Help with pH

[Swiftler]

Last weekend I purchased a powder blue and low and behold two days after introduction it came down with ich. I began treating the tank with Chem Marin stop parasites yesterday. The directions warn about a drop of pH after each treatment. So far my pH has dropped to about 7.8. Since I have calcium carbonate sand in the tank, that should help buffer the pH correct? Or should I get an additional buffer. So far all fish and all corals except the toadstool seem to be doing fine. The spots on the powder blue are all gone for what I can see.

From now on quarantine, quarantine, quarantine.

 

[Flreefer]

Yeah, the powder tangs are notorious for ich. Your substrate should help buffer the PH, but you will probably need another buffer to bring levels back to where they need to be.
Good luck with the tang!

 

[Swiftler]

Stupid tangs.... but they are so beautiful.

What pH buffer would you recommend?

 

[Swiftler]

Here he is prior to treatment.

 

[Flreefer]

I use Seachem Reef buffer. Can't overshoot 8.4, and slightly raises Alk too.

 

[Flreefer]

Beautiful fish, hope you get him straightened out. Best of luck Swiftler.

 

[Crabs]

Aren't Cleaner Shrimp a good alternative to chemicals when dealing with Ich or is that a myth? Came across this thread and was wondering if Cleaners really work.

 

[MikeYQM]

Cleaners (shrimp or wrasse) aren't really that effective. Not much is except copper & hypo in a quarantine tank.

Ich has 4 stages of life I believe, lasting 4-6 weeks and only one of which presents visibly. Many people try various treatments and see the ich disappear thinking they've cured it. All those "ich came back" posts you see are really ich that never went away; just left the visible stage.

If your fish is strong & otherwise healthy, the ich can come & go on its own. If its present in one fish, it's present in all fish so they all need to be treated outside the tank.

One positive note: unless a new strain of ich is added to your tank, the ich cycle will end in about 11 months & be unable to reproduce. BUT treat it. Imagine you had a full body rash 24/7 for 11 months - you'd be going nuts. In that time, if anything else pops up like stress, water quality problems or another disease, it'll probably kill the fish.

 

[tonedogz]

Just an add on you have to keep the main tank without fish for 6 weeks to insure the ich has die they can't live without a host fish also cleaner shrinp won't work because the parasite is actually under the fishes skin and can't be gotten to by the shrimp

 

[MikeYQM]

If Im not mistaken, the white spots aren't parasites themselves, they are cysts which drop off the fish & hatch into new parasites releasing ich into the water column in search of a new host.

 

[Reefer 22]

If Im not mistaken, the white spots aren't parasites themselves, they are cysts which drop off the fish & hatch into new parasites releasing ich into the water column in search of a new host.

He is 100% right about that but I was tolled that they drop in the sand and hatch so do some moving of the sand.that helped me a bit. That way they dont come back as strong. Ps amazing fish and good luck with it

 

[Reefer 22]

Just an add on you have to keep the main tank without fish for 6 weeks to insure the ich has die they can't live without a host fish also cleaner shrinp won't work because the parasite is actually under the fishes skin and can't be gotten to by the shrimp

He is also right but once the fish are out of the tank drop the temp down to as low as you can go with out killing any coral or inverts that should also help.

 

[Reefer 22]

Aren't Cleaner Shrimp a good alternative to chemicals when dealing with Ich or is that a myth? Came across this thread and was wondering if Cleaners really work.

They don't work at all so that is just a myth

 

[Swiftler]

Well here's the update:
All the spots are gone and I'm still treating until Monday morning. According to what I've read the continued treatment after they have fallen off helps kill the cysts before attaching again. After treatment I'll do a 20% water change siphoning the sand slightly to also help suck up the little buggers. Hopefully it works. I had to add a buffer to raise the pH but other then that she's lookin a lot better.



Sorry for the horrible pic. She's fast. Had to take video and use a still from it

 

[Flreefer]

Powder Blue

Good job Swiftler!!
Hope your good luck continues, looks much better! That's a tough fish to keep happy.

 

[Reefer 22]

Nice job she looks good but make sure that you are positive that it is gone be for you put it back in the main tank but good luck with the fish.