Help!!! Ich??

[ReefCheif]

Alright, Im hoping Im over reacting, but probably not, sorry, no picks,

Got home today and noticed one of my naked clowns is covered in white spots and flashing, ALOT! A few days ago I noticed my trigger has similiar white spots but thought nothing of it becuase she tends to dig and get covered in sand, Im afraid the clown has confirmed the worst possibility. Its strange becuase I havnt added any new live stock or corals to the DT since the re build so Im not sure where this came from, but its there. No picks, I can only see white spots on the clown, in which he hides everytime I get close to the tank.

After a bit of observation I noticed my melanarus is also flashing alot, however the trigger, puffer, hogfish, leapord wrasse pair and chromis all seem to be fine.

Heres the questions. I know I probably have 2 - 3 infected fish (if this is ich), 2 of which Ill never be able to catch in the DT. Can I treat the entire tank without harming my corals or inverts? If so, how?

Ive had alot of experience with ich in freshwater and FOWLERs, generally raising the temp to 82 - 84 is enough to kill the parasite once it becomes free swimming, takes about 4 weeks to fully erradicate but Im afraid this temp spike will be too much for the corals and inverts. What temp can I safley bring the tank to without hurting the expensive goodies?

Ive also thought about hypo salanity, but again I dont think the corals and inverts can handle this.

Or do I just let nature take its course over the next few weeks and see what happens. Unfortunatly I dont think QT is an option here.

Any advice? That would be great.

 

[opakapaka]

Re: Help!!! Ich??

How big is your tank? Do you have enough water containers for you to drain your tank low enough as so that you can catch those fish? And a pump to get the water back into your DT? I got a 90 and have done that twice to catch sick and unwanted fish. I think this way is the easiest if a fish trap doesnt work, just takes a bit of work.

 

[freedominco]

Help!!! Ich??

There are lots of different ick treatments that people use in a reef tank and some have success with them, I had ich in my tank a couple years ago after adding a fish from a group buy, after a couple days the new fish was dead and a couple more had white spots on them, I removed all my fish, put them in hypo and left the tank fish less for 3 months, I still have all the fish that went thru hypo and have never had ich again.


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[AllysonP]

My experience with fish getting ick in my Reef is immediately start putting garlic drops on their food, letting is soak and then feeding them. This has always cured it for me and never harmed the Reef. I now buy elite Reefs food as it has garlic already added in the food and I gave been ick free

 

[ReefCheif]

I feed Elite reef Cuisine already, we call it home grown. LOL, Tell heather that one, shell get a kick out of it.

Its 180 gallons (so no, not enough containers to drain it down). Heres me issue, Im really not trying to disturb the tank, heres why. I just recently re did the whole tank, about 6 weeks ago, maybe 8?? Changed out all the plumbing, cleaned everything, new lights, powerheads, the whole 9. Even added about 200lbs of live rock to complete the stack, so we completley re did the stack as well. Upon re doing the stack I majorly disturbed the sand bed. Screwed the entire tank up. Had a nitrate spike through the roof, couldnt get it down, once it came down didnt know it becuase the new test kit was defective, but thats another story. Anyways, with the tank just recently reaching those prestine levels Im fairly scared to mess with the rock, sand or anything inside the tank. Hense why Im trying to find a way to do this without having to remove crap.

Another issue is I still have fish in my QT tank that have not been put into the DT since the rebuild as Ive been taking it slow. I dont want to put them in the tank now in fear they will get it and I cant add infected fish in with them, so Im basically using the QT to house healty fish, leaving me with no QT for these sick guys. AAAARRRRGHHHH!

Man, I should have just left the damn tank alone, try to make it better and easier and this is what I get, pretty fricken discouraging to say the least. As my Lt. used to say, "Suck it up and drive on"!!

 

[FinsUp]

SO sorry to hear this!! I wish I had some insight on how to fix it, such as a magic way to extract fish from a display tank without disturbing rocks/sand/etc. I feel your pain on trying to make stuff better and having it go to ship. Upgrading my 125 to a 180 did the same thing. Put in a new fish that brought marine velvet with it, which decimated my fish community. There are a couple of fish still in the tank that weren't affected, and now I need to find a way to get them out so the tank can sit fishless for however long it takes for marine velvet to die off. Meanwhile, new tank inhabitants are sitting in qt... all dressed up and noplace to go.
Sending positive vibes your way, and following this thread in the hope that someone shares a genius plan.

 

[ReefCheif]

Thanks Cindy, Ill pull through, as long as my wrasses make it, cant replace a pair of leapords to easy!!

Can anyone shed any insight as to how high I can safely raise the temp, I know this will help, but i dont want to over do it with the corals.

 

[FinsUp]

I've heard that people raise their tank temps to 82 to get clowns to lay eggs... I think if you do it slow that's maybe a safe temp for corals, but I'd want to hear from an expert before you did it. Might have to pull some of your more sensitive corals out and put them in coral qt while you kill off the ich.

 

[ialtalal]

Re: Help!!! Ich??

I'd just go fishless for 6 to 8 weeks. And put your reef in a qt tank for the time being. That's what I did when it happened to me

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[ReefCheif]

I'd just go fishless for 6 to 8 weeks. And put your reef in a qt tank for the time being. That's what I did when it happened to me

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I think you missed a couple of posts, this is not really an option. my QT tank has healthy fish that have yet to be added to the DT, I have to fix this in the DT itself, if possible.

 

[ialtalal]

Re: Help!!! Ich??

I think you missed a couple of posts, this is not really an option. my QT tank has healthy fish that have yet to be added to the DT, I have to fix this in the DT itself, if possible.

Yeah I saw that but i dont think you have another option thu

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[ReefCheif]

Thats what I was afraid of. Are you saying remove fish and corals? Or just fish?

 

[ialtalal]

Re: Help!!! Ich??

Fish only. Aquamart were very nice to me as I kept my fish with them for that whole period treated them and till everything was clear to get the fish back in the tank

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[ReefCheif]

I found this article / discussion regarding tank temps, http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1869167 very interesting for sure

Based on my experience with ICH in freshwater and FOWLERs as well as the mass amount of articles I have just got done reading im going to go ahead and slowly raise the temp & feed good with added garlic.

The article above leads me to believe I can slowly raise the temp high enough to stop the parasite from reproducing. This happens at about 85 degrees. I will add an air stone to help suppliment the deprived o2. It seems the main concern with temp is not the coral but the fish. If I can stop the reproductive cycle I can kill the parasite. Have to hit that temp just right though.

Here we go, wish me luck!!!!

 

[ReefCheif]

Id need a big QT, my trigger needs her space!

 

[ialtalal]

Re: Help!!! Ich??

Id need a big QT, my trigger needs her space!

Yeah that's sound like a great idea

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[ReefCheif]

I still cant figure out how this happened though.

 

[ialtalal]

Re: Help!!! Ich??

You could try one degree each day or something. Ich usually dies after when you temp is above 82 and some corals and fish usually will take that with no problem as long as its done right

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[andyrm66]

That sucks.
I've seen ich thrive above 82, in my tank. Marine ich can't be controlled with temp. You'll kill the fish long before the ich. FW can be. If it were me I'd pull all fish and either Cupermine. or hypo. With Cupermine being choice one. Cupermine, hypo and tank transfer method to some extent, are the only way to get rid of ick, for good. Ich does not just appear, it is not an airborne bacteria. Then, if I never wanted to deal with this again, I'd let my Dt go fallow for 10 weeks. I'd also qt all corals, snails crab - anything wet that isn't a fish, for 10 weeks. Then and only then will you never have to deal with this again. Corals and snails don't get infected with ick but can transfer is, as anything wet can. If you don't want to go through this hell again, which most don't, do it right and never worry again. Plus you get a frag tank out of the deal.

 

[Haulin Oates]

Help!!! Ich??

I've used Kordons Ich Attack twice now in my DT with corals. Worked both times. Never lost a coral. The only caveat to that is neither time did I have much SPS...