Ich outbreak

[Esplay]

Hi guys I recently started a 60 gallon tank. I cycled it for around 29 days and I decided to add fish to it. At first the fish were happy and healthy, (I couldnt see anything wrong) however, after a few weeks I realised my fishes started to develop ich. I know copper is a good treatment but it will only treat the fish. Most of the ich can be in my sand and my rock. I want to eliminate all the ich from my main display tank. Any suggestions? 

My water parameters 

temp : 25C

salinity: 1.026

ammonia & nitrite : 0

nitrate : 20ppm

alkalinity : 9

ph : 8.1

[Indeco]

If u want to eliminate ich without using copper then the only way is to go fishless in your main tank for 76 to 90 days.

Another way is to do hyposalinity method, but very xiong. Alot of work required.

Actually having ich in DT is ok as long as your fish is eating well and happy. Generally will not have much issue. This is 2 cents.

[Esplay]

Wow 96 days is a long time haha, if I remove my corals and inverts and dose copper in my DT, will my rocks and sand absorb the copper and release them in the future?

[Indeco]

Wow 96 days is a long time haha, if I remove my corals and inverts and dose copper in my DT, will my rocks and sand absorb the copper and release them in the future?

Yes very long cause need to make sure all the egg is hatch.

Some said can use carbon to remove copper but I not sure how much u copper u can remove as the copper is absorbed by rock, sand and tank.

Very likely ur tank cannot have sensitive coral anymore.

So I have choose to live with it, when I saw my fish start scratching I'm just be more careful. Hahaha.

[Esplay]

Ok thank you very much for your advice, happy reefing! 

[Reefer_peter]

It is near impossible to completely have no ich in your tank because whatever thing wet you put in the tank there is a good chance of it containing ich: inverts, corals etc. What you can do to help fight ich is first of all, quarantine fish if you can, feed high quality food, I recommend PE mysis or LRS reef frenzy for frozen food and a mix of various brands of pellets. These should be soaked in Selcon + Vitachem to help boost fish immunity. Secondly, stock wisely: have a good stocking density and always introduce peaceful fishes first to avoid stress. Thirdly, maintain high water quality. Lastly, can consider to invest in a UV steriliser to reduce the ich population in your tank.

[shaunchan]

I have the same problems. Losing my fish every other week because of ich. (or at least thats what I suspect)

Been adding garlic to their food, in the hope of trying to strengthen their system to get over the disease. Also try to feed them a little more, making sure they eat. So far - all the surviving live stock are the ones that are eating heavily. 

Then I came across Polyp Lab Medic. Had good reviews on YouTube, so I decided to invest in a bottle. Wasn't cheap - about $60 in Singapore. You have to does twice a day when the lights are off.

Note that this DOES NOT get rid of ich already on the fish, but will kill those that are dormant on the rocks and sand. Keep dosing daily for up to 17-20 days. I've already done this for a week, and I can see 'some' improvements. My fish deaths has stopped, and the fellas seem happier. They still have white spots, so I'll have to hope they fall off naturally. 

Anybody has other ideas to combat Ich, please share.
QT is sometimes not an option for alot of people because of Space, Spouse or Spondoolies.  

[JiaEn]

Polyp-lab medic can give fish a breathing space but what you observed could be the normal life cycle of ich. The parasites will drop off and reproduce. So do keep adding the treatment even if you see less spots or none at all. 

So far,  the method work for me is to feed fishes diligently with as "live" food as possible from ocean. Such as live clams, fish egg etc. Not only do they provide lots of nutrients, they also contain lots of different bacteria which may help fishes with their immune system. 

 

[JiaEn]

Also,  chloroquine phosphate is quite effective for ich treatment,  provided you can get the fishes to eat medicated pellets

[Kingkk]

I had ich problem to my fish during start of my tank.. I fed Dr. Bassleer garlic pellets regularly and added some garlic juice too in pellets, introduced doctor wrasse, it Helped a bit removing the unwanted parasites and survived in my tank for almost a year and one fine day got stuck in wavemaker. Other thing I did was kept water temp at 26.5-27.5 for almost few months with LPS. Water changes 15% every 10 days to 2 weeks

None of the fish died of ich.. and never got any ich. Some times it’s better to start over, quarantine ur fish.

Now I have different kind of cleaner wrasse for almost a year, got it as baby 1/2 inch, always stays inside rocks or gazes on glass.. unlike doctor wrasse who moves all over the tank and does home service .. lol....this has its own SPA.. everyday morning most of the fish go to it’s location to get cleaned.. lol ...very interesting to see.







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[Indeco]

The best way to deal with ich is to feed alot more and feed healthy. Once the fish is acclimated fully(>6 mths) then it will have resistant to combat ich outbreak.

Water stability is another major point. Having stable water is better than chase number. Even at 50ppm nitrate most fish and coral can strive after they adjusted.

[soggycookies]

If you are battling an ich issue in your system but aren’t willing to treat to completely get rid of the parasite(I.e remove all fish and treat in copper in QT and leave the tank without fish for 8weeks), not adding any new fish in addition to feeding well and keeping up with good water quality through water changes etc will eventually help your existing fish build up a resistance and eventually an immunity for the ones that do survive.

The annoying thing about knowing you still have ich in your tank is that adding new fish or coral will always be a hit or miss and sometimes addition of new livestock will cause another outbreak due to the new or current fish being stressed and their immune systems compromised.


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