Just got ICK... how do you deal with it when you have a big tank?

I haven't changed the bulb yet, I do wipe it off once a month, its only been up and running for maybe 6 months. When I had ich I also lowered my salinity to 1.018, I did large water changes blowing rock and vacuuming sand, and I fed several times a day with everything soaked in garlic, selcon, zoe and vitamin C. Some say uv is a waste of money but I think too many people get them way undersized for their systems and run flow too quickly thru them. This is a good reference.

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36805

According to this mine is still a bit undersized but I do run the flow very slowly, I can't remember now what it is exactly. They are alot of money and they can't kill the ich living on your fish but IME they work. I have an achillies tang, 3 regal angels among other difficult to keep species that all made it thru the ich outbreak.

Hope this helps.
 
My experience...

My experience...

I'm just getting over a case of ich in my system (new) too. On 4/21/11, I added all my tangs (yellow (2), purple, desjardini, achilles, powder blue, and hippo) and foxface to the display tank (370gal) to let them establish their hierarchy. The foxface, yellow and hippo were in an existing 90gal tank and I never quarantined them. All the others were QT'd for a minimum of 6 weeks or so and looking good when I added them. I went out of town on a family emergency two weekends later, and when I returned, the hippo, powder blue and achilles were completely covered with ich. I had forgot that 1.5-2 years prior, the hippo had a dozen or so spots of ich that went away (or so I thought). The stress of the move must have allow it to take hold and infect the other fish.

I was devastated. Fortunately, I don't have any coral or inverts yet, so I moved all my liverock from my sump (200-300lbs) into at 75gal tank that I took offline from the main system. All the rock in the display tank was recently "cooked" so I left it in (not that I could get it out easily anyhow). I proceeded to take the system (now 400gal total) to sg 1.009 over the course of 12 days (that's another story!). It took two weeks before the last outbreak of ich had subsided. I was sweating bullets during that time, because the achilles and powder blue had severe outbreaks, but kept active and eating. Throughout the hypo conditions, I performed 40 or 50 gallon water changes every 2-3 days to stay ahead of any water quality issues.

Everything survived and I am now raising my s.g. back to 1.020. The 75gal tank has been fallow since 5/15, so in the next week or so, I'll bring that back online too.
 
I had ich in my 480.. My water quality was great. There was no way to get the fish out of my tank without breaking it down. I tried everything from lots of garlic, selcon, all kinds of good food, increased water temps, UV, reef safe meds etc. In the end, I lost a lot of fish.

My best suggestion if you cant get them out is what has already been said. Good water quality, good selcon soaked food, garlic and crossed fingers. You might get lucky and not loose too many fish. Ich also covers the fishes gill making it difficult for them to get adequet oxygen. I would strongly suggest keeping an air stone in the tank near a power head or pump outlet to add extra O2 to the water. If you have any large fish in the tank that can be caught and QT'd, that might help eliminate some of the stress. Also it might not hurt to add some cleaner wrass to the tank as well as cleaner shirmp.

As for UV, it is very helpful with free floating parasites. Ich when in a free floating stage can be killed by UV if the flow is slow enough through the UV. If you are seriously considering a UV filter, I would suggest considering the Aqua UV units with the wipers. The wipers really come in handy for keeping the crystal sleeves clean and really reduce the frequency of how ofter you need to take it apart for cleaninig. If the sleeves get covered in algae, the UV is worthless until its cleaned. With a wiper, you can reduce dissasembly to a semi annual if not annual chore.

I use a 114 watt Aqua UV unit on my tank. I replace the bulbs about every 6 months or so.
 
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Well.. I think I made it through the storm, but not without casualties...
I lost a bunch of fish, but the ones that made it through are pretty suprising..

1. Yellow tang
2. Mystery wrasse
3. sunrise pseudochromis
4. all shrimp, and inverts.
5. couple of anthesis
6. mandarin blennies
Everyone is eating well, and no one has spots..

Im going to wait 2-3 months before adding any fish, just to make sure its dead.
My pod population is going nuts without fish to eat them..
 
I hate to be bearer of bad news, but that most likely is just round 1. Ich comes in cycles. Without meds you most likely will always have the parasite. Some fish can build an immunity to the parasite, but still get infected with a few of the parasite. The ich cycle is then able to continue. When you add new fish then they will most likely get infected. The only way to know that a tank is 99.9% ich free is with no fish for 8 weeks. The ich need a host fish to continue the cycle of the parasite. If you treat the tank with the fish in it then this will also interupt the cycle. With the few fish you have left you may now consider a treament tank for the fish and go with hyposalinity or copper treament plan for them. As for catching them, have you considered draining the tank with the help of 8 to 10 30 gal plastic trash barrels or even a rubbermaid 300 gal container? With the water out of the way you should be able to get to the fish without disassembling whole tank. If you have a sand bottom you can also make a large divet that the fish would most like go into as you are draining the tank.
 
+1 with cogaran's recommendation. It was 18 months or longer before it came back and infected my system. It will hit you at your weakest moment and likely effect your most prized fish. It's a major PITA, but with your large system, what's a couple months to ensure you restart with a clean slate? Good luck!
 
So what you are saying is even if the fish lived through cycle 1, the parasite will live in the sand forever?

I really do not want to drain the tank. I reduced salinity to 1.020 and im doing 50 gallon water changes every 3 days. (auto water changer). I lost a couple of corals (SPS), but my tougher LPS seem to be okay in the lower salinity.
 
I had 2 or 3 outbreaks before hypo started to work. As long as there are hosts in the tank, I would assume ich is present, although you may never see it. Lowering the s.g. to 1.020 will not do anything to eliminate the parasite.

I had a buddy with a 220gal reef that had ich in the tank for several years. The outbreaks would come and go, some milder and some a little worse, but he thought it was okay because the fish kept eating and seemed to weather the storm. A month ago, there was a severe outbreak and he lost a lot of fish.

If nothing is done, it's always a gamble if or when it will come back. Taking care of business now will give you peace of mind down the road.
 
Haffs09 said:
I had 2 or 3 outbreaks before hypo started to work. As long as there are hosts in the tank, I would assume ich is present, although you may never see it. Lowering the s.g. to 1.020 will not do anything to eliminate the parasite.

I had a buddy with a 220gal reef that had ich in the tank for several years. The outbreaks would come and go, some milder and some a little worse, but he thought it was okay because the fish kept eating and seemed to weather the storm. A month ago, there was a severe outbreak and he lost a lot of fish.

If nothing is done, it's always a gamble if or when it will come back. Taking care of business now will give you peace of mind down the road.
Click to expand...

I'm new to all of this but I believe that more tanks have ICK than not. Maybe the answer is to keep everyone in the tank happy and well fed?

Maik1
 
LOTUS50GOD said:
So what you are saying is even if the fish lived through cycle 1, the parasite will live in the sand forever?

I really do not want to drain the tank. I reduced salinity to 1.020 and im doing 50 gallon water changes every 3 days. (auto water changer). I lost a couple of corals (SPS), but my tougher LPS seem to be okay in the lower salinity.
Click to expand...

no not forever, they need a fish host.. If a tank is left fishless for 8 weeks then the ick is considered eliminated. This explains it better-- http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1992196

Reducing salinity will help the fish, but not eliminate the ich. I mentioned reducing salinity originally but not down to 1.20 as I thought you might start losing corals as well... Water changes can help, but it only reduces the free floating parasites. Reef tanks can be very difficult to treat. Thats why I'm recommending moving the fish in the main from inverts and corals so you can do treatment. The only other option is to live with the parasite and hope for the best.
 
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Well ... after the outbreak I still have the survivors. No signs of ick on them. Im going to wait, just add some corals in a bit after my water stabilizes again from all the water changes. Ill keep you all posted
 
I used seachem kanaplex, metroplex and prime as food additives when I saw some signs of ich in my 180 . . . worked great. might not be a bad idea to give it a shot on your remaining fish if they are still eating.

~Will.
 
Ozone would be your best option. IMO it works better than a UV sterilizer if you keep the ORP in the 400-450 range. I have successfully kept multiple ich prone fish including an Achilles tang while utilizing ozone in my tank. I could not get rid of the ich on my achilles until I used the ozone. It disappeared in a few days and has never returned in two years. I use an Ozotech Poseidon unit.
 
This article mentions that going over 400 can form harmful compounds with ozone, mainly in the form of hypochloric and hypobromic acids http://blogs.thatpetplace.com/thatfishblog/2008/07/31/using-ozone-in-the-home-aquarium/ Also note in the article it says that natural sea water already has an ORP of 350 to 400, which ich would survive naturally in.

I can't speak from experience on ozone, but I know those that use it report cleaner water. I may use it in the future with a UV unit, but I need to research it more..


The majority of fish stores out there lower salinity to 1.020 and have a jumbo UV unit.
 
Cougaran.. that was a good laymans article on ozone.
It did say that ozone was able to kill athogenic bacteria, single cell parasites and algae, viruses. I wonder if ick falls into any of those categories through its lifecycle.
 
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