what to do with severe ich?

boxfishpooalot

Active member
Hi!

I have a 125 gallon fish only with live rock. I added a sulphur denitrator to my tank to help with nitrates. Those who dont own one need to know 2 things about them-
1) they reduce nitrates
2) they reduce alkalinity faster than a heavy sps tank will

My problem started when my alkalinity dropped below 2.5meq/l to 1.6meq/l . Now in a normal fish only tank the alkalinity would never reach such a dangerous level. But with a sulphur denitrator it did. The bacteria that colonize it reduced my alkalinity to 1.6meq/l!! Well you ask, now why did I not keep track of it? Well I did......

Basically my Salifert alkalinity test kit was contaminaed with water from the tank. I would use the dropper to swirl the sample as it turned from blue to pink. Then the left over titrant I would put back into the titrant bottle to save for the next use. The little drops of water on the tip of the syringe must have got inside the tirant bottle.Long story short, dont do that! After using my "back up alk kits" (hagen and seachem)for refrence after all my fish were getting very sick, I soon realized the alkalinity was not 2.5/meq/l but instead 1.6meq/l.......

So all my fish are sick. With ich and "burned looking skin".

So far I have lost my yellow spotted boxfish to severe ich infestation, a royal gramma, yellow tail damsel. All other fish are fine with minor ich and burn marks. Including 2 percula clowns, tomatoe clown(who has cloudy eye), 4 chromis, dog faced puffer(ich burn marks, not severe), regal tang(moderate ich), yellow tang(scratching, this fish is tough!) and a porcupine puffer(moderate ich)

All of this due to my stupidity! O yea and technology reducing nitrates. I dont recommend a sulphur denitrator, well only if you are aware of its capabilies, and alk drainage.

So basically when a fish is covered in server ich(like my boxfish was and gramma) what would you do?

I thought about causing the fish to slime up alot. This could be done by letting the fishes body dry out while allowing their gills to recievce oxygen rich water from the tank....by airline syphon. I once had my dog face completely cure himself of ich by jumping out of the tank and sliming up.... he survived jumping out of the tank and cured his ich... If I could do this with every fish would work great! But this is not proven..

What would you do....?

Thanks ,Box :)
 
O yea one more thing. If you ever notice somthing wrong with the the fish, and everything tests good, like my situation and you own a sea urchin that is dropping an abnormal amount of spines, get a new alkalinity test kit ;) you see sea urchins are a good indicator of alkalinity. If its below 2.5meq/l they will drop their spines as they loose carbonate to the water, and their spines become weaker.

Thats how I figured somthing was up with the alkalinity, the sea urchin gave me a hint. Diadema species. Long spined. Its like a living alkalinity kit. :D
 
I wouldn't try treating by letting your fish "slime up". That sounds too stressfull to me. I would go with hyposalinity or copper. Fresh water dips supposedly make the ich fall off, so if your fish is extremely infected this might be a good first step befor one of the above treatments. I have never had much luck with freshwater dips myself. The fish wilt over and look like they are dying, but if you read alot others use them.
 
hyposaltanity n copper and yeah fresh water dips are amazing...but they put alot of stress on your fish so try to avoid them if nessesary
 
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