Ich advice

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125 gallon +25 gallon sump. tank is about 9 months old. Did fine until a week or so ago. Couple of mid sized tangs, clowns, an angel, hawkfish, reef friendly star, cleaner shrimp, anemone, etc. developed ich a weekish ago. Did a 20% water change. Started treating with Kordon ich attack. But not before I lost 2 cardinal fish and two other small angels. Was treating with 1/3 cup of Kordons. Just upped it to 1/2 cup

Water was cloudy (bacteria bloom) which got under control pretty quickly. Turned off my protein skimmer. Local saltwater store recommended against doing another water change until I was done treating. Ich has slowly gotten getter.

My question is should I do another water change and risk stressing the fish more than necessary?
 
Could you post some clear pics or a short YouTube video of the fish for confirmation? Please use bright white light, with no blues, for clarity.

If it's Ich, treating with copper would be a better option than the Kordel product.
 


white lights, best I could get. The Sailfin shows ich the most. Better than he was.
 
Video is blurry. Try to get the glass scrapper and clean the glass. I can see what would resemble ich.

If you’re see the spots clearly, you will need to QT all the fish.

Copper Power or Copper Safe at 2.25ppm min. Copper power can do 2.50ppm max.
Hanna HR Copper checker for checking copper levels.

30 day QT for fish, 60 day fallow DT for disease elimination.
 
Is copper reef safe?
Unfortunately, no. It really needs to be used in a bare quarantine tank that's separate from your main display tank, as the copper is highly toxic to any inverts such as corals, shrimp, crabs, etc.

Here's the R2R QT protocol that has more info on setting up a QT tank and using copper medications like Copper Power to treat Ich:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-quarantine-protocol.825055/

Another option is hyposalinity where you lower the salinity of the water as a way to treat the Ich. This too is toxic to inverts, but in your case it may be easier to remove the inverts from your main tank into a temporary tank that can be something like a reef-safe storage tote, and then safely treat the fish in your main tank. Here's Jay Hemdal's thread on hyposalinity:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hyposalinity.880546/

This, of course, is assuming Ich is what you're dealing with 🙂

I hope this helps; post back with any further questions!
 

WHAT KIND OF HAPPY ACCIDENT(S) HAVE YOU HAD IN YOUR REEF?

  • Stable parameters over time

    Votes: 29 61.7%
  • Consistent coral growth

    Votes: 15 31.9%
  • Fish and inverts are settled

    Votes: 8 17.0%
  • The tank has moved past its ugly stages

    Votes: 12 25.5%
  • It has survived a major setback

    Votes: 2 4.3%
  • At least six months old

    Votes: 3 6.4%
  • At least one year old

    Votes: 8 17.0%
  • Stop worrying about age—it’s about stability

    Votes: 10 21.3%
  • Other (Post in the comments)

    Votes: 2 4.3%
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