I posted back on the 19th May about my conundrum of whether I should manage ich or eradicate it... following some great replies from @Humblefish in particular I was all set to eradicate...
I was psyching myself up to try and move all my fish from my 1200l DT and let it run fallow. I was, in all honesty, putting it off though. I hadn't had an ich breakout since my tank was 3 months old (It's now 14). I then read @Paul B account of how he runs his immune tank. It worked for him... why not for me?
So it was a little under a month ago that I decided I would go down that route.
I am a biologist by education so decided to have a look at my entire set up to see how I could make it more natural.
For those not familiar with an immune tank, let me quickly run through how (in my opinion!) It works.
All the fish we keep live in or around tropical coral reefs. They have evolved to live in that environment, at that salinity, with that amount of nutrients, those predators and (and this is the important bit) with those pathogens and parasites. They feed off the reef or off things that feed off the reef. Bacteria is inside all of these things... as are the parasites and pathogens I referred to. So, over time, immunity against these nasties is built up and (again important bit) maintained.
If we can replicate as closely as possible, the exposure to these nasties in our own tanks and (again, important) provide the required bacteria and partially destroyed pathogens etc which are in the guts of their natural food, then we can maintain our fishes immunity against said nasties.
These are the steps I have taken so far:
1. Live blackworms... fed twice daily.
2. 2 Fresh (or frozen fresh) mussels (with guts intact) fed daily. I just smash the shell with a rolling pin and chuck them in.
3. Increase temperature to 81/82 F (to replicate the reef and speed up metabolism of both fish and nasties)
4. Increase flow.
5. Added a 3 stage fludised reactor with bio pellets, GFO and carbon, in order to get nutrients to as close to reef as possible (basically zero for the bad stuff and accepted norms for good stuff) and keep them stable.
6. NSW used in place of ASW for all WCs.
Results so far...
No ich whatsoever.
Better colouration exhibited in fish.
Clowns still breeding.
Humbug damsels becoming fruity.
Better PE in all corals.
Nitrate reduced to undetectable on salifert.
Phosphate reduced to undetectable on salifert.
It's still early days and I intend to also do the following (when funds allow in the case of lighting)
1. Upgrade lights and run as closely as possible to reef lighting conditions.
2. Make my own food to replace flake / pellets which I am also still feeding.
3. Replace dried nori sheets with fresh (or frozen fresh) seaweeds of different varieties.
I have already prepared a batch of food, which I'll go into detail about in a separate post on this thread.
My intention is to keep this thread updated with any further changes and observations.
I'd love to have your thoughts, suggestions, ideas and criticisms!
Cheers.
I was psyching myself up to try and move all my fish from my 1200l DT and let it run fallow. I was, in all honesty, putting it off though. I hadn't had an ich breakout since my tank was 3 months old (It's now 14). I then read @Paul B account of how he runs his immune tank. It worked for him... why not for me?
So it was a little under a month ago that I decided I would go down that route.
I am a biologist by education so decided to have a look at my entire set up to see how I could make it more natural.
For those not familiar with an immune tank, let me quickly run through how (in my opinion!) It works.
All the fish we keep live in or around tropical coral reefs. They have evolved to live in that environment, at that salinity, with that amount of nutrients, those predators and (and this is the important bit) with those pathogens and parasites. They feed off the reef or off things that feed off the reef. Bacteria is inside all of these things... as are the parasites and pathogens I referred to. So, over time, immunity against these nasties is built up and (again important bit) maintained.
If we can replicate as closely as possible, the exposure to these nasties in our own tanks and (again, important) provide the required bacteria and partially destroyed pathogens etc which are in the guts of their natural food, then we can maintain our fishes immunity against said nasties.
These are the steps I have taken so far:
1. Live blackworms... fed twice daily.
2. 2 Fresh (or frozen fresh) mussels (with guts intact) fed daily. I just smash the shell with a rolling pin and chuck them in.
3. Increase temperature to 81/82 F (to replicate the reef and speed up metabolism of both fish and nasties)
4. Increase flow.
5. Added a 3 stage fludised reactor with bio pellets, GFO and carbon, in order to get nutrients to as close to reef as possible (basically zero for the bad stuff and accepted norms for good stuff) and keep them stable.
6. NSW used in place of ASW for all WCs.
Results so far...
No ich whatsoever.
Better colouration exhibited in fish.
Clowns still breeding.
Humbug damsels becoming fruity.
Better PE in all corals.
Nitrate reduced to undetectable on salifert.
Phosphate reduced to undetectable on salifert.
It's still early days and I intend to also do the following (when funds allow in the case of lighting)
1. Upgrade lights and run as closely as possible to reef lighting conditions.
2. Make my own food to replace flake / pellets which I am also still feeding.
3. Replace dried nori sheets with fresh (or frozen fresh) seaweeds of different varieties.
I have already prepared a batch of food, which I'll go into detail about in a separate post on this thread.
My intention is to keep this thread updated with any further changes and observations.
I'd love to have your thoughts, suggestions, ideas and criticisms!
Cheers.