View Full Version : Hyposalinity & ick Help?
Hi Everyone
I'am new to your site and looking for some help.I have a 10 month old 120g DT with fish only now. I removed my corals & inverts to a smaller tank.I started doing hypo on my 120 because of a bad ick attack.I choose to to do hypo on the 120 because i don,t have enough QT space.The fish are large and i don,t think they would get along in smaller QT tanks.
Sailfin Tang (attitude)
Sohal Tang
Yellow Tang
Hippo Tang
2 occelaris clowns
Coral Beauty
Manderine Goby
I started doing hypo on Jan.7 here's my steps. (Using a refractometer)
Jan.7 1.024 All the tangs had ick when i started
Jan.8 1.020
Jan.9 1.016 All fish eat well & i do use garlic (Temp 82)
Jan.11 1.013.5
Jan.12 1.010
I held it 1.010 steady, on Jan.20 no visable spots on any of the fish so i
started my 4 week count to be safe.On Feb.10 i noticed my hippo tang was covered and my coral beauty had a few spots. The tank is still at 1.010.
Does anybody have any suggestions.:help:
Ace25
02-15-2008, 10:38 AM
Freshwater dip? Reef safe Ick medication?
Fresh water dip might help temporarily but i would like to try and get rid of ick in my tank all together.Do you know of any good meds. that actaully worked.
Reefscape
02-15-2008, 10:51 AM
What else is in the display tank? live rock? sandbed??
There is 100 lbs of base rock and 1 1/2 of i think it's called argonite.
Reefscape
02-15-2008, 11:03 AM
Is there no actual live rock in the system then?
I removed a bunch of the live rock to the qt tank that took on any growth of corals and feather duster.I left the rest to support bioload if i had to treat with meds.The rest had coraline on it, and yes i no some small stuff may have been left behind in the rock. I didn't have a lot of corals yet but i want to rid my dt of ick and qt all corals and fish from now on.I Think i got ick bring in corals or shrimp in because the tank was ick freefor about 6 months.I did qt fish as i got them but not corals. I was told you didn,t need to
but obviousely bad advice.Transported in the water or eggs on the rock the corals attached to.
Reefscape
02-15-2008, 11:38 AM
If you use medication in your display tank, then the possibility is that you will kill off any life that is already spawning on the base rock and substrate. My advice would normally be to do a meth blue dip on each fish, and reset your Ich counter and monitor for another 21 days at hypo salinity. However, as your using the display to treat for Ich, then it rules out the meth blue...Which then leaves you only with the option of doing another freshwater dip.
You are constantly going to be having a battle with this, in all reality, as i guarantee you that there will be now Ich parasites living in the base rock and sand..The only solution to rid your display tank of Ich, effectivly, is to leave this tank to go fallow for 6 - 8 weeks...
Just an opinion of course..
Ace25
02-15-2008, 11:44 AM
Hmmm, so this wont work in a reef setup? About a dozen LFS in my area all recommend this product and say it is reef safe. Are they all wrong?
http://images.marinedepot.com/IMD/250/RR1111/RR1111_99.jpg
Reef Safe Kick-Ich is a water treatment for the control of ich (a.k.a. "whitespot disease") in marine and freshwater aquaria. It has been scientifically formulated to eliminate the free swimming, infectious stage of the ich life cycle while being safe for all freshwater and marine aquaria. Kick-Ich has a long shelf life at room temperature and is supplied in easy to use, self-dosing bottles. Safe for all fish, corals, invertebrates and macro algae, as well as the facultative anaerobes and nitrifying bacteria essential to biologic filtration.
Two-week treatment
1 liter bottle will treate up to a 75 gallon tank for two weeks
Thank You for your advice but i really didn't what to hear that. I has hoping there was something else to try or something i was doing wrong because you read everywhere how great hypo works even on the well known websites. Alot of work and another failure for the hypo treatment in my opinion for anyone searching it didn't work for me.If people use this method for QT i wouldn't be to comfortable with it. I did use copper during my fish QT period and it seemed to work OK.
Sorry that responce for reefscape
Grins
02-15-2008, 12:57 PM
I used copper to treat ich in a hospital tank but I'd not use it in a display tank. It is also not recommended with some of the fish you have.
As for the "reef safe" cures. There is much debate over them, I've chosen to not trust them.
Well, from personal experience that stuff I posted worked for me and my neighbor. I only had to use it once many years ago but my neighbor just had to use it a couple weeks ago and no ill side effects in his 75G reef tank. Not saying that means it is safe and will work for everyone.. just my 2 experiences has been good with that product.
Understood but I know of people that used it and it harmed the tank. With such opposing experiences I personally choose to err on the side of caution.
That is always the safe bet for sure.. like me with Instant Ocean salt.. wont every touch it again from all the bad experiences people had with it in the past. ;)
Has anyone ever heard of meds. made by Poly Lab. I heard about it from a LFS he says that it works great and is reef freindly.It's called medic its made in canada and they have a web site for there products.
Grins the people you new that had bad experience with kick ick what happend.
Inverts died..both sessile and motile.
What about my situation with no inverts or corals in the tank.Do you think it would work for me and does it actually kill the ick.
Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I know, there is no way to 100% rid your tank of ick. That's what has always been told to me. Now, fish like a Hippo Tang are very sketchy/stressful fish to begin with and that is reason they are usually the first fish to show signs of Ick. But the reason it got ick is usually because something in the water is out of wack and causing unneeded stress on the fish.
My understanding is that you can rid your tank of it 100%. It can't get the parasite if it isn't in the tank whether stressed or not.
What about my situation with no inverts or corals in the tank.Do you think it would work for me and does it actually kill the ick.
That includes the beneficial life in your rock and sand. As for whether it works, I'll leave that for someone that trusts it.
ya, that was something I heard from a couple LFSs and also after reading the Kick Ick bottle, it seemed to indicated that as well with its statement: "It has been scientifically formulated to eliminate the free swimming, infectious stage of the ich life cycle". To me, that sounds like it wont kill Ick in its non free swimming, non infectious stage.
Which would be a major flaw in it's use.
yes, I agree. Sucks that you have to wait until you have a problem arise before the medicine works.. obviously would be much better to make sure the tank is Ick free to begin with.
You can. By using proper QT procedures.
Does that apply to everything though.. frags you get from members of your reef club.. a new mushroom rock.. etc. Seems it should as ick can and will live anyplace in a tank. I don't often see people preaching about corals going into a QT like I do fish.
Depends where you look. You'll find quite a bit of people preaching about qting to prevent not only ich but redbugs, nudibranches, etc.
I do agree, even though I have never done it myself, that QT is a very important step that no one should do without. I don't want anyone thinking I am trying to encourage people to not use a QT setup just because I have been lucky.
I wish i got the speach about QT corals and inverts i wouldn't be in this mess.I do appreciate everybodies ideas and opinions.
mcsassy
02-21-2008, 8:21 PM
good luck. i'm currently in a similar boat as you are...i have been keeping the ich at bay the natural way, feeding my fish, keeping them healthy and they have been fighting the ich...well the only one to have it was the blue tang anyways and it seems all gone now...with the help of cleaners and a very healthy diet they can have a strong immune system and over power the ich...my theory is that once the fish are too strong for the ich to host onto them, then they will die from the lack of a nutritional source (aka host)
Interesting theory...goes against what most marine biologists say.
mcsassy
02-21-2008, 10:07 PM
Interesting theory...goes against what most marine biologists say.
I'm making history with my radical thinking here.
Well still no luck in my treatment with hypo. My yellow tang is coverd.I checked the calibation on my refractometer it was fine . I started treatment with a product called medic basically it is crystalized peroxide salt.I did lots of research and it seemed to be used for parasite treatment in fish hatcheries.http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/368/step-by-step-guide-to-a-marine-water-parasite-prevention-plan-ppp
Batmanjay28
02-23-2008, 12:28 PM
I had an ich out break about a month ago. The funny thing was that only two of my fish showed signs of the infection. I then bought this product called IchAttack and my ich was gone in 2 weeks. The product was completely reef safe too, my corals and inverts did great. Though, I do not completely trust this med and I'm going to QT all my fish for 6 weeks and let my reef tank go without any fish.
I'm also doing this because I'm upgrading from a 55G reef to a 90G reef and when I start adding tangs and bigger fish into the loop of things, I don't want a giant infestation of ich in my DT. I would try and QT if I was you, it seems like the best way to go as where you stand.
By the way Grins, thanks for turning me on to QT. Your probably going to save me $$$ in fish! One question for Grins though, will my maroon clown freak out when I take him away from his nem? 6 weeks without your wife, that's a long time.
BadRoma1
02-23-2008, 12:34 PM
please let us know how that worked for you. once again, my choice of treatment would be Sano Broad Spectrum Reef Tank Remedie, but to each his or her own. and everybody needs to stop recomending fresh water dips. it does more harm than good.
By the way Grins, thanks for turning me on to QT. Your probably going to save me $$$ in fish! One question for Grins though, will my maroon clown freak out when I take him away from his nem? 6 weeks without your wife, that's a long time.
He might pout but he'll not keel over from a broken heart.
and everybody needs to stop recomending fresh water dips. it does more harm than good.
Well, when I see a bad experience with it I may think of not recommending it for certain things, but having seen it done about a dozen times now with 100% success I think I will trust my own eyes on that one.
It is definately not a cure all for anything, but it is a helpful step to the healing process in some fish problems.
BadRoma1
02-23-2008, 10:31 PM
Dip or not to dip? i say Ney to FW dipping.
Grins
02-23-2008, 10:42 PM
I have FW dipped zoas but that is it.
Amphiprion
02-23-2008, 10:56 PM
FW dips are sort of a last resort, IME. When it comes to ich, it really isn't effective enough to really make that big of a difference. The parasites actually use the fishes' osmotic protective "machinery" to their own advantage when buried beneath the skin.
Grins
02-23-2008, 11:09 PM
I'd agree with that when it comes to ich. There are methods that will have better results in my opinion and it would be wise to use those first.