Please Help! First case of Ich!

by **Tien6079** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:50 am

I have had bad luck this week. I left this morning and my fish looked fine. By the time I got home they were covered in Ich! I am still new to saltwater so this is my first case, I did some research on ich before posting, but I wanted to get some of your input and experience. Here is my tank info:

-effectively 100 gallons after decor and sand
-nitrites low
-nitrates high (unfortunately the rock work in my aquarium traps waste. I cannot remove the rock. I do regular water changes, but I am going to have to do much more to keep up with my nitrate build up.)
-2 large canister filters totaling 160 gallons worth of filtration.
-2 Mono Sebae, 1 Powder brwn tang, 1 columbian cat, 1 (small) lion, 1 stone fish, 1 (small) spiney box puffer, 2 damsels.
-SG = 1.024

I made some mistakes that led to the ich. First, about 9 days ago I stressed the heck out of my fish when I went to net some that I traded in. It took me 45 min to net them. I introduced the tang which I understand is highly susceptable to ich. 3 days ago i accidentally knocked the knob on my heater causing a 5 degree drop in temp the next day. The temperature is now stable.

I can set up a 12 gal QT tank, but most of my fish are infected and I cannot put them all in the 12 gal. I have already done a 10 gal water change with fresh water to lower the salinity and will continue until the SG is 1.010. I have also raised the temp a little to fight off the ich.

Here are my questions for you?
Should I medicate the whole tank with copper (even with my porous rock background)?
Should I give the fish fresh water baths in addition to treating the main tank?
How high should I raise my temperature?
Should I buy a UV sterilizer?
Will copper and a UV sterilizer together completely kill my biological filtration?

Any info you guys can give me will be appreciated. I love the hobby and am not about to let all my fish die!

by **blueshoes2208** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 1:45 pm

well..... go to liveaquaria.com and they have forums on that kind of stuff at the bottom of their website, ive explained ich too much to regurgitatie it again. I woudlnt treat it with copper though, UV sterlizer will kill your much needed bacterias so we dont want that to happen, idk about fresh water baths, seems risky to me but ask some other people on raising the temp.

somebody put a permanent link on here on how to get rid of ich...

by **Deltasigpony3648** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:03 pm

well hypo salinity is one way and raising the temp with increase the life cycle of the parasites so the combination of the two should work well, garlic extracts work well in prevention, and during out break may make fish stronger. replenishing slim coats will help with secondary infections and deter from the parasite attaching again to the fish.

not with the nitrates the cause may be those canister filters you are using from my knowledge canister filters and bio balls are nitrate factories i would try a sum with a refugium which is a tested tried and true way of keeping a system stable it also adds water volume which is a huge plus.

by **fihsboy** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 4:30 am

a refuge is the easiest way in the world to keep your tank nice and stable. :)

by **puffedupseagull** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:22 am

all i ever do is dose crushed garlic everyday till ick is gone.have told this to many people on this site over my years, and have been thanked for helping them irradiate them from the tank. hope it helps.
no copper what so ever in display tank, and fwdips only stresses fish more,
keep them well fed and as stressed as little as possible

by **FordF150DRVR** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 9:58 pm

Copper running through my aquarium has been a plus in my book. Maybe you should try it!

by **puffedupseagull** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:21 pm

No --- If you have any Live rock, corals, invertebrate they will die. copper will even leech into the tanks silicon kill off your vital bacteria load, destroy everything.
Copper should only be used in a quarantine tank, under strict observation, with a test kit to carefully adjust the levels.
DO NOT USE COPPER IN A REEF ENVIRONMENT.

by **fihsboy** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 3:35 am

yeah its bad stuff like puff said. you will spend months if not years getting it out of your system, and it will also kill snails and other beneficial creatures. Copper is the last thing you want in your tank if you have any inverts at all. including anenomes.

by **Tien6079** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 2:06 pm

I do not have any inverts or corals and I do not ever plan on keeping any in this tank. Knowing that and after doing a ton of research I did add copper and garlic in addition to the measures I have taken in my first post. All of the ich has fallen off the fish and the fish seem very active and hungry. I will continue to watch the tank closely for the next month. I am also going to buy a prizm skimmer to help curb my nitrate problems before they start. I will keep you updated.

Please Help! First case of Ich!

9 posts