The fate of my tank…ich after fallow & QT.

[Miami Reef]

This is a painful thread to make, because I need to admit something: I failed.

I did the fallow and I did the quarantine. I don’t really know how ich got through…Did I not copper long enough, was the observation tank contaminated? Did my quarantined shrimp bring ich? Was my fallow unsuccessful?

To be honest, there’s no way I’ll fully know how I failed the ich eradication. I believe that it’s very difficult to eradicate ich because there are too many variables that come into play. Whoever can keep ich out of their tanks…my hat comes off for you.



So my fish broke out in moderate ich. I have about 6 tangs and a moorish idol, so I’m slightly panicking.

At this point, I have 2 options:

1. UV sterilizer + H202 dosing. I’ve seen a thread on Humblefish’s website where many people use this and had really promising results.

2. Remove all corals and inverts and make display tank hyposalinity.

I personally want to do the 2nd option, but I am going to get a LOT of backlash from my family. They are very involved in the tank and they judge whenever I make changes. I know they are going to be very angry and disappointed in me.

BUT doing the 1st option is very discreet and nobody will know anything is happening! There is very promising results about this. Someone even beat marine velvet with that method! This was the thread: https://humble.fish/community/index...ng-for-parasites-in-reef-tank.725/post-175425

 

[Miami Reef]

And I have a 57watt UV sterilizer coming today. I actually purchased it to make my water clear, but it was very coincidental how the ich breakout happened the same day the sterilizer is getting delivered.

Obviously it’s going to be plumbed for ich sterilization.

 

[Logical_Plan]

Sorry to hear that fallow and QT did not keep ich out of your tank. I'm a new reefer and planning fallow and QT from the start. Hopefully, I am not making a similar post in the future.

I hope that the UV keeps the ich under control for you! Best of luck!

 

[Arego]

If they're that involved why would they care what you're doing to save these animals?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I know some will bash me for this, but whatever. There is also the option of managing it. @Paul B has been very successful at no QRT, as have a ton of others.

You need to provide high quality foods and keep the tank stable. A fish can and will develop a healthy immune system capable of handling ich, if it has the ability to do so.

I will say, that if using a UV, you need to set the flow for killing ich and not algae. This is typically a low flow rate through the UV. So, if you do not have a pump for that flow rate, you will need to get one.

As for H2O2 in the tank, I know it works while doing hybrid ttm and I could see it working in a reef tank. Not sure how the corals would react and what exact dose would be needed, so no help there.

 

[FishTruck]

Regarding UV... I like my unit mostly for water clarification.

I would recommend that you get a controllable DC pump to allow your flow rate through the UV sterilizer to run at the protozoan kill rate on the lowest setting. This way... you can just crank it up for water clarification if and when you decide that the Ich situation has stabilized.

 

[ZoWhat]

I'm being a friend when I say this bc I want you to be successful...

6 Tangs in what size tank? Horizontal footage? Gallons?

How mature are these tang in inches?

Could be just too populated causing unseen stress among 6 Tangs.

Possibly consider having only 3 and selling 3 (?)

You to me:

 

[brandon429]

Were all corals and snails added/hardscape items passed through a fallow system before going in tank/ vector possibles

its rare for folks to be that thorough mostly it’s dirty fallow setups

also not a fail: your setup is zoo quality you’re managing some of the most sensitive pets one could own in a massive setup. big tanks have these ups n downs tell family the benefit is eventual compliant zoo quality exhibit in the home vs having to go to zoo

 

[Miami Reef]

Were all corals and snails added/hardscape items passed through a fallow system before going in tank/ vector possibles

its rare for folks to be that thorough mostly it’s dirty fallow setups

So the shrimps were in a QT for about 2.5 weeks before adding to the DT, but they say in the DT while it was fallow for another 3 weeks.

My tank temps were around 79 but the second half of the fallow was around 81-82. I did a total fallow for 76 days.

I think I always had little ich spots that I blamed on “bacterial infections”. I don’t know if ich was always in my tank, or if I failed in the treatment process.

 

[Miami Reef]

I'm being a friend when I say this bc I want you to be successful...

6 Tangs in what size tank? Horizontal footage? Gallons?

How mature are these tang in inches?

Could be just too populated causing unseen stress among 6 Tangs.

Possibly consider having only 3 and selling 3 (?)

You to me:

My tank is 250 gallons. About 7’ long. The issue is not the tangs. The issue is that I have a parasite in my tank. Removing the tangs will not remove the parasite.

 

[Reeferbadness]

I have a 200G tank that is/was infected by Ich. I added a UV Sterilizer, dosed food with Metroplex for 10 days and most fish survived and now have Ich immunity (mostly). When adding new fish, they may also get a mild case of ich, but they also build immunity (usually) and survive and thrive. Going fallow is insane. You may stop Ich this time, but it will likely come again, and again and again. It's like China's zero covid policy, it works for a while but at some point, covid will go get in and you need to vaccinate and learn to live with it. My $0.02.

 

[Miami Reef]

I have a 200G tank that is/was infected by Ich. I added a UV Sterilizer, dosed food with Metroplex for 10 days and most fish survived and now have Ich immunity (mostly). When adding new fish, they may also get a mild case of ich, but they also build immunity (usually) and survive and thrive. Going fallow is insane. You may stop Ich this time, but it will likely come again, and again and again. It's like China's zero covid policy, it works for a while but at some point, covid will go get in and you need to vaccinate and learn to live with it. My $0.02.

I think this is very smart and true.

 

[ZoWhat]

My tank is 250 gallons. About 7’ long. The issue is not the tangs. The issue is that I have a parasite in my tank. Removing the tangs will not remove the parasite.

True... but I believe ICH constantly exists in a tank at a low level as part of doooozens of parasites all living in ones tank.

A fish gets ICH when their immune system dips and they are in a position not to immediately fight it off.

Much like us humans.... every day of our life we are breathing in cold and flu viruses. We only get sick when our immunity takes a dip: overworked, not eating well, exposed to cold weather too long, mental stress, etc. All factors in our immunity taking a dip

Tangs require an environment conducive to keeping their immune systems clicking along in a well being state.




.

 

[Little c big D]

My tank is 250 gallons. About 7’ long. The issue is not the tangs. The issue is that I have a parasite in my tank. Removing the tangs will not remove the parasite.

The purpose I think they were getting at is reducing stress. Tangs can stress each other out with their attitudes. Not saying you should get rid of any. I don't have that answer but Reducing stress and a good diet like said avove can help their immune system support them. I think this is key for option 1. Option 1 would be my go to. Side note, I remember when you got the moorish idol. Nice work taking good care of it. I've heard alot of people struggle!

 

[Miami Reef]

Here’s the fish with ich. So far it’s very mild. @Jay Hemdal said I can be successful with the UV and h202 because I caught it very early.

 

[Miami Reef]

Only the moorish idol, powder blue, and blue tang have ich.

Yesteray the yellow tang had 2 spots but they are gone today.

 

[Miami Reef]

Video taken just now. I will make sure they are extra fed!

 

[ariellemermaid]

This is a painful thread to make, because I need to admit something: I failed.

I did the fallow and I did the quarantine. I don’t really know how ich got through…Did I not copper long enough, was the observation tank contaminated? Did my quarantined shrimp bring ich? Was my fallow unsuccessful?

To be honest, there’s no way I’ll fully know how I failed the ich eradication. I believe that it’s very difficult to eradicate ich because there are too many variables that come into play. Whoever can keep ich out of their tanks…my hat comes off for you.



So my fish broke out in moderate ich. I have about 6 tangs and a moorish idol, so I’m slightly panicking.

At this point, I have 2 options:

1. UV sterilizer + H202 dosing. I’ve seen a thread on Humblefish’s website where many people use this and had really promising results.

2. Remove all corals and inverts and make display tank hyposalinity.

I personally want to do the 2nd option, but I am going to get a LOT of backlash from my family. They are very involved in the tank and they judge whenever I make changes. I know they are going to be very angry and disappointed in me.

BUT doing the 1st option is very discreet and nobody will know anything is happening! There is very promising results about this. Someone even beat marine velvet with that method! This was the thread: https://humble.fish/community/index...ng-for-parasites-in-reef-tank.725/post-175425

Hypo isn’t the preferred way to deal with ich but if I’m reading through the tea leaves you don’t have QT capacity for all the fish, so you want to treat the ich in the DT? That could work if done correctly, but the ideal would be to remove all the fish to copper and do another fallow period. But that may just not be reasonable depending on your stocking and fish sizes.

As for option 1, I’m less enthusiastic about switching to ich management with fish that have active infection. Not to say it can’t be done, but you’re risking having loses. But it sounds like things are early and mild and if Jay approves that’s something to consider.

I have a 200G tank that is/was infected by Ich. I added a UV Sterilizer, dosed food with Metroplex for 10 days and most fish survived and now have Ich immunity (mostly). When adding new fish, they may also get a mild case of ich, but they also build immunity (usually) and survive and thrive. Going fallow is insane. You may stop Ich this time, but it will likely come again, and again and again. It's like China's zero covid policy, it works for a while but at some point, covid will go get in and you need to vaccinate and learn to live with it. My $0.02.

I generally disagree with this, with the caveat that it depends. Ich is a parasite and just like any other bug, it absolutely can be eradicated. We know all about its life cycle and how to defeat it; it’s not magic or mystery, just science.

Now, the caveat is that once eradicated, whether you see it again or not completely depends on what you do next. If you QT all new fish with copper at therapeutic levels for at least 30 days that’s a great start. Personally I QT all inverts and corals as well because there’s always a chance ich could come in that way. Jay said he had ich come in on snails once and I personally had snails bring in montipora eating nudibranch’s. Either 72-76 days, or 6 weeks if you keep the temp around 81 degrees. And of course keeping all tanks like 10’ apart, having separate cleaning supplies and equipment for each tank, not cross contaminating during maintenance, etc.

That’s a lot to deal with; I know because I’m doing it and have 3 QT tanks to support 1 DT (copper QT, coral/invert tank, observation tank). Not to say that’s the only way to do it, but for me if I’m going to go for eradication then I’m going to go all out. What you do is up to you; there are many ways to be successful reefing!

 

[TheDragonsReef]

You can definitely live with ich management in a healthy system. With the uv and good feeding the fish should be fine and won't suffer. You may or may not eradicate it but there won't be anyway to know until the fish are stressed and whether or not there's another breakout.

That being said, how long did you go fallow? How long did you treat with copper, and were you regularly testing copper levels? Did you add any other livestock than the shrimp during the fallow period?

 

[Miami Reef]

You can definitely live with ich management in a healthy system. With the uv and good feeding the fish should be fine and won't suffer. You may or may not eradicate it but there won't be anyway to know until the fish are stressed and whether or not there's another breakout.

That being said, how long did you go fallow? How long did you treat with copper, and were you regularly testing copper levels? Did you add any other livestock than the shrimp during the fallow period?

I quarantined with copper power. Tested daily with Hannah checker for 14 days then transferred out to a observation tank for less than a week then into the DT.

The only things I added after my treatment and fallow were urchins that I didn’t quarantine. Humblefish said ich can’t encyst on them and a throughout rinse is all that’s needed. I don’t think the urchins brought anything in because the fish that the little white specs before the urchins. But the specs didn’t even look like ich at the time.