UV Question?

[evenings]

I have a percula clown who's had his share of parasites. Before I used to think that when I find him covered with white spots all over, then 2 hours later, the white spots are gone, that he was always getting cleaned by my cleaner shrimps. THen reading up more on "ich" I read that when the parasite mature, they fall off of the fish. Made me think that it is more likely that the parasites mature and fall than being picked off by the cleaner shrimps.

Now i obvioulsy have the "ich" in my tank, which have recently claimed the life of my Kole Tang.

Here's the question: How likely is the UV sterilizer that I ordered (due to come in next week) to help this "ich" situation? Will I see an improvement? Has anyone had any experience with UV sterilizers? and has it been helpful? Has it shown an improvement?

If u ask me about my water parameters, they have been consistently ok, if not near perfect. I've only had one low reading of ammonia which has been corrected by a water change.

I obviously can't treat my main tank as I have a considerable amount of inverts in them.

[revhtree]

Sorry to say but the sterilizer wont do much for the ich that is already in the tank. It will help out for any future ich some believe, after the tank becomes ichless. Your main tank will have to become fallow (fishless) for a period of 4 to 6 weeks, 6 weeks being better. The fish will have to be put in a qt and treated with a copperbased medicine, or hospilanity. The medicine must never be used in the main with lr, and inverts, and corals. Sorry for the bad news.

[revhtree]

PS. Cupramine works great! It did for me.

What size qt do you have? You have a good amount of fish in your main. Some great fish I might add.

[evenings]

have you heard about Kick-Ich, by ruby reef? They claim it has no copper in them? Is that safe to use? Does it even work?

No QT yet. but will have one soon. Can I treat all fish in QT at the same time?

[revhtree]

All fish need to be treated at the same time, therefore, you will need a big enough qt, or you going to have to do a heck of alot of water changes.

I have heard of kick-ich, I have not used it, but I have heard that it doesnt work. Anything that is weak enough not to harm your inverts, is not strong enough to kill ich. The main tank must remain fallow for 4to6 weeks.

I know I am in Georgia, but if you want to drive here and pick it up I have a 30g tank, stand, light, filter that you could use for your qt. It's not the biggest, but it's better than nothing.

PS. You really need a qt. With all those great, and expensive fish you have to be ready for something like this. I had the same thing happen, and thats when I bought my qt.

Here is an article on setting up a cheap qt. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showqu...q=2&fldAuto=17

HTH!

[evenings]

thanks a whole bunch revhtree... I am purchasing my qt today

[Fishboy-from-NY]

Kick ich sucks, I spent tons of money for several bottles to treat my 150 and ended up losing 3 of my favorites. It true for the 3 times I used Cupramine, It has been 100% sucessful.

[gibbiceps]

uv sterillizers wont work on the ich already on the fish but will prevent it from spreading.

[FishyMel]

I just set up my tank last month and started adding fish about 2 weeks ago. We broke with ich pretty quickly after getting the fish. The fish were ichless(or at least asymptomatic) when we purchased them and they broke with ich by the next day after acclimating. I ran out immediately and bought a UV sterilizer. 15 watts for a 150g tank that is hooked inline on the return plumbing. It worked very quickly. As the spots dropped off the fish very few new spots appeared. I now can see a spot here or there on the fish, but nothing like it was before the UV sterilizer. I think the UV is working to keep the ich at bay. I believe eventually, it will kill the ich but not overnight. If the fish is really sick it should be removed. If you just have a mild case because your ammonia temporarily spiked, I would ride the "ich wave" while running the UV sterilizer 24/7. I personally don't believe that you can have an ich-free system. I have been keeping fish for almost 12 years now, have always gotten an occasional bout of ich, not matter how careful I have been not to introduce it to me system. In my freshwater tanks, I keep low levels of copper in the water. In my salt systems, I try to go copper-free and have had no luck treating ich. I hope that the UV sterilizer is the answer. I personally have never had luck with qt.

[melosu58]

Whatever route you take to rid your tank of the ick, you definitely made a good choice in getting the UV for the future of your tank. I believe that tanks run better with a good UV. Good luck in the future.