UPDATE: From my original post of 3-19-2012
After having fish losses due to a bad outbreak of Ich in my 180 tank, I pulled all fish and ran fallow for 9 weeks.
The four survivors were treated for 4 weeks with Cupramine and 4 weeks of observation. All kept eating well and had no other issues in QT.
I kept my 57 watt U/V unit running in the Display tank the entire time, and cleaned the bulb sleeve once.
After reintroducing all the fish back, I have not seen a single spot on any of the fish.
I am pleased with the results, and am not adding any rock, macro algae or anything else to the tank, so I am hoping it will remain Ich free.
I only plan on adding a couple more fish, and currently I have a Aussie Tusk in QT and he is in his third week of Cupramine . He eats like a pig, and after he is through the copper I plan on a week of Prazi and then he goes into the 180.
My local fish vendor imports corals and fish from all over the world and has a growing customer base. He used to run a retail fish store and I have been relaying a lot of info about Ich from the forum. He is "old school" and says that all tanks have Ich and the best you can do is keep the fish "stress free."
I explained to him all the info provided my MrTusk and Snorvich and told him that statement is just not true. He watched with eagerness as I recorded and documented what I was doing through the fallow period. He was honestly intrigued and wanted to see if it was successful.
He is now starting to convert and understand the life cycle of Ich and he sees the merits of what I did.
That being said, he added that I am the only customer he has (out of a few hundred) that he ever heard of that could watch an empty tank for two months....LOL
I told him it was not fun for sure, however I sleep a lot better not having to cross my fingers every morning when I wake up and turn the lights on and wonder if there will be spots on all my fish again.
The fallow period seemed to work well for me in my FOWLR tank, so I believe in that method.
After having fish losses due to a bad outbreak of Ich in my 180 tank, I pulled all fish and ran fallow for 9 weeks.
The four survivors were treated for 4 weeks with Cupramine and 4 weeks of observation. All kept eating well and had no other issues in QT.
I kept my 57 watt U/V unit running in the Display tank the entire time, and cleaned the bulb sleeve once.
After reintroducing all the fish back, I have not seen a single spot on any of the fish.
I am pleased with the results, and am not adding any rock, macro algae or anything else to the tank, so I am hoping it will remain Ich free.
I only plan on adding a couple more fish, and currently I have a Aussie Tusk in QT and he is in his third week of Cupramine . He eats like a pig, and after he is through the copper I plan on a week of Prazi and then he goes into the 180.
My local fish vendor imports corals and fish from all over the world and has a growing customer base. He used to run a retail fish store and I have been relaying a lot of info about Ich from the forum. He is "old school" and says that all tanks have Ich and the best you can do is keep the fish "stress free."
I explained to him all the info provided my MrTusk and Snorvich and told him that statement is just not true. He watched with eagerness as I recorded and documented what I was doing through the fallow period. He was honestly intrigued and wanted to see if it was successful.
He is now starting to convert and understand the life cycle of Ich and he sees the merits of what I did.
That being said, he added that I am the only customer he has (out of a few hundred) that he ever heard of that could watch an empty tank for two months....LOL
I told him it was not fun for sure, however I sleep a lot better not having to cross my fingers every morning when I wake up and turn the lights on and wonder if there will be spots on all my fish again.
The fallow period seemed to work well for me in my FOWLR tank, so I believe in that method.
