Will a UV sterilizer help an ich problem????

[steri]

I have an ich problem thanks to my blue hepatus tang (ich magnets). I tried Stop Parasite once before (supposed to be Reef safe), and it killed my Xenia in 24 hours. I do use Garlic Extreme and like that, but the ich cycle seemst o keep coming back. I don't have a QT, so I was thinking of getting a UV sterilizer and seeing how that works with the use of Garlic Xtreme in my Rod's food that I use.

Does that sound like a good plan?

Anything I need to be worried about using a UV sterilizer. Any chance it could hurt any corals or anything like that?

I don't have a QT, so don't just tell me to get a QT. I don't have it. I want to know if the plan I have now will have any positive effects (Garlic Xtreme and a UV sterilizer) and what I need to watch out for.

[SushiChef]

UV isn't going to help your ich problem any. The cysts will just stick to your substrate until they hatch. If you have coral in your tank you can't dose or do hypo without removing your fish. Walmart has 10 gallon tanks for 5 bucks each, or rubbermaid containers work too. Stick in an airstone, filter and some loose PVC parts and your good to go. If you don't have it, then go and get it; it'd probably cost the same or less than a UV unit, and in 4-6 weeks you're guaranteed to be ich free.

[zoomfish1]

I don't have 1st hand experience with a UV, but from all I have read, it will do nothing for ick.

[Phatty42081]

a UV steralizer will deffinitly help with ick they do exactly what the name says it sterlizes the water by exposing it to UV rays in a high intensity enviroment. it will not hurt you corals at all and will also help get rid of macro algies floating in the water. definitly worth the invesment if you want to keep tangs which get ick quit easily

[SushiChef]

Unless you're somehow sucking the cysts right off the substrate and rock and into your UV tube, I don't see how UV will have any effect on your problem.

I have nothing against UV units (it's way down on my list of things to buy, but it's on there), I just don't think it's going to do you any good in regards to your ich problem.

[Cstwise]

I have used my turbo twist UV on three seperate occasions in two different tanks. Both tanks have a varity of fish (tangs) and corals(softies lps and many sps). On each occasion it totally wiped out the ick in about a month. They do work!! I would not put in any new fish quarenteed or not without it

[CorbetJackson50]

A uv sterilizer does kill ich! but it does not kill it unless it goes through the uv sterilizer, the ich is going to be in fish and in the substrate. The uv sterilizer wont hurt but it wont do any good either.

[mcurl98]

Like any Ich treatment, they only work on Ich in the free swimming stage as opposed to the cyst stage. That is why Ich has to be treated over a long period of time. IMO, a U/V combined with some cleaner shrimp (to remove cysts already on the fish) is the best way to go.

[ordy1]

IMO: If your fish are infested with Ick chances are very good that your substrate and anything else attatched to the tank is too.

A UV sterilizer is suppose to zap anything that is free swimming and passes withing a 3 inch proximity of the bulb. Anything attatched to the fish or sitting on your substrate will not get zapped.

If one fish exibits simptoms chances are all fish are now infected. The only way to completely irradicate the parasite is to remove all fish for 4 to 6 weeks. That's the life cycle of the parasite and quaranteen your fish. While in quaranteen you'll have to treat the fish in order to get rid of the cyst that are attatched to them and the ones that have now fallen off and riside on the bottom of your QT tank. For that we usually do baths and use Copper.

According to everything I've read on the subject a UV, when sized right and operated at the correct flow rate, will zap most of the stuff that resides in your tank. There are some schools of thought that feel that they are worthless. I just need more evidence to convince me to the contrary that they are beneficial. I have one and used it for 10 years on a FO tank. I think it helped. But I have been know to be wrong.....

Ordy

[steri]

When the ich parasite is on a fish, that is only one stage of the ich. There are "free swimming" stages of ich in between the stage where they are attached to the fish and where it is in the substrate.

Wouldn't it be safe to assume that if I ran a UV sterilizer for the entire cycle of ick that I would kill the ich in the "free swimming" stages of ich?

I do have a cleaner shrimp and a fire shrimp. My blue tang has it the worst. MY angels show signs of it only on the fins. All fish are still eating very well.

I don't know, I mean I hear what you guys are saying, but I know there are free swimming parts of the ich cycle. I have to assume that is when the UV sterilizer would be most effective.

[greenbean36191]

Only a small number of the parasites are free swimming at any one time, meaning that you can't kill them faster than they reproduce. See:

Spotte, S., Adams, G. "Pathogen reduction in closed aquaculture systems by UV radiation: fact or artifact?" Marine Ecology Progress Series 6(3) 1981:295-298.

Gratzek, JB; Gilbert, JP; Lohr, AL; Shotts, EB Jr; Brown, J. " Ultraviolet light control of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis Fouquet in a closed fish culture recirculation system." Journal of fish diseases. Oxford. Vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 145-153. 1983.

*Note that the second one is about freshwater ich, which is unrelated but has a nearly identical lifecycle which causes the same problems in controlling it.

[oceandrops]

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Nanook