ich

[bgraves]

my lfs sold me Seachem Metronidazole for ich treatment. he said as long as my fish are eating this would treat the disease. Will this cure ich? My thinking probably not. Can I treat my mixed reef tank with copper and not kill every thing?

 

[Heinz]

no you cant use copper in a reef, you will kill everything

 

[YE||0W TA|\|G]

Get a QT and treat your fish in there, not in the display tank. Copper is toxic to all corals. Im not sure if the Seachem Metronidazole will work. Im going through some ich issues myself and i purchased Cupramine made by seachem. Its working great and all my fish are healthy. I was also told to raise the temp in the display tank and lower the salinity over a weeks time so the level is around 1.013, sounds crazy because corals dont thrive in that low salinity but actually they have been doing fantastic. Im going to be keeping it at those levels for a few weeks so no ich will be present in the main tank. You can try this method to if your main tank was introduced with ich.

 

[ajolie30]

are u using the cupramine with hypo in ur qt tank

 

[ReeferChick85]

my friend told me to raise the temps and honestly it worked wonders on ich on my fish. Didn't use any chemicals or anything.

 

[YE||0W TA|\|G]

no. you do not want to do hypo and copper same time.. Its either copper or hypo treatment. Both will add way to much stress on the fish. As much as raising the temp will be good to get rid of ich, it wont get rid of the ones that are still floating/on the substrate. Ich goes through a 3 stage cycle, then repeats. Thats why its always good to QT your fish before adding them into your display tank. Fish should be QT for about a month to be safe. Your main tank should be left empty for that time frame to. Dont assume because your infected fish are out your display is ich free.

 

[jenglish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14742963#post14742963 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReeferChick85
my friend told me to raise the temps and honestly it worked wonders on ich on my fish. Didn't use any chemicals or anything.

Raising the temp causes the crypto to go through it's life cycle faster but doesn't kill it. A tank that is setup up well the fish will fight it off to the point of it not being visible on their own with no intervention. I still think it is better to take your fish out and treat them rather than have a parasite constantly infecting your fish and if they get stressed rapidly going downhill.

The time frame to leave the display fallow is 6-8 weeks. Temp does help to make sure they cycle fast enough during this time. Crypto cycles have actually lasted as long as 72 days (recorded anyway) but this was in a coldwater setup