Help= I'm on the fence about what to do about Ich

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

Hey ,

Gotta outbreak of Ich starting in my 37 gal.? Only added snails and crabs lately, not sure if my month old Flame brought it in, but I have white spots on my Flame, and a Cardinal and a chromis.
I have read my eyeballs out and believe I have the best method for me to treat. I am prepared to do the hyposalinity treatment and went to the LFS to get a batch of SW to do the water fill my QT ( 1/2 old tank water ,1/2 new water) . The fish store tells me that a cleaner shrimp will take care of the couple fish showing signs, I have read some info saying this is not true. Not much info using search button on cleaner shrimps and their function, is this a possibility? The fish are behaving mostly normal , Flame is flashing a bit.

Q: Will cleaner shrimp do any good at this point?

Q: can I use good city tap water to fill QT and do my daily PWC's, RO is so difficult to haul back and forth to do that many PWC's?

Q: leave cycled LR piece in QT to control amonia?, I have a small sponge in main tank to move over to QT so will that be enough?

Thanks ,

 

[melosu58]

The cleaner shrimp will help in the main but not near enough. Treatment is the only sure thing. Dont have the shrimp in the QT as hypo will kill it.

I`m not an advocate of tap water but I really dont see why you cant in a QT for fish only. PWC and top off should be OK. If you were QT corals for addition to your tank I would say no but for fish with ick I really dont see why not.

I personally would not leave any LR in the QT. Any life that is hidden in the rock will probably not survive the hypo. If you are talking daily PWC`s which I saw on this thread that should be enough along with the sponge you were talking about. I hope all goes well.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

1. Cleaner shrimp won't cure the problem. Debatable if they even do any real help.

2. While I agree with melosu that tap water probably wouldn't be a problem, I'd still advise against it if at all possible. You want to give the fish as pristine as conditions as possible.

3. No live rock - for the reasons melosu mentioned, plus anything dieing off from the live rock will just add to the bioload.

 

[melosu58]

I can live with Kurt`s answer as far as the tap water. As I said I`m not a tap person but I just thought it would not matter that much but I was going on your statement that your water was "good". Here is a good link BTW on tap water.

Chemistry and the Aquarium

 

[JoshsReef]

If the outbreak is not the bad and you keep your water conditions in the main pristine along with keep your fishes bellies full with food soaked in garlic and selcon you could go without having to go through the hypo. I know a lot of people on this site will disagree with me but I had a mild outbreak early on in my system that is now 18 months old and after about two weeks I have not seen a spot show up or have i lost any fish since the beg. I lost a sixline within the first couple weeks of my system being up however my yellow tang, hippo tang, and 2 clowns are still with me 18 months down the road without ever having another sign of ick in my tank. Just a thought, good paramaters are enriched food can do wonders .

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

Alright, built QT tank with all 10 gallons from main tank, moved all fish in. Put sponge from PF from main in QT, have light timer set for 10 hours a day, w/ 32watt PC I just got last week for this QT tank purpose.

I will step down the salinity over 3 days, brought it down to 1.021 from 1.023 tonight, will drop several hundredth each day until desired level.

Q:I will assume my PWC should be enough to keep ammonia down what ever that amount is or is 50% daily the number to use? Seems like 50% is a lot of stress on the fish? If 25% will control ammonia could I use that amount?


Thanks for you replies, as you can see I decided to do the QT route, good practice using the tank, since I just got the light for it anyways, a bit too late to prevent Ich, but hopefully I will come out more knowledgeable at the end.

 

[melosu58]

I`d almost think 25% every other day would be good. Just keep testing and if you see it getting high then go to everyday. Your test kit will be the key.

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

Great, I'll test daily for ammonia. I am not planning to test for anything else, there really isn't a need is there? , surely PH will be stable with that frequent of a PWC, and can't see how nitrates or nitrites can be in the picture.

O!, what about activated carbon, like seagel?, any use in my QT in a power filer to keep pollutants down?

Thanks,

BTW: I'm really building my fish education in a hurry , seems like I have had a lifetime of obstacles in the past few months, I just may be qualified to open my own fish store real soon Certainly not been a boring hobby to say the least.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

No... pH may not be stable. Because the salt water will be so diluted, you won't have much buffer to keep things stable. When I did hypo, I had to add buffer on occasion. You might not have a problem, but don't assume it'll be OK. I'd probably test for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and pH... but I'm kind of test happy.

Also, just a heads up because it surprised me... when you're at 1.009 and doing your water tests, don't be surprised when you see colors show up that you've never seen before. If you have a test like API that has separate freshwater and saltwater color charts, you're going to have to kind of use both of them to guesstimate your reading. The colors will be somewhere between the two color charts because 1.009 saltwater really isn't "saltwater" and it's not "freshwater". I found this for both ammonia and pH. Makes sense after you think about it, but it totally blindsided me.

 

[2nicewitit]

just because i'm a newbie, what exactly is a hypo? and is there a safe way to treat the entire tank for ich? Is there any recommended product that anyone has had success with? And i heard that there are products that you can use regulary to prevent ich in your media, are there any recomendations?

 

[cmor1701d]

Hyposalinity.

When I did hypo I did 2 pwc every day for the first week to keep ammonia levels low. Then the filter starting kicking in and dropped to a single pwc every day and for another week, then every other, etc. Checking your water parameters is the only way to go, but more PWC's don't hurt.

Take Kurt's advice on the water test colors. It's a bit tough to tell on pH.

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

just because i'm a newbie, what exactly is a hypo? and is there a safe way to treat the entire tank for ich? Is there any recommended product that anyone has had success with? And i heard that there are products that you can use regulary to prevent ich in your media, are there any recomendations?

Hypo salinity treatment is a QT tank with low salt solution, SG at 1.009 for 4 weeks or more to rid the parasite from the fish. It must be done in QT tank, and the main tank left fishless for the full QT period to rid the tank of Ich.
I used a 10 gallon tank with a powerfilter and air stone and heater. I put purigan in the powerfilter and lowered the salt down over a 7 day period.I do water changes of 5 gallons each day with water made the night before in a bucket with a powerhead and heater. I refill the tank over a 30 minute period and then make tomorrows water. It takes 270 grams of salt to 5 gallons of water to get 1.009. I use 1/4 tsp of PH buffer and dechloroinator ,let it sit in the bucket until needed the next day.
No other absolute method for removing Ich from tank and fish that I am aware of. Hope that helps answer your question.
joe

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

No other absolute method for removing Ich from tank and fish that I am aware of. ...

Copper based meds will definitely work also. But in my opinion, it's more stressful on the fish and harder to dose. Hypo may be a pain, but it's pretty simple.

 

[joeyfromlawrenceville]

Copper based meds will definitely work also. But in my opinion, it's more stressful on the fish and harder to dose. Hypo may be a pain, but it's pretty simple.

Oops, Kurt is right about copper, I forgot about that. i decided to go with Hypo, all to do over again ......I don't know. Hypo has been pretty easy , but, very time consuming. the reason you guys haven't seen me around here lately on AA is because I've been downstairs doing water changes every night. My main tank has been fishless since Dec7th , Ich has been gone since Dec 17 ( I think) and I figure I'm still 2 weeks out from putting them back in the main. Lots of salt and time invested in the treatment, but fish have seemed happy all along, I think they have bonded and are life long friends now.
Joey