ick treatment w/selcon & Chem-Marin?

[marc nichols]

Our powder brown tang contracted ick after several weeks in our 75G sps reef. This system has been in operation for 12 months with two small fish added at 8 months and the tang at 10 months. The two small fish are free of ick. All fish feed extremely well and are on varied diets feeding 3-4 times a day (moderate portions).

The system is highly stable with all parameters on target, though I will need to re-verify our PH probe. All controlled by an AC Jr. which also regulates 2 part dosing.

I have been augmenting garlic for a week and just started soaking nori in selcon 3 days ago. I had tried Chem-Marin for two days with no discernable results after two days when I quit as PH dropped .3 points on each dosing (stress inducer) and the skimmer went berserk (could not run it). If anyone has successful experience with these or other products, please elaborate. Perhaps much more time is needed?

I am preparing a hospital tank but would prefer to cure the problem in-situ for two reasons: Less stress for the fish and the probability that ick is always present anyway and that the fish would be subjected to it upon return.

Thank you for any success based suggestions.

[Kieth71]

If you are going to remove all the fish and treat them i would recomend treating with cupramine(copper) or doing hyposalinity for 6 weeks.I would also leave the display tank fallow for 6-8 weeks leaning more twords 8 weeks if you can so you can be sure that the ich is gone.If you decide to use cupramine make sure you have a proper test kit(seachem or salifert) and also a proper ammonia test kit as cupramine will affect most other test kits for these two item(ie api test kits do not work with cupramine).Hypo will work as long as you have a calibrated refractometer and make sure that you keep it at the proper salinity for 5 or 6 weeks.

[marc nichols]

Thanks Rocky. I can do that but I'm most interested in curing the problem without removing the fish.

Are there any success stories out there?

[scuzy]

well heres my success stoy. My fish tank got ich and i couldn't take my fishes out. Some were immue (no ick showing) others were covered like snow flakes. It got so badthat i thought some wouldn't make it. I tried the kordon ick attack and doses 200% as directed. All ick is now off the infested fish. I am not sure if it was the ich attack but i can say without using hte ich attack the one that was covered never showed signs of clearning up for weeks.

just my 2 cent. Worth a try

[marc nichols]

I haven't looked at that product and will check it out. How long before you began to see results? Any negative effect on other reef life? Did your skimmer remain functional?

Today I short cycled the halides to possibly take a little stress out of the system. As typical, ick seems to decrease through the day then pick up at night. Awful in the morning. Perhaps I should add another cleaner shrimp too but I doubt it/they can have much effect on a serious outbreak.

[scuzy]

well i have 4 cleaner shrimp + 2 cleaner wrasse they don't do anything for ich. I have used the product for a week and it seemed to work. Non of my corals were affected. i took out all the carbon and turned off my skimmer for the time it was being treated. The water turned a little yellowish but after i didn't notice any more ich on the few fishes i placed carbon back in and did about 20%-30% water change. Everything looks good so far. I will let you know if ichs gone soon as my 3 other fish from Qt is finish with their copper treatment. If they get ich means my Dt is still ich infested but my fish built some sort of immunity. If not then i can say the product worked as directed. It said it's 100% organic so take with a grain of salt. I know nothing really is proven but in my case i accept it worked. My fish are healthy again and they are hungry little buggers again. Like i said i cna only vouch that it worked for me.

[marc nichols]

Thanks. Please do let me (the board) know the longer term results. Great that you have so far seen postive response.