So tired of ICH! Fallow 4 months no Fish!

[Jdub968]

Hi Sat

its a fork in the road type of approach. A lot of sumps seem to me too sterile and the systems themselves don't appear to try to replicate the processes we see in the ocean. What does an aquariest or in this case the OP really get out of having to dismantle their tank or leave it without fish if only to have the same problem return? For $50 you can imitate 4 stages of an intertidal zone with beach/rocks/sand shore/estuary and I also have a latent dark chamber which is easy cheap and great for breeding mysis. Its the 10% theory that adds up to water quality improvement and natural biology that pays back in the form of happy natural fish behaviour and less disease. Crypto and Ich are also helped along by lighting which at this point seems an unsolvable issue for us reefers. I am hoping that when the more compact auto roller filters hit the market the micron thickness may even be low enough to trap whitespot but then this low thickness may upset our gorgonians, clams and others- we will see. I purchased a rake thin purple tang 9 months ago on its last legs and got it straight onto mysis for protein in the DT. Would not have survived more than a few more days in QT, too skinny and weak. I'm not saying QT is bad either by the way but it does have its own drawbacks. Another concern is that fish stress in shallow tanks which could exacerbate these common diseases. My DT is 2.5 foot deep, but 3 foot would be even better ( and harder to work with) its all a compromise

Your approach to reef keeping is honorable don't get me wrong it's just your approach does nothing for eliminating parasites. Crypto and ick are the same thing and they are not photosynthesis parasites, dinoflagellates aka velvet are. You can create as you mentioned a tidal zone you can use uv sterilizers and roller mats and they do nothing but manage ick. Also you mentioned roller mat maybe being small enough micron to filter ick and there is a filter available that will do it, it's a diatom filter. My point is these are not effect treatments for parasites every single option you mentioned is management of parasites not elimination you can throw as much money as you want into equipment and qt will still be the only option for eradicating parasites. This post is not about managing ick it's about eliminating ick from a system.
If the op fallows proper qt procedures the ick will not come back he won't have a reoccurring problem because there will be no ick making it to his dt

 

[natural reef]

Fair enough JD all good points. My hypothesis which is only a theory is that the better the water quality the less ick and crypto you will have to deal with, the ultimate goal being zero. Using a powder blue which in my opinion is always one of the harder fish to keep long term as a benchmark, if it gets a tiny bit of ick now and then but none of the other fish do, and if the powder blue can shake it off then to me it supports the theory. I don't know the op's set up but there are some filtration additions for a very low spend that can help. Then you can concentrate on building up their immune systems with good feeding. Id rather drink a warm mug of skimmate than give up the tidal system

Is the OP going to purchase LR / corals as well because the water from the LFS may well contain Ick and microscopic baddies I don't see how you can avoid it.

 

[Jdub968]

Fair enough JD all good points. My hypothesis which is only a theory is that the better the water quality the less ick and crypto you will have to deal with, the ultimate goal being zero. Using a powder blue which in my opinion is always one of the harder fish to keep long term as a benchmark, if it gets a tiny bit of ick now and then but none of the other fish do, and if the powder blue can shake it off then to me it supports the theory. I don't know the op's set up but there are some filtration additions for a very low spend that can help. Then you can concentrate on building up their immune systems with good feeding. Id rather drink a warm mug of skimmate than give up the tidal system

Is the OP going to purchase LR / corals as well because the water from the LFS may well contain Ick and microscopic baddies I don't see how you can avoid it.

You have some great ideas on ick management! I would imagine the op will continue to purchase from an Lfs or online and weather it's live rock coral macro algea snails or other fish they will all have to go through a qt in order to keep the tank parasite free. Anything wet that goes in the tank goes through qt first