Question about Ich treatment

mujimran

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I had an ich problem and lost a fish to it. So I moved all my fish to a QT tank and dosed it with copper power. Idea was to keep the DT empty with no livestock for a month so its free of ich. Its been 2 weeks now and I read somewhere the ich stays in tank for 3.5 months.

Am I doing it right? should I continue? Really want to put the fish back in DT. Maintaining the QT is tedious. Have to do water changes every other day to keep the Ammonia levels down.

Also, when I first noticed ich, I had removrd all invertebrates to a diff tank and put copper power directly in the DT not knowing at the time that sand and live rock absorb copper. I bought cuprisorb. That shoukd completely remove the copper even from the liverick?
 

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I had an ich problem and lost a fish to it. So I moved all my fish to a QT tank and dosed it with copper power.
Excellent
Idea was to keep the DT empty with no livestock for a month so its free of ich. Its been 2 weeks now and I read somewhere the ich stays in tank for 3.5 months.
The current thought is fallow needs to be 45 days if the display tank is warm at 81 degrees. The period needed gets closer to 72 days if the temp isn't at 81.

Maintaining the QT is tedious. Have to do water changes every other day to keep the Ammonia levels down.
I know it's a pain, but it will be worth it in the end. You can try adding bottled bacteria, or maybe some cycled tank media from a filter.

That shoukd completely remove the copper even from the liverick?
It can. Plain ol' activated carbon works well too. Just test the water with a copper test kit to make sure you got it completely removed.
 

Marc2952

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I once lasted 90 days of going fallow and ich still popped up. I have kept ich management for the last couple of months and after the initial scratching phase i havent had a problem since. My tank is 2 years old though i heard the more mature the tank the less issues you will have with ich. I also add a drop of vitachem and selcon to my fish food everytime i feed them.
 

QuarantinedCorals

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I had an ich problem and lost a fish to it. So I moved all my fish to a QT tank and dosed it with copper power. Idea was to keep the DT empty with no livestock for a month so its free of ich. Its been 2 weeks now and I read somewhere the ich stays in tank for 3.5 months.

Am I doing it right? should I continue? Really want to put the fish back in DT. Maintaining the QT is tedious. Have to do water changes every other day to keep the Ammonia levels down.

Also, when I first noticed ich, I had removrd all invertebrates to a diff tank and put copper power directly in the DT not knowing at the time that sand and live rock absorb copper. I bought cuprisorb. That shoukd completely remove the copper even from the liverick?
Hi! 76 days minimum is needed for a successful fallow period, I qt everything I put in my tank so I aim for a 90 day fallow on anything wet that goes into my dt. If you're doing a fallow on your main display tank, if you're feeling doubtful of fallow periods just over shoot it by double the amount, do a 4 month fallow if you want. The good thing about the initial fallow is that it needs to be done only one time. You mentioned qt being tedious, if you want to achieve an ich free dt you cant cut corners whatsoever and its definitely a commitment you have to make, for your time sake and money I recommend following @jayhemdal protocols and do some reading about what you're dealing with and make a conscious decision on whether or not you can and want to go through the motions of quarantine/fallow. Remember, anything wet such as coral/rocks/inverts/pumps and equipment from a tank that has ich present can introduce parasites into your tank. You also mentioned putting copper in your display, if you have coral or plan on keeping coral, or even inverts I would start with a new tank. The reason I say this is because sand and rock and leach the copper back into the water, 0 copper readings might not last too long. If you have further questions please pm me, wouldn't want you losing time and money. Goodluck!
 
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mujimran

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I once lasted 90 days of going fallow and ich still popped up. I have kept ich management for the last couple of months and after the initial scratching phase i havent had a problem since. My tank is 2 years old though i heard the more mature the tank the less issues you will have with ich. I also add a drop of vitachem and selcon to my fish food everytime i feed them.

Exactly, if doing all this and if the ich comes back again, ugh!

My tank is just 5 month old. I wasn’t quarantining anything when I first started. Regret
 

Marc2952

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Exactly, if doing all this and if the ich comes back again, ugh!

My tank is just 5 month old. I wasn’t quarantining anything when I first started. Regret
Thats a pretty young tank ich management might not be the best option in your case.
 
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mujimran

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Hi! 76 days minimum is needed for a successful fallow period, I qt everything I put in my tank so I aim for a 90 day fallow on anything wet that goes into my dt. If you're doing a fallow on your main display tank, if you're feeling doubtful of fallow periods just over shoot it by double the amount, do a 4 month fallow if you want. The good thing about the initial fallow is that it needs to be done only one time. You mentioned qt being tedious, if you want to achieve an ich free dt you cant cut corners whatsoever and its definitely a commitment you have to make, for your time sake and money I recommend following @jayhemdal protocols and do some reading about what you're dealing with and make a conscious decision on whether or not you can and want to go through the motions of quarantine/fallow. Remember, anything wet such as coral/rocks/inverts/pumps and equipment from a tank that has ich present can introduce parasites into your tank. You also mentioned putting copper in your display, if you have coral or plan on keeping coral, or even inverts I would start with a new tank. The reason I say this is because sand and rock and leach the copper back into the water, 0 copper readings might not last too long. If you have further questions please pm me, wouldn't want you losing time and money. Goodluck!

Thanks, Msgd you
 

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Fallow is pointless if you add any rocks, corals, inverts, cheato, or fish into a tank without initially pre quarantining.

If you still have ich after fallow either:

1. you cross contaminated during the process

2. you inadvertently added ich back into your tank through a new organism

3. you are dealing with a unique strain that lasts longer than the fallow period (extremely unlikely).
 

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I just moved 4 fish out of QT and back into my DT.
Fish went back in DT last night. So far, so good.

I had planned to go fallow for 76 days, but ended up doing over 90 days fallow. The first 30 days or so were done at 78F, before I found out about the 81F thing... so over a few days, I upped the temp on my DT to 81F, and then started my fallow clock over once my DT was at 81F.

I figured I had gone to all that trouble... a few more days at the right temp wouldn't hurt, and felt it was better to be safe than sorry.

It is a bit unnerving though, that it can all be undone with any number of ways if I'm not super careful from now on.
 
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mujimran

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I just moved 4 fish out of QT and back into my DT.
Fish went back in DT last night. So far, so good.

I had planned to go fallow for 76 days, but ended up doing over 90 days fallow. The first 30 days or so were done at 78F, before I found out about the 81F thing... so over a few days, I upped the temp on my DT to 81F, and then started my fallow clock over once my DT was at 81F.

I figured I had gone to all that trouble... a few more days at the right temp wouldn't hurt, and felt it was better to be safe than sorry.

It is a bit unnerving though, that it can all be undone with any number of ways if I'm not super careful from now on.

Here is a genius thought (Hee hee).
My 75G tank is empty with just sand and live rock. instead of waiting for 76 days, I was thinking of emptying it completely. Throwing away the water and moving the sand and rocks to a 10G tank I have with some water in it. Putting it in the sun for a few hrs.

This should confirm all ich is definitely gone. Will refill and put in new sand and live rock. So basically building rhe tank from scratch. Will buy bacteria to kickstart the nitrogen cycle so the tank it ready in 30days. Better than waiting 76 days.

My live rock and sand anyway have copper so most suggest not to use it anyway.

What say?
 

Julchen

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Im dealing with the same problem. Moved all of my fish in QT and leave DT fallow. I’ve tried to work my way around and trying cutting corners to avoid having to get all fish out and treating them with copper meds and leave my tank fallow got so long.
My experience so far is/was that there’s just no way around it and I’m gonna do it. It takes a very long time, effort and money investing into an entire marine setup. I’m at the point I’m just gonna have to do it and wait it out even if it sucks… and it does suck.
 

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