Ich in a Large Tank

[e55MD]

Freed,

MY HT will be bare-bottomed, probably 2 pumps for circulation, no lights. I want to run as little as possible so as to not generate a lot of heat since I will not have a chiller on it. Do I need to seed the water in the HT with any bacteria from my DT? I am going to buy a lot of PVC from Home Depot for "aquascaping"- maybe I could put several pieces of this in my sump to get seeded- would this work/be useful?

Thanks

 

[Freed]

PVC probably doesn't have enough surface area for it to do what you want. A/few large sponge filters would be best. Do you have a basement you could put the tank/s in? That would keep the heat down for sure. That's where two of my tanks are anyway.

 

[e55MD]

Freed,

Unfortunately I have no basement- no one has one in Arizona. My house is well airconditioned though.
I could use a dirty filter from one of my DT's Ocean Clear Canisters to get things going. That should do it, right?

 

[Freed]

Yep. Why no basments in AR? I'd think that could be a nice cool place to lay low during the hot day and the cold night.

 

[e55MD]

Freed it is so dry here and the soil is very hard so it is a huge expense digging underground. Some $4-5 million dollar homes out here have them, but I don't live in one of those!

 

[zachtos]

I had an outbreak in my 240G reef about 8 months ago. Ich covered most of my tangs and chromis school. I lost many chromis but no tangs or larger fish. I did nothing other then soak my foods in selco and garlic. But, I do have a large stable system and feed very high quality foods. (frozen and nori). I also dosed vitamin C powder in high quantities twice, but not unitl recently. No ich anymore, just kinda went away... I would say QT is always good, but it's such a pain that I don't bother... I'm more concerned about my corals actually, I dip those in various substances.

 

[e55MD]

Zachtos,

I always feed high quality foods- Piscine Energetics frozen mysis, Hikari krill, squid, Ocean Nutrition Angel Formula etc all soaked in Kent Garlic Extreme and Selcon. My fish never get flakes or pellets of any kind- they just don't seem to want them. I bit the bullet and purchased a used 240 gallon Tenecor tank which I will be picking up on Saturday and hopefully I'll have it up and running soon thereafter. I am going to treat with copper and just kill the ich for good. Once my fish are cured, they will stay in the HT for at least 8 weeks to keep my DT fallow to kill the ich in there.

 

[e55MD]

Today I finally put an end to my indecisiveness. My 400 Gallon tank was drained, all liverock removed, the fish safely captured with tupperware containers and moved to my 240 gallon hospital tank. I just administerd my first dose of Cupramine. My display tank will be kept fallow for the next 8 weeks. Hopefully all my fish will survive the copper treatment and I will be able to enjoy them in a competely ich free system!
Scott, if you read this my thanks go out to you. This huge undertaking would not have been possible without your efforts!

 

[Freed]

Why did you take the liverock out? Thought you were going to make a depression in the sand and let the fish congregate there when the water drained and scoop them out from the depression in the sand.

 

[Taavi Päll]

If you keep fish in separate tank you can use chloroquine 5-(10) mg/L 10-14 days in combination with hyposalinity. I have positive experience using this treatment on tomini tang that I was able to catch from display only after he got secondary problems with swim bladder... fish cured completely.
I got the idea to use chloroquine from The Marine Fish Health & Feeding Handbook by Bob Goemans et al.

 

[Paul B]

I got the idea to use chloroquine from The Marine Fish Health & Feeding Handbook by Bob Goemans et al.

I discussed this with Bob Goemans many years ago when he came to my home to see my tank. (I think I told him about it)Chloroquine, Pyrimethamine, and Quinicrine hydrocloride are all malaria medications. You can use them either with hypo or copper to effect a cure in about 24 hours.

I have used quinicrine hydrocloride many times in dealer's tanks in conjunction with copper and have never had a problem. Sometimes one of those medications will cure the fish on it's own and it is easier on the animals but they are not as fast acting alone and the fish may die before the medication has a chance to kill the paracites.

These three malaris medications can even be used with certain inverts but not corals.
Good luck.
Paul

 

[WLachnit]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13294382#post13294382 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Paul B
I discussed this with Bob Goemans many years ago when he came to my home to see my tank. (I think I told him about it)Chloroquine, Pyrimethamine, and Quinicrine hydrocloride are all malaria medications. You can use them either with hypo or copper to effect a cure in about 24 hours.

I have used quinicrine hydrocloride many times in dealer's tanks in conjunction with copper and have never had a problem. Sometimes one of those medications will cure the fish on it's own and it is easier on the animals but they are not as fast acting alone and the fish may die before the medication has a chance to kill the paracites.

These three malaris medications can even be used with certain inverts but not corals.
Good luck.
Paul

Makes sense, since Malaria pathogen is a protozoan. Off hand, I can't recall if it works on all stages of the protozoan or not. I wonder why it's not more widely used for Ich or other protozoans in fish?

 

[e55MD]

Freed,

I took the liverock out (500 lbs) because it made it easy to catch the fish once the water was mostly drained. The fish could be easily scooped up in tupperware containers without having to chase them around the tank. The risk of them scraping themselves against the rocks was also avoided. My sandbed is not deep enough (only 1.5") to dig a hole for them to congregate in. I also got the opportunity to improve my aquascaping by removing the rock. So far everyone is swimming around and eating in the HT with Cupramine now at 0.3PPM. I will probably not raise the level higher if the ich resolves after 2-3 weeks at this level. I am concerned about higher levels with my golden puffer and blue-spotted puffer. I will have 5-6 weeks to observe my fish in the HT after I have removed the Cupramine for any recurrence of the ich. My target date for returning my fish to the DT is 10/30 (8 weeks).

 

[Paul B]

I wonder why it's not more widely used for Ich or other protozoans in fish?

I don't know but they are prescription drugs and not easy to get in the states

 

[t0pcat]

Another way that worked for me was to add redline cleaner shrimp to the system, as long as you have nothing that will eat them 8) .... They will take a little while but they eradicated the ich from my tank i i have never seen it since.

They will save you the hassle of pulling the tank down, and any re-infestation by adding corals or rock will be handled naturally.

 

[reef_only]

I thought you would invent a method of curing ick w/o HT and fishless DT; but looks like it's the only way that works?

 

[e55MD]

t0pcat,

I had cleaner shrimp and a neon goby in my tank. In my case, the ich never went away.