Ich treatment

[flare1185]

Hey guys first post and its not a happy one. My 120g tank got an outbreak of ICH about few weeks ago. I know your not suppose to treat them in main tank but I had too many fish to do a treatment tank. So I decided to dose the tank with Cupramine. I heard that stuff stick to the rock and sand forever? I usually go to my LFS to have my water tested and the guy there seem nice and enough. Hes been telling me what dosage to use and after one week he told me to do a water change and stop dosing. Should I listen to him or should I treat it for another 3 weeks. The only fish that seem to have noticeable ich is the Blue hippo. Let me know what you guy think should I continue dosing the tank or should I hold off. Thanks

[Flipper62]

Here is a Great article in ICH from Water Keeper.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1500214

[bertoni]

I would keep treating according to the instructions on the box. It's possible that the live rock and sand have adsorbed a lot of copper, and the tank would then not be very safe for invertebrates like coral, snails, etc.

[sedor]

To be honest if you've already started treating the tank you might as well continue. The problem with introducing copper into a reef tank is that it is poisonous to both coral and inverts and will kill them quite quickly. Of course you don't have either of these in your tank right now, but copper medication can leach into your rock, your substrate, and even the silicone holding the glass together and prevent you from ever being able to house coral or inverts such as snails, shrimp etc.

Not trying to discourage you, since you've already started I would continue the treatment per what the bottle suggests and cure your fish of the disease. Ich can be a nasty thing, but IMO it is usually something your fish can conquer itself with its own immune system. Believe it or not, most of us generally have the ich parasite floating around in our water column, we just don't see it because the fish are healthy enough to prevent the disease from causing problems. Ich usually rears its nasty fangs when your fish are stressed for one reason or another and we blame an ich outbreak for taking down the entire population of our tank, when in hind sight the reason was actually something else. Think about it...you can take a perfectly healthy tang from one tank and place it in a tank much to small for its well being and guaranteed within a short period of time you will notice ich due to the stress of its surroundings and then inevitably the fish's demise. All that being said, what I usually do when I notice a spot or two of the disease is check my tank for something that could be causing stress to the fish and try and address any issues from there. Most of the time a varied, balanced diet and good clean water is all that's needed to keep your fish healthy.

Seeing as how you've dosed your tank with copper make sure you purchase a copper test kit before you add any coral or inverts. Hopefully it won't stick around in your tank.

[flare1185]

The funny thing is I had an outbreak a few months back and I dose as directed by the LFS guy and afterward added carbon to take out the copper. Everything worked out fine for awhile I even added some corals afterward to see if they open up. Believe it or not they all open up pretty well. Added a few frags of colt coral and some green zoos. This will be the 2nd time I'm trying to treat them. The only thing confusing me is the LFS guy told me to only dose it for a week. I think what u say about ich always being inside the fish is right. I had a flame angel died on me and I had to rework the rock to get him out and after messing with the rock for a half an hour trying to get him out and putting it all back together I figure that's what cause the ich to come out. Anyway lesson learn I guess. After this no more fish just adding corals and hoping for the best. Thanks for advice.

[bertoni]

You're welcome! Good luck!

[bpseoe]

I had the same problem a couple weeks ago. I to was told to dose with cupramine. I bought some and came home and added according to directions. I waited 48 hrs. And re-dosed. I left that same concentration of copper sit for 14 days then did a 25% wc and put in new carbon. All fish survived and are now feeding and very active. (i also kept my water temp. At 82 thru out the whole treatment.

[flare1185]

I will probably dose another time today for a total of 2 weeks. Just had another casualty and look like 2 more on the way. Sigh.... Might have to turn the temp up I was kinda worry cuz I had my at 80 the other days.

[NirvanaFan]

80 degrees is not a problem. Do you have a copper test kit? You have to be sure of the concentration.

[flare1185]

One of my buddy got one, just gotta ask to borrow it from him.