Ich in tank. Thinking of eradicating. Wondering what else to add to process?

[konatown]

There are a lot of ich spores you can't see - so when the dots go away, that doesn't mean they're all gone. Ich lives in gills, and can cause serious stress you can't even see. So I would probably do a fresh water dip (read up on it first) and then get your QT running with good water and bio media.

Your fish will handle the copper ok. Just ramp it up slowly. Most people use Copper Power these days, which is a bit easier on the fish. Get a copper test kit (hannah is great for this) and try to increase copper over 4-5 days. So, not all at once.

And keeping your tank fallow 76 days is a tried and true way of eradicating ich. Read up on humblefish's post, but you definitely should NOT have ich in there after that long of time...as long as you aren't cross-contaminating from your QT. That means...always use different buckets, syphons, etc.

You don't want water from your DT getting into your QT after you've treated. That's for sure.

One last questions for you. What medication regimen would you do, to do this the right way the first time? I’m planning on doing the dt fallow (just read through humblefish’s post again, got that down) and putting all of my fish into two tanks for medicating

Is copper and then prazi going to be enough, or is there more I should do like metro and focus? I might get these guys out in the next couple of days because they don’t look happy. I’m wondering what’s the best regimen to follow so I can start planning it out. The one in the sticky here is very in depth..

 

[bevo5]

Copper is for eradicating the ich. If you also suspect some flukes or some other parasites - then prazi is great for that.

I'd tackle the ich first and after those 30 days you can clear out the copper then move on to the prazi at some other time while the DT is fallow.

 

[konatown]

Copper is for eradicating the ich. If you also suspect some flukes or some other parasites - then prazi is great for that.

I'd tackle the ich first and after those 30 days you can clear out the copper then move on to the prazi at some other time while the DT is fallow.

Thanks a lot. One thing I noticed is the blue hippo has one cloudy eye. Not popped, just cloudy. Is there something special I should do for that one, or just try to get some selcon, etc into it’s food?

 

[pasquale petrovia]

I had ich in my 225 gallon about 2 years ago. I Qt’d my fish. Treated 14 days Cuppermine but slowly brought up copper over a week to lessen stress so really 3 weeks. 14 days Prazi after 50% water change and carbon run adding Dr Tim’s to sponge filter weekly just in case of bacteria crash. Ammonia stayed low. I put fish back in Display after 60 days and ich was back in a week even though fish were clear and I fresh water dipped them before reentry. I repeated the process and kept them out for 80 days and haven’t had any issues since. 72 would probably work though so be patient

 

[reefer fro canada]

I have several tangs in my tank and I feel your frustration.I am in canada so we do not have the meds you can get in the states.My personal exsperience was to quit the hobby,then I found a homeipath doctor that was treating ponds for parisites.She documented if you take fresh garlic and ginger together this would strengthen the fishes immune system and then could naturally fight it off.At first I didn"t beleive it but with three of my tangs with ich I thought I would give it a try.I was very surprised with the results.All fish survied and no more signs of ich or any other kind of parisites.Here is the recipe for it.You take four or five cloves of garlic and slice very thin it should be about half of a whole garlic bulb.Then take fresh ginger and slice it he same way very thin.I use about a good three to four inches of ginger.Place in a clean small jar I use a old jam jar about two inches in diamiter and about four inches tall.It doesn"t have to be exzactly that size any size will do.Fill with good R O water and let it sit for at least twenty four hours.I would shake mine to help mix the two together.Here is the good part.Soak some nori or any dry food they will eat in a little of mixture and add to tank.The nori I roll up like a cigarett vey tight and use a clip or magnet to hold on the side of tankThey will consume the nori and get the med where it needs to get inside the fish.I did this every day and you will see the parisites coming out of fish and dropping off.I did this until I saw no more parisites and then your fish is cured and it will stay that way.I am sure the parasites are still in my tank but my fish are healthy and happy.For me now when ever I put in a knew fish I feed that fish with this med and they never die but I have seen parasites come out.Just did a longnose and now he is happy and fat.If your are not sure give me a call and I will help.Happy reefing.

 

[PGT253]

There is a new experimental finding of dosing Hydrogen Peroxide while running UV to kill off parasites in the DT. You can look for more details om the humble.fish forum

 

[konatown]

I had ich in my 225 gallon about 2 years ago. I Qt’d my fish. Treated 14 days Cuppermine but slowly brought up copper over a week to lessen stress so really 3 weeks. 14 days Prazi after 50% water change and carbon run adding Dr Tim’s to sponge filter weekly just in case of bacteria crash. Ammonia stayed low. I put fish back in Display after 60 days and ich was back in a week even though fish were clear and I fresh water dipped them before reentry. I repeated the process and kept them out for 80 days and haven’t had any issues since. 72 would probably work though so be patient

That’s crazy that you still had it. I plan on trying a 45 day fallow with the higher temp, but if it doesn’t work I will be doing it for at least 72

 

[konatown]

I have several tangs in my tank and I feel your frustration.I am in canada so we do not have the meds you can get in the states.My personal exsperience was to quit the hobby,then I found a homeipath doctor that was treating ponds for parisites.She documented if you take fresh garlic and ginger together this would strengthen the fishes immune system and then could naturally fight it off.At first I didn"t beleive it but with three of my tangs with ich I thought I would give it a try.I was very surprised with the results.All fish survied and no more signs of ich or any other kind of parisites.Here is the recipe for it.You take four or five cloves of garlic and slice very thin it should be about half of a whole garlic bulb.Then take fresh ginger and slice it he same way very thin.I use about a good three to four inches of ginger.Place in a clean small jar I use a old jam jar about two inches in diamiter and about four inches tall.It doesn"t have to be exzactly that size any size will do.Fill with good R O water and let it sit for at least twenty four hours.I would shake mine to help mix the two together.Here is the good part.Soak some nori or any dry food they will eat in a little of mixture and add to tank.The nori I roll up like a cigarett vey tight and use a clip or magnet to hold on the side of tankThey will consume the nori and get the med where it needs to get inside the fish.I did this every day and you will see the parisites coming out of fish and dropping off.I did this until I saw no more parisites and then your fish is cured and it will stay that way.I am sure the parasites are still in my tank but my fish are healthy and happy.For me now when ever I put in a knew fish I feed that fish with this med and they never die but I have seen parasites come out.Just did a longnose and now he is happy and fat.If your are not sure give me a call and I will help.Happy reefing.

I’ve read some on the garlic and ginger. I’m glad it worked for you. I will give it a shot on my fish. Thanks for the recipe and tips

 

[Wyvern]

I have Ozone and UV for clarity and ORP, but also for potential ich outbreaks.

I bought all QT fish, and am going to start adding coral soon from quality vendors like TSM and Jason Fox.

IMHO from my freshwater experience, you will get ich, but may never be an issue if you have healthy fish with natural resistance to parasites.

 

[konatown]

I have Ozone and UV for clarity and ORP, but also for potential ich outbreaks.

I bought all QT fish, and am going to start adding coral soon from quality vendors like TSM and Jason Fox.

IMHO from my freshwater experience, you will get ich, but may never be an issue if you have healthy fish with natural resistance to parasites.

Thanks. I need to add a uv. I really plan on qt everything I buy from here on out. It’s just worth it to me to not have the stress of disease, and the pain of losing fish. I get pretty attached to them and my wife does more so. You can see my other thread, i ended up losing almost my whole tank, tangs and all to what I believe was a bad medication.

 

[Rocketfish]

I have a 30-gallon reef tank heavy on the coral and when I added the appropriate UV sterilizer it made a huge difference in the quality of the water and never seeing dinos again. I have never seen a spot of ich in over 2 years in this tank since I installed the UV. Before that, I had a clown that had it, but he recovered without any issues. I did not do anything to prevent an outbreak after that other than installing the UV.

I currently have a hippo tang that has been in there for 18 months or more. Started the size of a quarter and is now about 3.5". There have been other fish that did not last for whatever reason, but the tang has always been healthy. His buddy, the yellow coris wrasse committed suicide this morning jumping through a crack between the lid and the side no bigger than 10mm! That leaves the tang, a lawnmower blenny, a clown, a horseshoe crab with various other CUC. All are still happy and healthy.

 

[Wyvern]

Thanks. I need to add a uv. I really plan on qt everything I buy from here on out. It’s just worth it to me to not have the stress of disease, and the pain of losing fish. I get pretty attached to them and my wife does more so. You can see my other thread, i ended up losing almost my whole tank, tangs and all to what I believe was a bad medication.

Ideally if I get velvet I would run rally pro immediately and try to catch all the fish for QT, unfortunately eveything in my tank is small and fast except for the clowns.

If catching fails, I would remove all inverts and do a extended treatment, turning the DT into a treatment tank.

Not Ideal since I have about 130 gallons of water and would cost a couple hundred in medicine.

I will never own tangs or tusks even if I had the room for them, they seem to be illness magnets and develop HLLE with carbon, and with ozone you need a lot of it.

 

[Tailhook]

So I bought a tank full of live rock and fish. All very fat and healthy. I added my clownfish that were also healthy. Either my clowns or the tangs original system had ich. It has been one week since setting up the tank. The tangs are showing a lot of white spots. I’ve upped feeding and trying to keep them stress free and happy.

I’m watching them for the next couple of days and hoping for some improvement. Don’t know if it will help, but I’m adding polyp labs medic for now. If things get worse in the next week I’m considering pulling the fish and medicating. My questions are, what all should I medicate for. If I start my system over, and go the eradication route, qt all my corals, get new sand, dry out rock and basically start fresh, I want to do it right.

From what I’ve read so far, I plan on doing copper and prazi medication to my fish in a couple of separate tanks over the course of time to cure the ich and other parasites while the new tank cycles. I feel like cycling new rock might be better than hoping a fallow period will get rid of the ich.

Am I on the right track, and what else should I medicate for?
65 gallon tank
Yellow tang
Hippo tang (moving to new tank soon)
Naso tang (moving to new tank soon)
Clownfish
Hawkfish
Corals
Anemones

I feed ground ginger with food for 7 days and haven't seen any in months

 

[Tailhook]

So I bought a tank full of live rock and fish. All very fat and healthy. I added my clownfish that were also healthy. Either my clowns or the tangs original system had ich. It has been one week since setting up the tank. The tangs are showing a lot of white spots. I’ve upped feeding and trying to keep them stress free and happy.

I’m watching them for the next couple of days and hoping for some improvement. Don’t know if it will help, but I’m adding polyp labs medic for now. If things get worse in the next week I’m considering pulling the fish and medicating. My questions are, what all should I medicate for. If I start my system over, and go the eradication route, qt all my corals, get new sand, dry out rock and basically start fresh, I want to do it right.

From what I’ve read so far, I plan on doing copper and prazi medication to my fish in a couple of separate tanks over the course of time to cure the ich and other parasites while the new tank cycles. I feel like cycling new rock might be better than hoping a fallow period will get rid of the ich.

Am I on the right track, and what else should I medicate for?
65 gallon tank
Yellow tang
Hippo tang (moving to new tank soon)
Naso tang (moving to new tank soon)
Clownfish
Hawkfish
Corals
Anemones

I used ground ginger in the food for 7 days haven't seen ick in months

 

[SinsReefer]

So I bought a tank full of live rock and fish. All very fat and healthy. I added my clownfish that were also healthy. Either my clowns or the tangs original system had ich. It has been one week since setting up the tank. The tangs are showing a lot of white spots. I’ve upped feeding and trying to keep them stress free and happy.

I’m watching them for the next couple of days and hoping for some improvement. Don’t know if it will help, but I’m adding polyp labs medic for now. If things get worse in the next week I’m considering pulling the fish and medicating. My questions are, what all should I medicate for. If I start my system over, and go the eradication route, qt all my corals, get new sand, dry out rock and basically start fresh, I want to do it right.

From what I’ve read so far, I plan on doing copper and prazi medication to my fish in a couple of separate tanks over the course of time to cure the ich and other parasites while the new tank cycles. I feel like cycling new rock might be better than hoping a fallow period will get rid of the ich.

Am I on the right track, and what else should I medicate for?
65 gallon tank
Yellow tang
Hippo tang (moving to new tank soon)
Naso tang (moving to new tank soon)
Clownfish
Hawkfish
Corals
Anemones

So, I am somewhat new to the hobby but have been graces with getting aid from some very hold and high end reefers. 15+ years under their belts. Still, ich struck my tank like a sack of hammers as well.
I became desperate, I went down the pathing of feeding more so boost immune systems all across the board. Amônia became detectable and nitrite was very present. Fish for sluggish and less active some what, not all fish, the hardier ones showed to be less affected.
After lots of head bashing o came across Aquaforest garlic oil....which was incredible.
I would put this in every single feeding and I also cut back on the quantity just maintained a 2daily schedule. I would put this oil into the flakes, into the pellets into the algae tablets together with fish V with is Aquaforest vitamins. This after 3 days showed very promising results as to my fish.
The garlic oil is like some sort of repellent if you will. Ich hates latching onto fish that have this in their systems.
I proceeded to feed like this for a few months, roughly 2 months and fish showed no signs of ich.
Although, once you have ich....you have ich....so I purchased polyp lab med, removed my carbon and dosed for a moderate infection during the course of 10 days. Not once faulting on accuracy. Religiously dosed the medication and fed the fish like this for the next few months around another 2-3 months. After finishing the 10 days treatment. Now I only add garlic once a week to all the food that is given...sometimes bi- weekly. And I haven't seen ich ever com back to the tank. Not in a single spot.
If ich can't complete it's cycle, where it latches onto the fish....it will eventually die without a host. The medication I dosed should have harmed their numbers greatly which further decreased the chances it would latch onto my fish. Keeping this up for a prolonged period of time proved successful though, it was quite the process.
This was my experience and how I felt with the issue. I have been ich free on all my inhabitants and new arrivals ever since.

 

[CJ13]

So I bought a tank full of live rock and fish. All very fat and healthy. I added my clownfish that were also healthy. Either my clowns or the tangs original system had ich. It has been one week since setting up the tank. The tangs are showing a lot of white spots. I’ve upped feeding and trying to keep them stress free and happy.

I’m watching them for the next couple of days and hoping for some improvement. Don’t know if it will help, but I’m adding polyp labs medic for now. If things get worse in the next week I’m considering pulling the fish and medicating. My questions are, what all should I medicate for. If I start my system over, and go the eradication route, qt all my corals, get new sand, dry out rock and basically start fresh, I want to do it right.

From what I’ve read so far, I plan on doing copper and prazi medication to my fish in a couple of separate tanks over the course of time to cure the ich and other parasites while the new tank cycles. I feel like cycling new rock might be better than hoping a fallow period will get rid of the ich.

Am I on the right track, and what else should I medicate for?
65 gallon tank
Yellow tang
Hippo tang (moving to new tank soon)
Naso tang (moving to new tank soon)
Clownfish
Hawkfish
Corals
Anemones

I I purchased a coral beauty and if had ich which I did not see when I first purchased it I went out and got a 29 gallon got it all setup and purchased a HOB filter from Amazon with a uv light in it used only pvc pipes for the fish to hide in bare bottom and got all the fish out and put in 29g qt and left the DT with just the crabs shrimps and snails and used a copper based medication in qt and kept them in there for about 80 days so the DT would be clear of the parasites (says about 72 days but I did an extra 8 to be safe) and after that time I got all the fish back in DT and been ich free ever since, I did lose the coral beauty tho also I had separate nets for the qt and the DT just so I would not accidentally cross contaminate the copper medication in the DT

 

[CJ13]

So I bought a tank full of live rock and fish. All very fat and healthy. I added my clownfish that were also healthy. Either my clowns or the tangs original system had ich. It has been one week since setting up the tank. The tangs are showing a lot of white spots. I’ve upped feeding and trying to keep them stress free and happy.

I’m watching them for the next couple of days and hoping for some improvement. Don’t know if it will help, but I’m adding polyp labs medic for now. If things get worse in the next week I’m considering pulling the fish and medicating. My questions are, what all should I medicate for. If I start my system over, and go the eradication route, qt all my corals, get new sand, dry out rock and basically start fresh, I want to do it right.

From what I’ve read so far, I plan on doing copper and prazi medication to my fish in a couple of separate tanks over the course of time to cure the ich and other parasites while the new tank cycles. I feel like cycling new rock might be better than hoping a fallow period will get rid of the ich.

Am I on the right track, and what else should I medicate for?
65 gallon tank
Yellow tang
Hippo tang (moving to new tank soon)
Naso tang (moving to new tank soon)
Clownfish
Hawkfish
Corals
Anemones

 

[Frogspon]

Problem with 'eradicating' is that it's going to come in just as easy with any new coral/invert/fish you add to the tank the future. So unless you want to quarantine EVERYTHING that ever goes in your tank for 45 days first, then it's a losing battle.

A lot of the time, if you keep the fish healthy during an outbreak, it goes away and doesn't show up again.

So imagine 2 years down the road, it does pop back up.. was it because something wasn't eradicated and you just found out? OR did it sneak in on something that was not quarantined properly? The real data on this is negligible as you can imagine.