[I]Cryptocarian irritans[/I]

[T Diddy]

What is the latest and greatest reef safe method of treating ich in an established reef tank?

[Palting]

None. AFAIK, no such thing as an effective "reef safe" Ich medication. Went through this just a few months ago.

[T Diddy]

So how did you handle it?

[Moonstream]

pull all the fish form the DT and put them in QT- treat them with your preferred method. treat with hypo/ copper.

keep the DT fallow for AT LEAST 6 weeks.

ive never gone through this myself, thank god, but this is how everyone else ive ever heard of has treated it.

[Palting]

Upgraded to a 150, and converted the original 110 tank to a QT with hyposalinity. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1892446

Over a month now, all the fish are in the 150, and so far no Ich. Fingers crossed, no Ich ever again, as I will now QT and treat ALL new fish in a 55 gal.

[T Diddy]

how do invertebrates handle the hypo tank? I'm thinking it will be easier to treat the DT than catch the fish. I can transfer the corals easier than the fish. There is very little in the way of coral so far...

[Palting]

Invertebrates will die in hypo. Killed a whole bunch of them hiding in my substrate and rocks when I did my hypo.

Best to QT and hypo in a separate tank, and leave the DT with the substrate, rocks, inverts, coral and all sorts of critters fish free.

If you want to do hypo in your main tank, you'll have to remove all the coral and inverts, and be prepared to handle the die off of the critters in the rock and substrate.

[T Diddy]

I used to keep a freshwater tank running that I would dip my new saltwater fish into for a few minutes before introducing them to the tank. Once I am sure that the DT is "clean", will the process mentioned above suffice?

[Palting]

It might work for superficial parasites/pests, but not for Ich. If the fish has unseen Ich, it will be in the gills and imbedded in the flesh, where it is protected from the frehwater dip by the fish flesh itself. The hyposalinity works only on the cyst stage outside the fish. That's why the treatment period is at least 4 weeks to let all the Ich go through this stage to get killed.

[greenbean36191]

No. The trophonts can withstand at least 18 hours of FW exposure without harm- most reef fish can't.

[Pickupman66]

Palting, are you sure the freshwater dip wont kill the parasite inherant on the fish itself? From what I read, that stage and the free floating stage are where they are most vulnerable to the Osmoic pressure drip between teh fresh and salt. hence the cysts seem to "pop" on an infected fish when it is dipped properly in fresh water as opposed to 1.009 water. I have personally witnessed it popping in a fresh water bath. I have also read that a proper fresh water bath entails PH and temp matched water and can last up to 30 minutes for the fish.

here is that article. Pretty detailed. I did this with success on a purple tang that showed Crypt cysts and it has not shown them since introduction. I got the fish from a friend as it was too big for his 90. it was truly infected with Crypt.
http://www.reefland.com/forum/marine-fish-care-health-disease-treatment/18887-freshwater-dip-marine-fishes.html

[Palting]

Here's a quote from the article you linked, Pickupman:

"Similarly, after the fish is in the QT, all tangs of the Acanthurus genus should be treated with Cupramine copper treatment to rid them of both Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) and Marine Velvet (Amyloodinium ocellatum. These fish are so often infected with one, the other or both that treatment should be considered part of the QT process. I like the use of hyposalinity, but hyposalinity doesn�t kill Marine Velvet. Copper kills both these parasites."

Basically the article advocates a dip, but requires a treatment in QT of either cupramine or hyposalinity to rid the fish of Ich. Like I said above. :)

I hate to be a bummer, but your purple with the Ich cysts probably still has Ich, just hidden in the gills and tissues. It is currently healthy enough that it is not showing any of the spots. If it ever gets stressed enough, such as a power outage of several hours or other occurences that cause an unexpected decrease in tank water quality, it may show up. And not just on the puple tang, but on your other fish as well.

Here is a "cliff-notes" version of the Cryptocaryon life cycle and effective treatment: http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/ichparasiticdiseases/ss/sbsichlifecycle.htm