LF: UV Sterilizer

coralreefjunkie

coralreefjunkie

New member
My tank has been having a bad outbreak of ich. Fishkeeper solutions have not been effective. Most of the fish have died off already. I am looking for a UV sterilizer to stabilize my tank and prevent another outbreak. Does anyone have any lying around collecting dust?

I have an old UV unit that I used on my koi pond; however, I am thinking of getting a newer unit so that I don't need to buy a brand new bulb to put on an old unit. Please PM me if you have one for sale or for trade with corals in my DT, which are primarily LPS, zoas, and shrooms. Thanks for reading!

PS: I have a big rock (6"X4"X4") with over 15 giant florescent green hairy mushrooms (extra long hair) for which I am interested in finding a new home.
 
I'm interested in your mushroom rock, where are you located? I had the same problem a couple years ago, I wasn't impressed the sterilizers. I ended up removing my fish for about 6 months & I'm pretty sure that with no fish in the tank the ich is gone too.
 
Thanks for the insight. Unfortunately, I still have fish in the tank....and my tank has so many caves that it's impossible to catch the fish without dismantling the entire reef structures (which I do not want to do).

I am located in the SE Valley. I can meet up some where more centralized if you are interested. Let me PM you my contact information.
 
I have a filter that has UV that I used just in case it helped with a Brooklynella and Ich issue I had. It is nice since you don't have to plumb it. I put the intake in the sump and the output in the tank. If interested let me know. Can do trades.

Bob
 
I am in the SE valley also. I have a sterilizer I ran on a 135g. I got it at petco, if you wanna give it a go. I can dig it out and get more info about it. I don't know how long they last, I ran it for about 6 months, before shutting the tank down.
 
saintsnsinners said:
Uv won't help. Read the stickies in the disease forum.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, saintnsinners. I do understand what you are trying to convey. The UV is effective against the free floating stage only. I am hoping the rest could be managed with good husbandry and low fish bioload. Believe me, I've been reading so many articles online that it feels like preparing for another doctoral dissertation.

I've been doing salt & reef since the early 1970s. I guess I am still trying to break away from being an old dog. There are so many innovative ways to reefing; I have been relying on friends on here for advice and suggestions.
 
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+1, i would try out Polyp Lab's Medic. I am 'old fashioned' to treating ich (QT, copper, fallow) but have heard such praise it's probably worth trying in addition to UV & diet supplements.
 
Another question. Do you have a cleaner shrimp? I have heard that they can help with removing parasites from the fish.

I know my fish swim by my cleaner shrimp and he sweeps them with his antenna and then cleans his antenna. Like going to a car wash. Not sure if it will reverse an out break but it's worth a try.

Bob
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I've just picked up PL Medic this evening. Will try it out once the lights go out. I've been researching that product, which is basically the powder form of hydrogen peroxide. H202 is light sensitive; thus, it has to be applied when it's dark.

Yes, I also have two cleaner shrimps in my DT and one cleaner shrimp in my sump. Yeah, the fishes do stop by these cleaning stations.

I got a chance to talk with Kirsten earlier this evening also. She mentioned that corals do eat up the floating ich. i just need to give the tank more time to heal...and not rush anything...
 
Yesterday at PROP a fellow reefer said he recently had success using a Seachem product in his reef tank to fight ich.


I'm curious about how many fish and what types perished from the ich and how many and which types remain? Do the remaining fish show signs of ich and did they ever show the signs?
<O:p</O:p
Was there a tank upset of some sort that stressed the fish and brought the ich on or did a new fish get introduced which had it?
<O:p</O:p

You probably read this in your reading. Some of us are convinced that ich is in many tanks and that healthy fish develop somewhat of an immunity to ich. Ich doesn't manifest itself until one or more fish get stressed and their immunity doesn't defend them as well. Perhaps your remaining fish developed a bit of immunity to ich?


I'm not sure if my DT has ich in it or not. However, a quarantined Hippo Tang I introduced to the DT was pretty stressed from the transfer. A couple days later it showed signs of ich. Three days later it was covered. Same as you I couldn't catch fish to quarantine them (too many caves and such). About the fifth day the new fish showed fewer signs of ich. Over the next week all signs disappeared. During this none of the other fish showed any signs of ich.


Good luck!
 
Last edited:
Weyrman said:
Yesterday at PROP a fellow reefer said he recently had success using a Seachem product in his reef tank to fight ich.

I'm curious about how many fish and what types perished from the ich and how many and which types remain? Do the remaining fish show signs of ich and did they ever show the signs?
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Was there a tank upset of some sort that stressed the fish and brought the ich on or did a new fish get introduced which had it?<o:p></o:p>

You probably read this in your reading. Some of us are convinced that ich is in many tanks and that healthy fish develop somewhat of an immunity to ich. Ich doesn't manifest itself until one or more fish get stressed and their immunity doesn't defend them as well. Perhaps your remaining fish developed a bit of immunity to ich?

I'm not sure if my DT has ich in or not. However, a quarantined Hippo Tang I introduced to the DT was pretty stressed from the transfer. A couple days later it showed signs of ich. Three days later it was covered. Same as you I couldn't catch fish to quarantine them (too many caves and such). About the fifth day the new fish showed fewer signs of ich. Over the next week all signs disappeared. During this none of the other fish showed any signs of ich.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Roy, I think a lot or inexperienced reefers do not understand the difference between the crypto parasite and its visable symptoms. They think just because the white spots went away after dumping some 'miracle cure' in their tank, that it's cured. Wrong. The major problem is they then tell everyone this bottled junk is the absolute cure to ich. I see this all the time on the fb groups and it's sad. Path of least resistance I guess. And they wonder why the white spots keep coming back????

After understanding the stages of crypto, I don't see how it can live indefinitely in a tank unless the fish get to a point where they no longer show signs of theronts (like you mentioned). This could be the 'magical' results of garlic, bottled junk, Uv, increase in temps etc. If this is the case, then crypto is still in the tank you just don't see it. This cycle can still be broken. I think my point is - if crypto is in your tank but dormant, it can still be/should be cured.

Didn't you treat crypto using tank transfer?
 
saintsnsinners said:
Roy, I think a lot or inexperienced reefers do not understand the difference between the crypto parasite and its visable symptoms. They think just because the white spots went away after dumping some 'miracle cure' in their tank, that it's cured. Wrong. The major problem is they then tell everyone this bottled junk is the absolute cure to ich. I see this all the time on the fb groups and it's sad. Path of least resistance I guess. And they wonder why the white spots keep coming back????

After understanding the stages of crypto, I don't see how it can live indefinitely in a tank unless the fish get to a point where they no longer show signs of theronts (like you mentioned). This could be the 'magical' results of garlic, bottled junk, Uv, increase in temps etc. If this is the case, then crypto is still in the tank you just don't see it. This cycle can still be broken. I think my point is - if crypto is in your tank but dormant, it can still be/should be cured.

Didn't you treat crypto using tank transfer?
Click to expand...


Correct. I used the tank transfer method for several fish during their quarantine. They had ich when I picked them up. That method worked very well. I put all the rocks, inverts, and corals from that same purchase in another quarantine tank with no fish for two weeks longer than the fallow period before transferring them to the DT.

It becomes a different story when it's in your DT and you aren't able to capture all of the fish to remove them to create a hostless DT for a fallow period.

The only time I've seen ich in the DT was with the transfer of the Hippo tang which I'm pretty sure was not infected at the time. That is the only fish which has showed signs of it in the DT. I haven't tried meds and probably won't. I'd go the fallow period route. I'd have to break the tank down to capture the fish for quarantine so unless there is a huge outbreak I'm leaving things be since there haven't been signs of ich since that one time. That was about 12 months ago.

I think for the med treatments to be fully succesful they would need to be used for the whole fallow period so that the complete set of the parasite's cycle can occur and the treatment gets a chance to hit every one of them when they are vulnerable. Medicating a DT for that long might get expensive but I haven't checked into the potential cost.

My thought on the crypto being indefinitely in the tank is that a few of the buggers may be around and attach to a healthy fish here and there. The fish fight's it off but the crypto cycle gets to continue. And the crypto is still in the tank.

If the tank has the parasite but it's not visibly manifesting itself and the fish are healthy then attempting to "cure" the tank might be unneccessary extra "work". Or just call me lazy... :beachbum:

I doubt anyone trying to treat ich who doesn't learn about the life cycle would be succesful.
 
Ive had what seems to be success with Polyp Labs myself. I know Ich is still present in the tank, but the fish show no signs and its been over 6 months since I treated the tank and everything is doing great.
 
Weyrman said:
Yesterday at PROP a fellow reefer said he recently had success using a Seachem product in his reef tank to fight ich.


I'm curious about how many fish and what types perished from the ich and how many and which types remain? Do the remaining fish show signs of ich and did they ever show the signs?
<O:p</O:p
Was there a tank upset of some sort that stressed the fish and brought the ich on or did a new fish get introduced which had it?
<O:p</O:p

You probably read this in your reading. Some of us are convinced that ich is in many tanks and that healthy fish develop somewhat of an immunity to ich. Ich doesn't manifest itself until one or more fish get stressed and their immunity doesn't defend them as well. Perhaps your remaining fish developed a bit of immunity to ich?


I'm not sure if my DT has ich in it or not. However, a quarantined Hippo Tang I introduced to the DT was pretty stressed from the transfer. A couple days later it showed signs of ich. Three days later it was covered. Same as you I couldn't catch fish to quarantine them (too many caves and such). About the fifth day the new fish showed fewer signs of ich. Over the next week all signs disappeared. During this none of the other fish showed any signs of ich.


Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks! It started with a tang...and spread to others. Now I have only 2 fish left: pipefish (from Aquarius) and yellow tang (from AZKASS). I can easily catch the pipefish, but catching the yellow tang is near impossible.

Similar to Kirsten, I share the belief that ich are like herpes. Once a fish has it, it has it for life. When its stressed due to tankmates or water condition, the herpes/ich becomes visible. We can take the fish out of the tank, but we can't take the ich out of the fish!

In term of treatments (notice I used the term "treat" as there is no true cure), everyone has their own formulas and methods. Because of the four stages of this parasite, the debate can get out of control, depending on where people want to "interrupt" the reproduction.
 
coralreefjunkie said:
Once a fish has it, it has it for life. When its stressed due to tankmates or water condition, the herpes/ich becomes visible. We can take the fish out of the tank, but we can't take the ich out of the fish!
Click to expand...

100% false. You can treat fish of ich, but you also need to treat the tank. Read the articles again.

coralreefjunkie said:
In term of treatments (notice I used the term "treat" as there is no true cure), everyone has their own formulas and methods. Because of the four stages of this parasite, the debate can get out of control, depending on where people want to "interrupt" the reproduction.
Click to expand...

The people who debate are the ones who don't understand the science behind crypto. Some people are just lazy and will refuse to understand that proper crypto treatment requires hard work and lots of time. I usually don't care what people do to their tanks, but crypto can spread from one tank to another. This is why qt is just as important when acquiring livestock from a private reefer, as it is with a commercial business.

Furthermore, there is a cure, and it's not uv - I can tell you that!
 
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