I have a 90 gallon reef system, tons of coral and inverts. I have 6 fish, 4 of which have very bad ich. Ich infected: Copperband Butterfly, Yellow Tang, Hippo Tang, Flame Angel. They have ich really bad, and I have no qt tank to put them in to treat. I'd hate to lose any of them, especially the CBB, he has the biggest personality out of them all, and he is eating, which I've heard is hard to get. All of them are still eating, and have had it for about a week. What should I do!? I turned off my skimmer, and uv sterilizer. I run 2 box filters, and have no sump/refugium. Thanks, please reply!!!
Ich!!!
- Thread starter waddwadd
- Start date
I know it's not particularly what you want to hear but there's not much choice, at least truly proven, other than to set up a quarantine tank and treat with a medication such as copper or set up a couple quarantine tanks and begin the tank transfer method.
No TRUE working medication will be safe for your display tank since you have inverts and corals. You'll also need to leave your display tank fallow for several weeks (8-12 recommended) to allow the parasite to go through its life cycle and die without a host.
Never fun and never good news but it's truly the only sure fire ways to deal with it other than luck and hoping your fish don't die if you leave the situation as is.
No TRUE working medication will be safe for your display tank since you have inverts and corals. You'll also need to leave your display tank fallow for several weeks (8-12 recommended) to allow the parasite to go through its life cycle and die without a host.
Never fun and never good news but it's truly the only sure fire ways to deal with it other than luck and hoping your fish don't die if you leave the situation as is.
I'll be quick with this answer and say, im very low on money, and for the fish that I have, what size tank would I need? The hippo tang is TINY, and the yellow tang/CBB are bigger in size. I'm only 15, so I don't have a lot of money to spend on this. What medications would I need as well?
Newsmyrna80
Active member
You do not have any choice but to put them into a QT. There are no reef safe remedies. Read the stickies at the top of the forum to decide on your course of treatment. Your main will have to be fallow for 72 days which means the fish will have to be housed in a cycled QT after they are treated. You don't have to go the glass tank route. I've used Rubbermaid containers with an air stone in a pinch as a QT.
As far as equipment, depending on where you live, you may need a heater. Get some PVC for the fish to hide in. You may also want to get something Prime to lock the ammonia.
As far as equipment, depending on where you live, you may need a heater. Get some PVC for the fish to hide in. You may also want to get something Prime to lock the ammonia.
Last edited:
wooden_reefer
New member
It takes some skills to overcome this situation.
You can basically treat to prevent death for the next 3-4 weeks. During this time, you have to do massive WC to prevent ammonia buildup. You do not removal enough ammonia with some partial water change. Likey 100% WC with livestock transfer is OK.
You can treat with Prime or Amquel but you cannot use cheleated copper with these products. You could try hypo to at least stop the severity; hypo also costs less salt for WC.
If you have medium in DT that is not encrusted with lives you can use it in hypo in QT. Hypo kills encrusted lives and will cause ammonia to surge.
You must start a robust cycle for medium intended for QT now. It will be finished within 3-4 weeks. After that you can support your fish in QT while you continue to treat fish against ich for about 8 more weeks and also allows the DT to fallow out.
Hope you have an idea what procedure is needed, and best of luck.
Last edited:
Similar threads
