Completely rid my tank of ich!

[begginersluck]

As it says in the heading I was to completely rid my tank of ich. I plan on QT'ing and hypo and in the long term QT'ing everything before it goes in the display.

I'd like to see people options on which of the following methods would be more effective and also quicker.

Method 1:

Remove all fish and place them in a 180 litre QT. the QT is set up right next to my saltwater mixing station so water changes will be a walk in the park. No excuses. I will lower the salinity to 1.009 for 2 weeks and leave the display tank fish less for 8 weeks. Seems simple enough.

Method 2:

Remove all coral and inverts leaving the tank as a FOWLR and lowering the salinity in the main tank to 1.009. Place the coral and others in the QT or even sell them as I don't have much coral and inverts anyway. This seems easier as I won't have to catch all the fish. However will this affect my live rock? Will it still act as filtration during hypo and will it kill the ich in the 2 week hypo course? The difficult bit to this method is water changes as its 400 litres total and I would have to lump around a lot of water to make decent water changes if the the live rock stops performing. Also I don't want to kill my live rock and have to cure it again. Especially with fish in the tank.

 

[Mebbid]

There is a lot of fauna on the live rock aside from the BB. I would assume there would be quite a bit of die off and resulting ammonia production from lowering the salinity in the DT.

It's a bit more lengthy but leaving your DT fallow will for sure solve any ich issues and you wont have to worry about die off.

 

[begginersluck]

Ok so assuming I QT all my fish and allow the DT to go fallow how would hypo affect an external filter? I have a really good eheim external which is cycled and I plan on running it on the QT. if lowering the salinity will kill the BB I can easily perform daily/2 days water changes for 2 weeks.

Just to touch on hypo how long is best to kill the parasite as I keep going on about 2 weeks but want to make sure this is the right length of time. I've heard some people say stop when there are no visible signs of white spot?

 

[Mebbid]

I did my hypo for ich for 4 weeks. That seems to be more than long enough to account for any stray ich that might be found in the gills that can't he seen. BB shouldn't die because of hyposalinity either, bacteria isn't nearly that fragile.

 

[begginersluck]

So keep the filter running?

 

[TheTodd]

You can keep the filter going.

You want your DT fallow for 8 weeks. That should take care of whatever is in there. In QT, treat until the spots are gone. I think four weeks is good most of the time. With time spend slowly lowering the salinity and bringing it back up slowly, you are usually looking at about eight weeks for that as well.

 

[begginersluck]

Belated reply but I've decided to go with Todds idea and go for the 8 week fish less tank!

I took advantage of stripping down my tank to catch all the fish and came up with a new aqua scape. This took hours!

I'm a week and a half into the process and have a 180 litre Juwel set up in my garage next to the water mixing station to make things easier for daily water changes. I've been keeping on top of my changes however there is always slight sign of ammonia which I'm trying to rid. I have no filtration set up as I decided to do this immediately. Il post a couple of pics of the QT set up tomorrow.

One question tho...

If I'm doing hypo in my QT then I can't QT inverts. Should I just put them straight into the DT or is this not a good idea until the 8 weeks is up? I may be able to set up another small QT for hermits and snails but how long should I QT them before putting them in my QT?

 

[TheTodd]

The inverts do not host things like Ich, so if they are in QT, they can go back in the DT. My only concern would be that there could be an Ich parasite in the water in their shell or something like that. They could have just stayed in the DT through the fallow process.

Glad to hear its going good though! Keep us posted...

 

[begginersluck]

The inverts do not host things like Ich, so if they are in QT, they can go back in the DT. My only concern would be that there could be an Ich parasite in the water in their shell or something like that. They could have just stayed in the DT through the fallow process.

Glad to hear its going good though! Keep us posted...

Thanks Todd yes things are going well so far. Water changes are a bit of a hassle on the QT though but I'm keeping on top of them.

The critters carrying ich is exactly what I'm worried about. Like I said I should be able to access a small tank to QT them before putting them in my DT. Question is how long and should I wait until fallow?

 

[Mebbid]

I found this on Reef Central posted by Snorvich

What this means for Cryptocaryon irritans is that leaving a tank fallow for 3 weeks will give you a 68% chance that you have eradicated the parasite, leaving a tank fallow for 6 weeks will give you a 95% chance of eradication, but if you want 99.7% chance, you will leave the tank fallow for 9 weeks. That is the reason you see different numbers being used on Reef Central and in the literature.

Any inverts or coral can stay in the tank. It's just the fish that have to be removed from the tank. So if you are a gambling man 3 weeks could work for you. Personally, I went with a 6 week fallow period and am crossing my fingers right now hoping its done and over with.

 

[begginersluck]

I found this on Reef Central posted by Snorvich

What this means for Cryptocaryon irritans is that leaving a tank fallow for 3 weeks will give you a 68% chance that you have eradicated the parasite, leaving a tank fallow for 6 weeks will give you a 95% chance of eradication, but if you want 99.7% chance, you will leave the tank fallow for 9 weeks. That is the reason you see different numbers being used on Reef Central and in the literature.

Any inverts or coral can stay in the tank. It's just the fish that have to be removed from the tank. So if you are a gambling man 3 weeks could work for you. Personally, I went with a 6 week fallow period and am crossing my fingers right now hoping its done and over with.

Hi Mebbid I understand I need to leave my tank for at least 6 weeks, il probably do 8 to be extra careful but what Im not too sure about is whether I can add to my cuc during those 6-8 weeks and if I do should I QT the crabs and snails etc for a couple of weeks first?

 

[Mebbid]

Ahh, I gotcha. It depends on personal feelings about QTing inverts. Some people QT EVERYTHING while others just QT the fish.

I am personally starting to adopt the idea to QT everything but that being said there are very few instances where something can travel in on your inverts.

 

[begginersluck]

Yeah I am too as I lost a bunch of fish a few months ago and want to make sure I have a healthy aquarium going forward.

I've just been reading they some people QT inverts including crabs and snails for 8 weeks to make sure they don't introduce ich. I might start looking for a supplier that QT's their livestock and knows everything is ich free.

I've also been reading that some people QT all new fish for 2 or 3 months. This is why people say take marine nice and slow lol

 

[begginersluck]

Update.

One of the reasons for the fallow idea and hypo on the new fish was so that I could keep my favourite fish of all, the Powder Blue Tang.

Here he is just before I start the hypo. I matched the salinity to what the supplier kept their fish at so when it arrived it wouldn't have stress from any salinity change. I also tested the salinity of the water he was in before putting him into the QT.

So now they're all in its time to lower the salinity. I'm currently down to 1.016 and tomorrow il move it down a further 3 notches and so on daily.

 

[Mebbid]

Yeah I am too as I lost a bunch of fish a few months ago and want to make sure I have a healthy aquarium going forward.

I've just been reading they some people QT inverts including crabs and snails for 8 weeks to make sure they don't introduce ich. I might start looking for a supplier that QT's their livestock and knows everything is ich free.

I've also been reading that some people QT all new fish for 2 or 3 months. This is why people say take marine nice and slow lol

With fish 30 days should be sufficient to tell if there is ich or not. It will spread enough to be noticeable.

For inverts tho.. I am just not sure.

 

[melosu58]

Some good info on the parasite

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: A Quarantine Tank for Everything by Steven Pro

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part II by Steven Pro

 

[begginersluck]

Some good info on the parasite

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: A Quarantine Tank for Everything by Steven Pro

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part II by Steven Pro

Thanks Melosu I've seen these a few times already but it doesn't cover a couple of things.

I've just added a couple of pieces of live rock to try and help with filtration. I'm dreading my water bill as we're on metered water!

 

[TheTodd]

I have not dealt much with inverts, but since they do not host stuff like Ich, I would think that not QTing would be okay. There is that chance that there are parasites in the water that is on them or in shells, so there is a possibility of them carrying something in. It just seems like a very remote chance to me.

 

[Mebbid]

I have not dealt much with inverts, but since they do not host stuff like Ich, I would think that not QTing would be okay. There is that chance that there are parasites in the water that is on them or in shells, so there is a possibility of them carrying something in. It just seems like a very remote chance to me.

yeah, but even a remote chance can end very badly.

 

[TheTodd]

yeah, but even a remote chance can end very badly.

True. I guess if you QT inverts, you do so in a tank with no fish? If there are fish, there are hosts. If the inverts are coming from an LFS from a tank with no fish, I would think the odds of them carrying anything is slim. QT could not hurt and eliminates those slim chances, I guess.