Ich

[mixer911]

Watch it carefully. Thats what mine looked like for a few days. I woke up yesterday morning and started finding them dead or dying.

 

[Pickupman66]

were they eating good?

 

[mixer911]

They were eating like pigs. Flake, brine, marine cusine, pellets, nori. I feed a variety and they only stopped once they got covered with it. That literly on ly took a few hours. Next morning >x\\-----<

 

[Pickupman66]

WOW! that scares me. I think ill just go ahead and start the drop.

 

[mixer911]

I dont want to panic you, but since you dont have anything else in there, I would start dropping it a little. better safe than sorry. I just know how it feels to loose fish and would hate to see something happen to those. I had a sohol for 5 yrs and they are really cool fish.

BTW in my actinic LEDs I can really see the ich on the yellow tang. I hope he makes it through the night. He was not eating that well tonight.

 

[Pickupman66]

ok. so the salinity was a bit higher than it should have been. I dropped it to 1.021 tonight. will go to halfway between that and 1.009 when I get home from work, then go to 1.009 late that evening. then remain that way for 4 weeks.

Bill, if you are are reading this... I was gonna get those frags from you on the 24th, but now it looks like mid Sept before any coral get to take root.

 

[poolkeeper1]

ok. so the salinity was a bit higher than it should have been. I dropped it to 1.021 tonight. will go to halfway between that and 1.009 when I get home from work, then go to 1.009 late that evening. then remain that way for 4 weeks.

Bill, if you are are reading this... I was gonna get those frags from you on the 24th, but now it looks like mid Sept before any coral get to take root.

No Problem, They may be colony's by then though, Hahaha

 

[Mikeyjer]

I would highly suggest fresh clove garlic you can purchase at krogers or your local supermarket. Just take few sec to peel off the skin then chop it up real fine and mix it with your food then feed it to them. The old formula 2 worked like a charm, but they've changed their recipe and it does not work any more.

 

[nightfire]

well all this talk has me getting ready to buy garlic when i get my two fish in there lol i used to have 2 clowns and they died on me (all my fault) and then i stuck 2 damsels in there with out QT em from emerald bay....huge misstake lol ich all over lol let my tank stand like a month and a half and when i was ready to do it again i couldnt and now its been like a year with only a hermit,urchin,snails,duster,few star fish and a peppermint shrimp lol maybe this coming month lol,anyways my moral is ich is a b#tch lol i hope the fish make it

 

[Pickupman66]

Mikey, I would do garlic, but at this point I'm of the school of thought that if I can go hypo, I should. To be 100% it is eradicated. That and the articles I read don't gove me a ton of confidence in the garlic

 

[poolkeeper1]

The Garlic Worked for me the only time I ever had a problem with Ich. There Is no reason why you can't do both methods, Garlic is very cheap And will strengthen the fish's imune system IMO...
Bill

 

[fishdoc11]

FWIW I have had good luck with a mixture of metronidazole (Flagyl), garlic, selcon and zoe vitamins soaked up by dehydrated brine shrimp (the dehydrated part is very important). I fed this twice a day with at least 2 ich out breaks (multiple cycles of course) in my tank years ago. I personally think most fish that are well established and healthy will overcome ich on there own and this is where people get the notion that garlic helps. My theory with the treatment I used is that metronidazole had good efficacy on protozoans (ich is a protozoan) and also has good bioavailability (in other words when eaten by the fish it is distributed readily throughout the fish's body. IMO the selcon and zoe provide vitamins to boost the immune system and the garlic makes the whole thing more palatable and doesn't hurt especially since it has had subjective positive results with people that have used it. I must stress that I think this works best in tanks with well established fish populations and that fish that are very sick will likely not improve because they are already compromised in several ways. I also need to say that the only PROVEN methods for getting rid of ich are hypo and copper but as most know these aren't always possible due to the ill effects of copper on certain species and some people just don't have the time or expertise to do hypo properly.

FWIW, Chris

 

[Pickupman66]

Chris, THANKS! Unfortunately, I dont have the luxury of a well established fish at this time. while I know my tank is fairly "new" (some LR several years old and some new) My water is testing within acceptable ranges. Also being out here in the boonies I dont have immediate access to any of the things you mentioned such as Metronidazole, selcon and zoe. what I do have access to is tons of Fresh water, and some time.

Guess I was spoiled with my old tank and its inhabitants. Ill have the water to 1.009 tonight and we will keep it steady that way for the next few weeks. I ahve a refractometer that is in calibration and Ive learned how to read it. just wish the PH probes I had worked.

BTW, anyone got a Pinpoint probe for sale that works?

 

[poolkeeper1]

Dang, I just ordered new probes from BRS yesterday they are just 40.00 bucks. You could have jumped on for free shipping. Day late and a dollar short...
My Neptune probe went bad after only 2 months that came with the Apex, The Generic ones from BRS last me years Go Figure.
Bill

 

[Pickupman66]

$40 for generic ones? Dang! I have to get a test kit here this week so I can monitor the PH as we wll have the salinity so low. as of now, my PH meter reads -7.6 so I think the probe is bad. I tried to soak it in 4.0 solution for 24 hours with no success. on the other one, the glass bulb at the end is broken.

nm

 

[mixer911]

Guess I was spoiled with my old tank and its inhabitants. Ill have the water to 1.009 tonight and we will keep it steady that way for the next few weeks. I ahve a refractometer that is in calibration and Ive learned how to read it. just wish the PH probes I had worked.

Just make sure when you test you salinity that you recalibrate the refracto when it gets in the lower salinity. A refracto calibrated with seawater is good for testing seawater salinity, once you get down to 1.015 or below you start getting into low salinities. So you want to calibrate your refracto with RO water. I know it sounds weird but try it with some makeup water and see. Adjust it to read 1.00000 with RO

 

[Pickupman66]

yes, its cal at 1 with Ro water currently. thats what Im basing all readings off of.

 

[mixer911]

Ok cool. Mine calibrates with 35ppt for salt water. Some use RO as their calibration. You should be fine then.

 

[poolkeeper1]

Probes

Probes

$40 for generic ones? Dang! I have to get a test kit here this week so I can monitor the PH as we wll have the salinity so low. as of now, my PH meter reads -7.6 so I think the probe is bad. I tried to soak it in 4.0 solution for 24 hours with no success. on the other one, the glass bulb at the end is broken.

nm

Yup 39.99 Generic, Pinpoint 49.99, Lab Grade I Think 64.00 and the Funny thing the Generic work the best for me so Why not save a few bucks.
Bill

 

[poolkeeper1]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1887840
You may want to read this thread It has some good Info on Ich
Bill