to mention two things regarding Kick-Ick and another product that I am trying starting today.
My current tanks infected is a 120g SPS dominated reef tank & a 90g FOWLR tank. The reef tank was initially treated with Kick-Ick because hypo & copper was not an option (neither was capturing the fish for treatment). I basically followed the instructions and 2/3rds into my treatment, I started to have RTN problems from the base up on a bunch of my SPS especially all my caps. Needless to say I stopped the Kick-Ick, performed a water change, added carbon & resumed skimming. Any SPS coral that started to RTn was eventually lost and all three tangs also eventually died from heavy infestation of the parasite. My Wrasses, Anthias, Clownfish & Regal angel were not affected to the point of displaying the spots of their body. They have been fine for the past 2-3 months but shows signs of scratching. I've always fed frozen foods soaked in garlic, vitamin C & ginger water extract to try to let them fight it off without medication. It seems to hold it at bay but definitely not erradication. UV is run continously on both tanks. That's my latest experience with Kick-Ick & SPS.
Now for the FOWLR tank. Tank has been ick free for since the blackout we had on the east coast. So that would be about 3-4 years now. At some point, I must have not rinsed my hands when working from the reef tank to the FOWLR and bang!, my FOWLR is infected. Since the infestation came on quite quickly and the tank has live rock and substrate, I did not want to hypo and loose the live rock but I did bring the salinity down to about 1.019 for ease of osmoregulation. I decided to try Kick-Ick again. After the first 15 day treatment, there was no improvement whatsoever. I then started to notice that some of the fish showed signs of secondary bacterial infections (which can be common when infected with Ick) such as skin lessions and some tail rot. So I perform a 17% water change on day 17 and start a new 15 day treatment but aggressively. Dosage was 1.5X (3 oz per 25g of water) every other day 7 times and the UV sterilizer was turned off (No skimmer or carbon was used since initial treatment) This was based on the following thread that I had posted:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=693921

I also started a 3 day treatment with their other product called Rally which was for the secondary infection and if any Oodinium was present. This was performed twice at 1 oz per day for 3 days with a 2 day rest period inbetween treatments.
Guess what guys, no improvement. I'm into my third treatment after another 17% water change on day 33 and I'm reading this thread and the sponsor pop ups flash NO SICK FISH. So this peaks my interest. I browse their website and it could be another hocus pocus potion but at this point, I'll try it.
Recieved it yesterday and stopped the Kick-Ick (was 3 dose into third treatment). No water change this time and added the No Sick Fish treatment this morning. It states the dosage as 1 drop per 25g twice a day for 7 days. I also emailed them to reconfirm if their product has been tested with SPS with no adverse effects even though their product info page states that it is 99.9% reef/invertebrae safe. They replied this morning via email that yes, their product was tested with SPS and safe. So the reef tank was added to the treatment also.

Here's the website:
http://www.nosickfish.com/product_info.jsp

I'll update how this product works. Has anyone tried this product before? It was $49 after shipping but heck, I just wasted $110 on 3 bottles of Kick-Ick & 1 bottle of Rally!

 

[AquAsylum]

Pecan- thanks for sharing. I have not heard any stories about using that product, but I have heard of the product itself. In fact, someone posted about it on (I think) this thread awhile back and seemed to be very related to the company. He proceeded to PM me and tell me I just HAD to try it, which made me less inclined to order it! All I remember was that they didn't list the ingredients and that bothered me. I'm very curious to hear how it goes for you.

You said you tried several products- what about RxP?

 

[plaz]

Guyguerra,
Sorry to hear of your son's loss. I hope everything else turns out fine!

I don't think you can see ich unless it is on a fish (at least the usual replies to little white specs is that they are probably bugs, etc.).

I'm glad the Seachem test worked for you. I bought one for Curpramine and could not get it to read at all when I had just dosed to .25. I took it back to the lfs along with water. They couldn't get it to read either (looked like no copper was in the water). Then they tried a RedSea kit and the cupramine registered .25 - exactly what I had dosed.

Best of luck getting back on track after the storrm!

 

[pecan2phat]

Hi Laura,

I still have a bottle of RxP in my fridge! I have not had any success with pepper based products with the exception of stressing the fish even further.

I'll definitely keep everyone updated on the No Sick Fish medication. Today is day 1 of a 7 day treatment (or possibly more). The reef tank has no medication in the system and the fish are not heavily infected but scratching, the FOWLR is heavily infested and has heavy doses of Kick-Ick and some remaining Rally in the water. I don't think this will skew the No Sick Fish meds if it works since this was day 38 with 15 doses of Kick-Ick and zilch results.
No UV sterilzation, skimming or carbon usage in either tank during treatment period.

 

[Triggerfish]

what is in the "no sick fish", if you cannot get info from the manuf, perhaps RC can chime in since they advertise it now.

i also was getting spammed by some db named farmboy or something to that effect. basically told the db not to spam be again with his crap.
good luck.

ps..i will not be shocked if i hear you come back stating that the stuff cured everything overnight.....

 

[pecan2phat]

Overnight cures are a myth and pure fantasy.

Just thought that I'd let you know what I've tried and it's results, that's it nothing more to it than that.

 

[guyguerra]

Plaz, I learned the hard way about using Red Sea test kits and Aquarium Pharmaceuticals kit when using Cupramine.They will both show copper when the Seachem kit shows nothing. That caused me to fight it longer than I had to the first time I used it because I thought the kit was bad and I didn't want to overdose my tank. Finally after my first failure with Cupramine, then my 8 week failure with hypo at 11ppt I had nothing left to loose. I poured as much Cupramine in the tank as I had to to get the test kit to show me the blue color that indicates the correct amount. I do keep a small amount of substrate and LR (dead from using copper a long time ago) to help the fish not to stress too much, which I believe requires for medication. I found that it takes a lot more Cupramine than what the directions call for. At least twice as much or more, and that it will take about 5 days to get the levels set, as overdosing is scary, but once you do, it's done and it works. To any of you reading this, NEVER trust a Red Sea or AP test kit with Cupramine, you'll never get the dosage high enough. I've shown this to my LFS and now the wont sell anything but the Seachem test kit if a customer buys Cupramine. It actually took me a week to get my levels right in the QT group I have right now, but it's done, and unless I do a water change, it'll be good until the Ich is gone. I'll post my results when this group is finished, but I've had great success wit this before. I just had to learn the hard way. I had so many copper test kits that the two LFS stores in my area (and my wife) thought I was a little nuts and obsessed. But I've got a good plan now and it works.

Thanks for the note on my son's tank. We put the corals that survived in my big tank, but some corals, and all fish didn't make it. I'm in my home in the Blue Ridge Mountains now, getting some R&R (with water and electricity), but I intend to start a thread warning people along the coastal areas to have built in back up generators for their tanks. If it wasn't for the fact that I had to stay there to keep the generator running, I would have evacuated. So I HAD to stay in a hurricane because I have an aquarium! hum... By next year I'll have a generator built into my house. My investment in my tank, and all the effort and hours, is too much to risk.

 

[plaz]

Hi guyguerra,
It is good to know the seachem test actually does work! I have trusted them with other items and was disappointed when I thought their test didn't work. I wonder why it doesn't show a reading at .25 or... until it gets to the strong dose? It was frustrating/scary not knowing what was up - which is why I ended up with the other test. I'll go with the Seachem if I have to do this again.

Glad you are getting some R&R!

 

[Triggerfish]

i hear ya on using the proper test kit with copper. yes, over the 1st 5 days or so you will need to add more copper..i think it could take up to 10 days to actually stabalize.
the kit comes with the test sample so you know exactly what color to reference.

the Kick-ich arrives today..my angel is looking worse in regards to spots, other fish are not as bad, with some not really affected.

if the angel continues to get worse over the next week's time, i may need to get him out of there.

i do plan on getting a generator for this upcoming winter,, i have too much in the tank now to risk.

 

[guyguerra]

I've had good success with almost all of my fish (excluding a Foxface and Jawfish, very timid) using acrylic fish traps. I've never been able to net a fish out of my display!

 

[Atomikk]

Guys, NoSickFish's ICK medication is a miracle bottle. After purchasing my CBB, I discovered that it had some ick. I quickly bought the medication, while previously researched its results. I dosed 1 drop per 25gal for 7 days. After the 7th day, there was no ick. None. To this day there is 0 ick. I couldnt be more happier owning this product.

 

[guyguerra]

Atomikk, I saw pecans post about it and bookmarked the site. I'll keep an eye on posts about it, and if it looks positive I might try it. I don't see how you can stop the Ich cycle in 7 days unless it can kill every stage of the parasites transformation. How long has it been since the last spots disapeared? Did you treat in your tank with the inverts and corals? Thanks for the info, Guy

 

[Atomikk]

Atomikk, I saw pecans post about it and bookmarked the site. I'll keep an eye on posts about it, and if it looks positive I might try it. I don't see how you can stop the Ich cycle in 7 days unless it can kill every stage of the parasites transformation. How long has it been since the last spots disapeared? Did you treat in your tank with the inverts and corals? Thanks for the info, Guy

Its been at least 1.5 months since the last time I treated the tank. I treated the tank directly with everything in it. I did turn off my skimmer for 3 days, and I lightly fed the tank inhabitants. Also carbon was taken out as well. Worked like it said it should.

 

[pecan2phat]

Just an FYI on Kick-Ick if anyone read my post and checked the link. You should apply a "load" dose on day one (4 oz per 25g) and 150% on days thereafter (3 oz per 25g) if you want a fighting chance with this med. You should make sure that you have enough of the medication on hand since 2 liters don't go to far for tanks over 100g. Again, caution on SPS reef tanks. I would not use it due to RTN possibilities.

I researched a thread dated back to '99 where Ruby Reef actually participated and stated that the dosing directions are actually the minimal amounts required.