About ready to give up because of ICH

[oceandelight]

This is the 3rd time the tank has had ich. I am so sick of it. the fish were out of the main for 7 and a half weeks they were put in QT and treated with cupermine and were ich free living in the qt for at least a month we finally put the fish back in the main and now with in 3 days I see 3 little spots on my tang. I don’t get it and I don’t know what to do I don’t want to take them out of the main again it is such a pain to take out all the live rock in a 150 gallon tank to catch the fish. Is it possible to just leave them in the main and feed them lots of vitamins and hope that they beat it off themself. I have been putting zoe, zoe con, garlic and vitamin C on there food. Any thoughts? the only thing i can think that could be triggering it is that since we live in FL during the day the temp in the tank goes up to like 83 and at night it will cool down to 81 is that too much of a temp fluctuation? i don't really have the money to buy a chiller but maybe that is what i need to do?

[Hara]

that is not too much of a temperature fluctuation.

[neilster1]

4 weeks isn't enough fallow time to get rid of Ich.. 6-8 weeks with no fish in the main tank is the common wisdom for Ich.

[peterac]

What about a UV sterilizer?

[melosu58]

A UV will only kill the free swimming parasite that goes up into the chamber. It will help but will not completely solve the problem. Something is stressing your fish also that is causing this. Have you done water checks lately.

[cmor1701d]

You can beat it before it beats you, but yes you need to go through the pain again.

You should try a Hyposalinity treatment in QT for all the fish and leave the main tank fallow of fish for 8 weeks. I did this in my 125 and have not had an outbreak since. Yes removing the rock so you can catch the fish is a major pain, but it's also a great opportunity to re-aquascape.

As you are catching this early Hypo is the better treatment. Just be sure to use a refractometer to check your SG. I used a 30gal tank with a HOB biowheel filter for my QT. The fish can tolerate the nitrates that are generated. I put the filter and biowheel in my sump for a few days to build up some bacteria. During that time I was filling the 30 gal with RO/DI water/mixing it and letting it settle for a couple of days.

[spinman]

My sympathies. Welcome to the Ich Masters Society. I'm on ich/hypo treatment No. 2 in less than 6 months. I used the Fish Corral to catch the fish and avoided any LR removal. The sad fact for me is every fish that showed signs of ich and removed to a QT never made it. All the work in catching them and placing them in the QT seemed for naught. I suppose once you see visible signs , the parasite is already ravaging the fish. It would be nice to just once go through this hypo and save a fish from the brink.

Take solace in knowing that proper hypo for > 6weeks and letting the main go fallow for the same amount of time will eradicate the ich forever. High temps, stress or Osama bin Laden cannot create ich out of thin air.

At least that's what they say

Spin

[ezy33]

Here is a local LFS owners take. IMO it works. Garlic Extreme 1 drop per gallon and add to the food. When the fish arrives to your home it's been moved several times so it's immunity is low. This allows the ick to get a hold and start it's cycle. The garlic will boost the immune system causing the ick to subside. Several fish I have put in my tank showed sings of ick after 2 or 3 days. I have not lost a fish to ick in the 10 months I have had my reef tank and I don't use a qt tank. Maybe I'm just lucky.

As for fresh water tanks turn the temperature as high as your fish can stand for 1 week and add aquarium salt 1 time at the start.