Well, Got Ich Again......Sigh

[revhtree]

Well got ich in the main again. Guess it could have been from the new lr or anything i guess. I qt, but must not have got it good. So back to the qt tonight. The reef will be taken down to get the fish out. I will keep you posted. :?

 

[quarryshark]

Awww crud. I feel for you.
Mine are just now going back in the main after a loooong treatment.
I would guess the rock or maybe corals that you added.
I'm very serious about this. I will not add a fish, snail, rock or grain of sand without using qt ever again. Not worth the work.
Try hypo this time. After using both copper and hypo, it seems to be easier on the fish and very effective.
Sorry buddy.

 

[austinsdad]

Rev, how's that new tang you recently got from liveaquaria? Is he in this awful mix too?

Q-shark - new rocks and coral can carry ich? Now I'm concerned. At at the stage now where I'm pretty well stocked with fish and adding rock and corals (attached to new rocks) evry couple of weeks.

 

[revhtree]

Hey Qshark thanks. How do you qt inverts and rock and thing qshark? How would you know they have ich or not, and how would you treat? Are you just going to use the hospilanity method from the get go to make sure? Ma, I got to do something too, this is killing me and driving my wife away from the hobby. We are almost convinced to give the fish away, and just have a invert, reef tank. I dont know if I can do that though. I cant qt corals, becuase they need the light. Man what to do for the future.........

 

[quarryshark]

Q-shark - new rocks and coral can carry ich? Now I'm concerned. At at the stage now where I'm pretty well stocked with fish and adding rock and corals (attached to new rocks) evry couple of weeks.

Well I purchased some LS on ebay and a month later I had ich in the tank. Its the only thing that could have brought it in. I had, 3 months before that treated all my fish for velvet. I know they were clean after a 8 week treatment and 3 months in the main
. When adding anything in the future, my plan is to place it in (rock for example) my 40 gallon qt tank for a month or so. This way any parasite that may come in will die off.
Rev, no need to treat snails or corals, just the isolation time would be enough to kill off the parasites without any hosts.
I know its somewhat remote to bring ich in this way, but it happened to me and its looks like it happened to Rev, so why take the chance. Only takes 1 tomont coming from another system or the ocean to infect a system. My theory anyway.
Rev, I understand. My wife pretty much hates the tank now.

 

[bound_for_obx]

I may be wrong, but I think that while live rock, corals, and substrates are not hosts, they can be carriers. During the life cycle of ick, ick cysts develop and fall off of the host (fish). These cysts go thru a dormant period until another host is found. If a host is found they can reproduce and infect that new host. If no host is found within a timely manner the cysts will eventually die. I think that the cysts can be carried from one tank to another on live rock, corals, and substrates. That is why the tank must go thru the fallow period. I kind of think of it as little ticking Ick time-bombs with expiration dates.

 

[revhtree]

Well from now on I will only buy coral from a coral only tank, no fish. I will also qt the LR as well.

I just finished tearing my whole reef, and 155pds of LR down to get all the fish out. I virtually had to take out all the lr, because I have an engineer goby in there. The enigineer goby will be headed back to the lfs after qt.

Got the aquascape set back up, but I really dont like it to well. I'll rest and maybe tomorrow I will adjust them more. Looks like all the coral did good, and the fish seem to be fine as well.

I am very tired now. Glad it is over with. Only 6 weeks left, and I can put my fishy back. Oh Joy. :|

 

[quarryshark]

I feel your pain. I NEVER want to go through that again.
Get some rest. :|

 

[srgetz]

Try hypo this time. After using both copper and hypo, it seems to be easier on the fish and very effective.

Agree! This is due to no copper hurting the fish's immune system + no ammonia - hypo allows a bio-filter to pretty much stay in tact...you can even throw a few hunks of lr in there! I am going to start demanding inverts from systems without fish. This is tough as some places use one large system for all tanks. Hope all goes well for you...

 

[clowninround]

Wow, you know, I just got a new coral that came out of a tank that had fish in it. You would think after my expeirence with brooklynella I would know better. I think I need to be more careful in the future, I am sorry Rev, I feel your pain.

 

[revhtree]

Well, I started the copper. I don't have a refractometer, or the time to learn how, or take the time for hypo. I will be prepred if it happens again. Thanks for feeling my pain all.

 

[quarryshark]

You can borrow my refractometer, I'm done with it for now. If you change you mind let me know. I could UPS it to you tomorrow.

 

[melosu58]

Do you use a UV light in your tank? They are good for getting rid of Ich. once you get your tank going if you are not using one make sure you do. If you do have one you might need a new light in it. These are very useful in combating ich

 

[revhtree]

Ok Update: The fish have been in qt for 17days now. I did a water change Saturday to start removing the cupramine. Since they are going to be in there at least another 4 weeks. I was wondering if I could wait a week, and try the hypo method. The fish show no signs of ich, but I could do this just to make sure. Yes or No??

PS. I know nothing about hypo. How long does it take?

 

[quarryshark]

Hypo should be maintained for 4 weeks. If they look clean I wouldn't bother, but thats just my opinion. 4 weeks in plenty of time to see if they stay clean.
If you decide to, let me know. I can ship you my refractometer, don't need it right now.

 

[revhtree]

Thanks Kurt for the info and the offer to use your refometer (my new word).

I am going to go ahead and buy one today. I have a 24.99 credit at liveaquaria, and they have one on sale for 42.99. What do you think of this brand?
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=9957&N=2004+113410

Thanks!

 

[quarryshark]

It looks like mine. If it's the same one, works great.
Good luck!!

 

[blorkiemom]

I'm not QS but I've got one of those and I love it. So easy to use! Just have some distilled water on hand for calibration--mine has stayed spot on for several months. (I check it every now and then.)

Can I hitch here and ask a couple of questions about QTing non-fish?

~if the LFS has the corals/inverts in a tank with no fish (and it's not plumbed into a system that includes fish), would you still QT? How long--4 weeks? 6?

~I've got a 20g QT with just plain ol' NO lights. Would I have to invest in more PC lights to QT the corals? (I've got PCs for the display, so anything I buy wouldn't need more light than that.) I don't want to take shortcuts, but shelling out another $200 for QT lights would just about make my head explode right now. Or would they survive, if not thrive, for 4-6 weeks with low light?

 

[quarryshark]

IMO, I would and will qt everything, even non fish. After bringing ich into my system from some live sand that was in someone else's system I have become a little paranoid. Again just my opinion, your mileage may vary.
As for the corals, I'll defer to the good rev. I'm a fish and invert guy.

 

[blorkiemom]

Yeah, after reading about all the scary things that can hitchhike in (and as I'm currently battling an unknown fungus in my FW tank thanks to a lack of QT, bad me), I tend to agree. My worry is just those corals--I don't want to kill them before they make it into my dispaly. (These are all hypothetical corals at this point, I should add. I haven't even started my research there yet!)