Lost power now have ick need some help

[kita_katan]

Hi all, I am in need of some ideas and help in regards to....dare I say it.....ick in my 150 gallon reef tank. Now this was all out of my control but let me give you the background. We had a huge wind storm a little while back and we lost power for 72 hours. In that time my fish tanks suffered (yes I plan to get a generator here in the next few weeks to prevent this again) but I was not able to get my hands on a generator. I tried to keep the reef tank water temp up by boiling water and just trying to keep some kind of control (yea right) well in the end the tank droped to 68 degrees, when the power came back on we slowly raised the temp and everything faired though pretty well until a few days later. This is when I noticed that my power blue and purple tang came down with and now are totally covered with ick. I have also have a scotter blenny, mandarin, a clown, one cardinal and a dottyback. I do not have many corals only a few leathers, a brain coral and a frog spawn. Everyone is eating like crazy still but they are scratching a bit on the rocks, but both the tangs are eating brine shrimp and dried alge. I am at a loss at what to do, can I go the hypo salinity route? I know that in order to get any fish out of the tank I will have to tear the entire 150 reef down and thats going to really stress them. Any suggestions would be great. I do have a 75 gallon tank but the salinity levels are very different and I am very afraid that if I move them from that tank that they will end up with ick again from the stress.

[sufunk]

If they are still eating and pretty healthy, there is a good chance they can fight off the ick with just good water quality and good food, ime. Ditch the brine shrimp and feed them something more nutritious, like PE mysis if you can get them. Also, soak all food and algae in garlic and make sure your water parameters are perfect.

I've had a few outbreaks of ich in my small tank due to unknown ammonia spikes. Each time, my fish kept eating and once i got the water parameters back in shape, they were ich free in a few days. I know there is still ich in the water but as long as my water is good, it never appears on my fish.

Before i tore my display apart and went the hyposalinity route, i would give it a few days with good food, good water and garlic and see how your fish respond. If they continue eating, i think you will be ok. If they get worse or stop eating, then you probably have to bite the bullet and get them out

[sufunk]

p.s- you definitely have the record for longest membership and fewest posts! 10 posts in over 7 years! you sure as heck aint padding your post count with meaningless posts;)

[kita_katan]

Yes I know, started a reef tank in 2001 and had a baby and had to cut the losses and had to sell the tank. Now I am back into it and feel like I have to learn everything all over again. OK when you say garlic is it the liquid suplement? I am currently using minced garlic in water and mixing that with their food. I went to GNC, CVS, Giant Eagle and others and I could not find the liquid garlic. Oh and what would you suggest I change the food to? Will it cover all the fish or do I need to supplement with something else?

[sufunk]

Can you get frozen PE mysis at any of your local fish stores? That is my favorite, pretty nutritious and every fish ive ever had(except my copperbanded butterfly) go crazy for it.

Yes, i meant the liquid garlic like garlic xtreme but i believe that minced garlic juice is fine as well. I would try to just get the garlic juice in the food though and not actual chunks of garlic.

[kita_katan]

Ok my last question is if the tangs are the only fish that have ick and I have to remove them do I have to remove everything or can i just remove the tangs and treat them? If I can only move the tangs do you think a 20 gallon hospital tank is sufficiant? If I have to remove everything is the mandarin going to survive without pods to eat?

Thanks!

[otrlynn]

The problem is that even if you remove and treat the tangs, you will still have ich in your DT. The fish could look great after treatment in the QT for 4 weeks, than show signs of ich again when you return them to the display. In order for the ich to die in the DT, it needs to remain fallow (fishless) for 6-8 weeks. You sound like you are experienced, but have your read this info on ich?

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php