Just got ICK... how do you deal with it when you have a big tank?

[LOTUS50GOD]

Just got ICK... how do you deal with it when you have a big tank?

Catching the fish is not an option without draining the tank.
I cant put copper in since its a reef
I dont have a quaranteen big enough even if I did catch them all.

How should I proceed?

[Crazy fish eye]

Feed them well with some garlic and hope they can fight it.

[WhiteShark1]

From the best of my understanding fish can naturally heal from ick all on their own (provided they are not stressed, the water quality is good, and they are well fed). Now that being said, I've also read that once you have ick in your tank it never goes away, but if the fish are healthy enough their immune system can continue to fight it off.

[maik1]

How bad are your fish?
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=4168&pictureid=30134
This is what my Goldrim Tang looked like before I trapped him and gave him two RO baths for 5 minutes each.
After feeding him garlic food and a week later he looks like this.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=4168&pictureid=31666

This is NOT the end of your tank/fish with any luck!

Maik1

[LOTUS50GOD]

That is good news. I lost my Achilles this morning. He was eatting well till yesterday. He looked alot like your 1st pic. My powderblue is doing well, with only a few spots. He still eats like a pig. My anthisis are showing some spots, but are hanging out at the cleaning station.

I continue to feed and only some fish are showing signs of ick

[wiseman79]

+1 with garlic, and while it won't kill active ich on a fish a good UV sterilizer will help prevent future outbreaks.

[kinlayan]

From my understanding you need to fight it on multiple fronts 1) very good water quality 2) low stress levels 3) Uv sterilizer and ozone use in reactors 4)immune stimulants in food garlic and beta glucan and 5) if the fish dont start to get better gel medicated food using Chloroquine phosphate- cant vouch for this but have heard of it.

[LOTUS50GOD]

how big of a sterilizer do I need for a 340?

[psusocr]

IMHO after being through it a few times... 1. Overfeed with alot of variety in the diet. 2. Soak the food in heavy garlic. 3. Make sure you overskim to take care of the overfeedings and keep you water quality in check and it should be fine if the fish are big enough.

[bmkj02]

Buddy of mine got it. Did water change. Fed with garlic. Kept away from the tank to avoid any stress. I think he either raised or lowered his salt level and temp and almost his whole stock died. I was shocked and kind of laughed at him (I know, I know its not funny) Week or two later BAM my tangs have ich. What the heck??? Everyone is against this but I didnt want to chance it. I ran to the store and bought Ick Attack. Made sure it was the organic one cause I have a reef tank. Says reef and invert safe. I dosed my tank for the first 4 days (bottle says a couple of days after ich is not present) and then left it alone for the next 3 days. I also threw in API Stress Coat. I got real lucky and didnt lose anything except one coral. After that I did a 75g water change. Call it luck I guess but Ick has a mind of its own. I wish there was a product out there that really took care of it cause I am not backing up Ich Attack cause of what everyone says. I just didnt want to sit and wait to see what happens

[launchnukes]

Live with it. Feed lots of garlic and nori for tangs. Keep water parameters good, stress down, and keep everyone well fed and most fish will be fine.

Ps. Obviously a huge qt procedure would be best but terribly impractical.

[LOTUS50GOD]

All my fish were QT for at least 2 weeks. My LFS actually does a GREAT job about QT.
After the fish got out of QT, then I watched them for at least another 2 weeks at the LFS..

I lost my Powder blue today... A few of my anthesis are showing signs. Hope they make it..

[djze]

this is what i use protomarin coral it's reef safe & made in germany it's not as effective as copper but helps in the aid to control it down a bit while your fish are trying to overcome it most important is to due a couple of large water changes & feed with lots of garlic,selcon & i even use a pure garlic clove i cut it in half and put in the cup with the food but not throw it in the display and one important piece of equipment is like others stated a good uv sterilizer

[LOTUS50GOD]

If I lose my anthesis in the morning, then I will leave the tank empty of fish for 2-3 months while this passes. I have some fish that are exempt from ick... ie.. manderins...

[newbie2hobby]

fire shrimps eats the ick off my fishs when i had the problem.

[LOTUS50GOD]

I have 2 fire + 2 cleaners. Ick is under the surface of the skin of the fish till its ready to fall off and spawn....

[tecnomage]

All my fish were QT for at least 2 weeks. My LFS actually does a GREAT job about QT.
After the fish got out of QT, then I watched them for at least another 2 weeks at the LFS..

The 2 weeks + might be a problem, when I was reading up on QT for ich it was 6-8 weeks in QT as the ich life cycle can sometimes take that long to show. When we see the ich we're only seeing 1 stage of the life cycle. Also ich likes to hide in the gills, so a fish that's not showing symptoms even after 2 weeks in QT can still have it.

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

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f15/marine-ich-myths-facts-27003/

Here's the QT process I plan on using for my next fish, I trust my LFS but it just takes 1 fish to slip through to cause havoc. I'd rather do it myself just to be sure.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f15/quarantine-process-27022/

[albano]

... I also threw in API Stress Coat...
+1...Extra garlic and Stress Coat...and hope for the best. I do not treat for ick. Keep fish healthy to start with.
Had ick in 450DT about 8 months ago...out of 60 fish ... 59 SURVIVED, only lost original fish with ick (Achilles)!


***adjust skimmer for stress coat!

[cougaran]

You could attempt to lower salinity. I'm not talking hyposalinity, but the lower you are able to go without killing off corals helps your fish. Fish would expend less energy in a tank that is 1.022 than 1.025. There would be more oxygen inthe water, which would especially help any fish having trouble breathing. Ick would still be there, but it may also help with controling their numbers. Definatelty some type of UV would help with your situation.


I personally believe if you are attempting an "no treatment" situation or "fish immunity" method (my own description) I would lower temperature of the tank. As we all know when they raise the temp of a tank to shorten the life cycle of ich, well I imagine if you lower it to some degree then it would prolong the cycle, giving the fish more of chance to fight off the ich numbers. Just a theory....

The only other "treatment"choice is to seperate the fish from the corals and inverts in another tank.

[depresed34]

i had breakout in my 600g,all it is is stress related to quality of water,check and balanc eyour water and ick will go away,also some time only new fish get it cause of stress of transportation

[Tracey2]

This is an excellent uv

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/products/ozone-equipment/aquarium-uv-sterilizers-1/80-watt-600-gallon-emperor-aquatics-smart-ho-uv-high-output.html

I use it on a 450g system and haven't seen ick since shortly after it was installed. I did blow off the rock, stirred the sand and did large water changes when I first installed it and had ich in the tank. Best of luck.

[LOTUS50GOD]

Tracey2
How often do you need to change the bulbs in a UV sterilizer?
How much flow are you putting through yours?

[Tracey2]

I haven't changed the bulb yet, I do wipe it off once a month, its only been up and running for maybe 6 months. When I had ich I also lowered my salinity to 1.018, I did large water changes blowing rock and vacuuming sand, and I fed several times a day with everything soaked in garlic, selcon, zoe and vitamin C. Some say uv is a waste of money but I think too many people get them way undersized for their systems and run flow too quickly thru them. This is a good reference.

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36805

According to this mine is still a bit undersized but I do run the flow very slowly, I can't remember now what it is exactly. They are alot of money and they can't kill the ich living on your fish but IME they work. I have an achillies tang, 3 regal angels among other difficult to keep species that all made it thru the ich outbreak.

Hope this helps.

[Haffs09]

I'm just getting over a case of ich in my system (new) too. On 4/21/11, I added all my tangs (yellow (2), purple, desjardini, achilles, powder blue, and hippo) and foxface to the display tank (370gal) to let them establish their hierarchy. The foxface, yellow and hippo were in an existing 90gal tank and I never quarantined them. All the others were QT'd for a minimum of 6 weeks or so and looking good when I added them. I went out of town on a family emergency two weekends later, and when I returned, the hippo, powder blue and achilles were completely covered with ich. I had forgot that 1.5-2 years prior, the hippo had a dozen or so spots of ich that went away (or so I thought). The stress of the move must have allow it to take hold and infect the other fish.

I was devastated. Fortunately, I don't have any coral or inverts yet, so I moved all my liverock from my sump (200-300lbs) into at 75gal tank that I took offline from the main system. All the rock in the display tank was recently "cooked" so I left it in (not that I could get it out easily anyhow). I proceeded to take the system (now 400gal total) to sg 1.009 over the course of 12 days (that's another story!). It took two weeks before the last outbreak of ich had subsided. I was sweating bullets during that time, because the achilles and powder blue had severe outbreaks, but kept active and eating. Throughout the hypo conditions, I performed 40 or 50 gallon water changes every 2-3 days to stay ahead of any water quality issues.

Everything survived and I am now raising my s.g. back to 1.020. The 75gal tank has been fallow since 5/15, so in the next week or so, I'll bring that back online too.

[slief]

I had ich in my 480.. My water quality was great. There was no way to get the fish out of my tank without breaking it down. I tried everything from lots of garlic, selcon, all kinds of good food, increased water temps, UV, reef safe meds etc. In the end, I lost a lot of fish.

My best suggestion if you cant get them out is what has already been said. Good water quality, good selcon soaked food, garlic and crossed fingers. You might get lucky and not loose too many fish. Ich also covers the fishes gill making it difficult for them to get adequet oxygen. I would strongly suggest keeping an air stone in the tank near a power head or pump outlet to add extra O2 to the water. If you have any large fish in the tank that can be caught and QT'd, that might help eliminate some of the stress. Also it might not hurt to add some cleaner wrass to the tank as well as cleaner shirmp.

As for UV, it is very helpful with free floating parasites. Ich when in a free floating stage can be killed by UV if the flow is slow enough through the UV. If you are seriously considering a UV filter, I would suggest considering the Aqua UV units with the wipers. The wipers really come in handy for keeping the crystal sleeves clean and really reduce the frequency of how ofter you need to take it apart for cleaninig. If the sleeves get covered in algae, the UV is worthless until its cleaned. With a wiper, you can reduce dissasembly to a semi annual if not annual chore.

I use a 114 watt Aqua UV unit on my tank. I replace the bulbs about every 6 months or so.

[LOTUS50GOD]

Well.. I think I made it through the storm, but not without casualties...
I lost a bunch of fish, but the ones that made it through are pretty suprising..

1. Yellow tang
2. Mystery wrasse
3. sunrise pseudochromis
4. all shrimp, and inverts.
5. couple of anthesis
6. mandarin blennies
Everyone is eating well, and no one has spots..

Im going to wait 2-3 months before adding any fish, just to make sure its dead.
My pod population is going nuts without fish to eat them..

[cougaran]

I hate to be bearer of bad news, but that most likely is just round 1. Ich comes in cycles. Without meds you most likely will always have the parasite. Some fish can build an immunity to the parasite, but still get infected with a few of the parasite. The ich cycle is then able to continue. When you add new fish then they will most likely get infected. The only way to know that a tank is 99.9% ich free is with no fish for 8 weeks. The ich need a host fish to continue the cycle of the parasite. If you treat the tank with the fish in it then this will also interupt the cycle. With the few fish you have left you may now consider a treament tank for the fish and go with hyposalinity or copper treament plan for them. As for catching them, have you considered draining the tank with the help of 8 to 10 30 gal plastic trash barrels or even a rubbermaid 300 gal container? With the water out of the way you should be able to get to the fish without disassembling whole tank. If you have a sand bottom you can also make a large divet that the fish would most like go into as you are draining the tank.

[Haffs09]

+1 with cogaran's recommendation. It was 18 months or longer before it came back and infected my system. It will hit you at your weakest moment and likely effect your most prized fish. It's a major PITA, but with your large system, what's a couple months to ensure you restart with a clean slate? Good luck!

[LOTUS50GOD]

So what you are saying is even if the fish lived through cycle 1, the parasite will live in the sand forever?

I really do not want to drain the tank. I reduced salinity to 1.020 and im doing 50 gallon water changes every 3 days. (auto water changer). I lost a couple of corals (SPS), but my tougher LPS seem to be okay in the lower salinity.

[Haffs09]

I had 2 or 3 outbreaks before hypo started to work. As long as there are hosts in the tank, I would assume ich is present, although you may never see it. Lowering the s.g. to 1.020 will not do anything to eliminate the parasite.

I had a buddy with a 220gal reef that had ich in the tank for several years. The outbreaks would come and go, some milder and some a little worse, but he thought it was okay because the fish kept eating and seemed to weather the storm. A month ago, there was a severe outbreak and he lost a lot of fish.

If nothing is done, it's always a gamble if or when it will come back. Taking care of business now will give you peace of mind down the road.

[maik1]

I had 2 or 3 outbreaks before hypo started to work. As long as there are hosts in the tank, I would assume ich is present, although you may never see it. Lowering the s.g. to 1.020 will not do anything to eliminate the parasite.

I had a buddy with a 220gal reef that had ich in the tank for several years. The outbreaks would come and go, some milder and some a little worse, but he thought it was okay because the fish kept eating and seemed to weather the storm. A month ago, there was a severe outbreak and he lost a lot of fish.

If nothing is done, it's always a gamble if or when it will come back. Taking care of business now will give you peace of mind down the road.

I'm new to all of this but I believe that more tanks have ICK than not. Maybe the answer is to keep everyone in the tank happy and well fed?

Maik1

[cougaran]

So what you are saying is even if the fish lived through cycle 1, the parasite will live in the sand forever?

I really do not want to drain the tank. I reduced salinity to 1.020 and im doing 50 gallon water changes every 3 days. (auto water changer). I lost a couple of corals (SPS), but my tougher LPS seem to be okay in the lower salinity.

no not forever, they need a fish host.. If a tank is left fishless for 8 weeks then the ick is considered eliminated. This explains it better-- http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1992196

Reducing salinity will help the fish, but not eliminate the ich. I mentioned reducing salinity originally but not down to 1.20 as I thought you might start losing corals as well... Water changes can help, but it only reduces the free floating parasites. Reef tanks can be very difficult to treat. Thats why I'm recommending moving the fish in the main from inverts and corals so you can do treatment. The only other option is to live with the parasite and hope for the best.

[LOTUS50GOD]

Well ... after the outbreak I still have the survivors. No signs of ick on them. Im going to wait, just add some corals in a bit after my water stabilizes again from all the water changes. Ill keep you all posted

[iLLwiLL]

I used seachem kanaplex, metroplex and prime as food additives when I saw some signs of ich in my 180 . . . worked great. might not be a bad idea to give it a shot on your remaining fish if they are still eating.

~Will.

[LOTUS50GOD]

Good idea.. I will pick up some food additives tomorrow

[graciesdad]

I would definitely attack it on multiple fronts by feeding well, uv sterilizer, and ozone.

-JT

[LOTUS50GOD]

Does ozone really help with ick?

[ironwill723]

Ozone would be your best option. IMO it works better than a UV sterilizer if you keep the ORP in the 400-450 range. I have successfully kept multiple ich prone fish including an Achilles tang while utilizing ozone in my tank. I could not get rid of the ich on my achilles until I used the ozone. It disappeared in a few days and has never returned in two years. I use an Ozotech Poseidon unit.

[cougaran]

This article mentions that going over 400 can form harmful compounds with ozone, mainly in the form of hypochloric and hypobromic acids http://blogs.thatpetplace.com/thatfishblog/2008/07/31/using-ozone-in-the-home-aquarium/ Also note in the article it says that natural sea water already has an ORP of 350 to 400, which ich would survive naturally in.

I can't speak from experience on ozone, but I know those that use it report cleaner water. I may use it in the future with a UV unit, but I need to research it more..


The majority of fish stores out there lower salinity to 1.020 and have a jumbo UV unit.

[LOTUS50GOD]

Cougaran.. that was a good laymans article on ozone.
It did say that ozone was able to kill athogenic bacteria, single cell parasites and algae, viruses. I wonder if ick falls into any of those categories through its lifecycle.

[kinlayan]

Ozone will kill the infective stage of whitespot but only if it is exposed to it in a reactor and for long enough at a sufficient dosage, it will burn off the cilia they use to move and to find hosts- Ozone must not enter the main display or it will kill/harm other desirable life .

[LOTUS50GOD]

so if you have good turnover then will the ick be exposed to the ozone in the skimmer?

[cougaran]

Forgot (happens when your kid is bugging you to go into the pool) to throw this into my last post by Randy Holmes-Farley http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-03/rhf/index.php If you move down to conclusion as the more technical stuff kinda makes my head spin--Larger pathogens and parasites are much harder to kill and are not likely to be killed by ozone in reef aquaria.

[LOTUS50GOD]

Well my ORP was in the toliet anyway..LOL . I bought an ozone generator today.. Let you all know how it works out.

[Achilles18]

Darn those ich's really crazy, feel so sorry for this fish. I've got powderblue & swallowtail angel at my 75g, although i have QT still i get this kind of problem too ich. I don't know how many of you do believe of using miracle mud will help your system to avoid the problem like ich etc... but for me this miracle mud it really helps my fish health, i coudln't believe even my angelfish i thought this will never make it look at it now within a week this fish skin tottaly recoverd from ich as well my powderblue. i don't have any cleaner shrimp all i have is this neon goby & cleaner wrasse, but i think since i used this miracle mud all my fish i noticed haven't seen sign of ich. my tank it's only a month half old don't have any corals yet hopefully by end of this month.

[SaltwaterAdict]

Wait and see approach is always the best. Most people overreact and lose fish because of their impatient and try a million different things. Patients is what this hobby is all about. I've always used the natural approach and don't subject fish to harsh methods. We are not doctors and adding a concoction of different meds can have a drastic impact. Copper is very hard to monitor and could do more harm than good in most cases. I feed my fish a bunch of different types of foods, pellets, frozen, nori and they're healthy as can be. I had a good amount of my fish get ich. I offered a lot of food throughout the day and kept up on waterchanges, carbon, heavy skimming. If you have excellent water quality and feed a variety then you'll be amazed by the results you can achieve. It's common for certain fish to get ich. It simply comes and goes.

Fish lose their slim coat during transit and once you get them home it's very easy for them to pickup some ich.

I think it's actually good for fish to be exposed to ich. That way if there are any drastic temp/ph changes, etc they can deal with it because they're immune to it! :)

The only thing you really need to worry about is marine velvet. This disease is nasty and practically impossible to treat for. That's why it's a good idea to QT fish or buy fish locally who have been in a tank long term.

[SaltwaterAdict]

I hate to be bearer of bad news, but that most likely is just round 1. Ich comes in cycles. Without meds you most likely will always have the parasite. Some fish can build an immunity to the parasite, but still get infected with a few of the parasite. The ich cycle is then able to continue. When you add new fish then they will most likely get infected. The only way to know that a tank is 99.9% ich free is with no fish for 8 weeks. The ich need a host fish to continue the cycle of the parasite. If you treat the tank with the fish in it then this will also interupt the cycle. With the few fish you have left you may now consider a treament tank for the fish and go with hyposalinity or copper treament plan for them. As for catching them, have you considered draining the tank with the help of 8 to 10 30 gal plastic trash barrels or even a rubbermaid 300 gal container? With the water out of the way you should be able to get to the fish without disassembling whole tank. If you have a sand bottom you can also make a large divet that the fish would most like go into as you are draining the tank.

Waste of time IMO You'll always have ich present in your system no matter what you do!! :wave:

Not to mention the stress put on the fish..

[Stumped]

If I lose my anthesis in the morning, then I will leave the tank empty of fish for 2-3 months while this passes. I have some fish that are exempt from ick... ie.. manderins...

If you want to leave your tank fallow, you have to remove every fish including mandarins. It is a misconception that they can't get ich. Their slime coat helps to make them more resistant, but they are not immune.

Also 2 weeks isn't long enough in QT if you are wanting to be as close to 100% sure your new additions don't have ich.

Good luck, I hope the rest of your fish pull through!

[cougaran]

Waste of time IMO You'll always have ich present in your system no matter what you do!! :wave:

Not to mention the stress put on the fish..

IMO If that were the case then we wouldn't need medicine or marine biologists. Heck next time you get sick, have poison IVY, catch anything dont bother going to the doctor or the ER or even use medicine for that matter. If you give it enough time it will just magically go away.......See how much stress it causes you as you wait for it to go away......

[SaltwaterAdict]

If you want to leave your tank fallow, you have to remove every fish including mandarins. It is a misconception that they can't get ich. Their slime coat helps to make them more resistant, but they are not immune.

Also 2 weeks isn't long enough in QT if you are wanting to be as close to 100% sure your new additions don't have ich.

Good luck, I hope the rest of your fish pull through!

If you attempted to treat a mandarin for ich he wouldn't stand a chance! They can't handle copper period.

[SaltwaterAdict]

IMO If that were the case then we wouldn't need medicine or marine biologists. Heck next time you get sick, have poison IVY, catch anything dont bother going to the doctor or the ER or even use medicine for that matter. If you give it enough time it will just magically go away.......See how much stress it causes you as you wait for it to go away......

Ich is something completely different. Fish live with it in the wild. Now a fungal infection or bacterial infection would need to be treated. Ich, not necessary..

Your looking at ich as if it's a disease when it's not. ;)

[cougaran]

Yes, but when fish live with it in the wild they get hit with one or two parasites because the ocean is vast, in a closed system they can multiply in deadly numbers. Ich is a parasite and if you had a parasite you would treat it, why is it different for your fish?

[ironwill723]

I should clarify that I run my ozone reactor in a basement fish room sump. I keep my ORP at 450 but it has plenty of time to burn off before it returns to the display tank which is about 20 feet away and one level up.

[LOTUS50GOD]

I have mine turning off at 375. We shall see what happens next.

[jpsika08]

I got hit by Ich like a month ago, the original fish that started with it (Kole Tang) died, then a the Multicolor Dwarf Angel began to act more passively and had some spots, I managed to removed him and into the QT he went, the other fish were impossible (At least by me) to catch, so left them in the tank, as of now still no signs of Ich, even the Multicolor is, after 4 weeks, back in the DT, I know crypto is still present in the system and it can come back at any given point, this is why I'm considering a big UV Unit (150W from Emperor), I think that the main problem with this parasite is letting it go out of control, if you keep numbers down, fish will be more prone to fight it.

Can someone correct me if I'm wrong?

Thank you

[SaltwaterAdict]

Just wanted to clear something up, a UV sterilizer does not treat ich. It hardly makes a dent in trying to control their numbers.

[SaltwaterAdict]

Yes, but when fish live with it in the wild they get hit with one or two parasites because the ocean is vast, in a closed system they can multiply in deadly numbers. Ich is a parasite and if you had a parasite you would treat it, why is it different for your fish?

You'd be surprised how resilient fish are to ich. Once they fight it off, which they naturally do without any meds, then they'll be better off long term. I've seen fish caked in ich take care of it themselves without any harsh methods!

[Brentley25]

I feel for you! I think a u.v sterlizer is huge in preventing ich

[kinlayan]

UV will work but it has to be properly sized and have appropriate flow , ich is big in the free swimming stage over 20 microns and needs a dose over 250 000 uw2 to make a dent in its DNA. UV will not cure Ich but a properly sized unit will reduce Ich numbers

[JoshuaG]

The Pittsburgh Zoo has had positive results in using chloroquine phosphate mixed with food to treat reef tanks. Bob Goemans has a nice write up on it in his latest book. Might be something to look into for situations like this.

[jpsika08]

Thanks for the info guys.

Kinlayan, I want to get the Emperor Aquatics 150watt unit, which is rated for up to 1,035 gallons. Do you think for my tank (Overall system volume 600g) will be overshoot?

Thanks again.

[Big E]

Read this link for the FACTS............of course some people will still twist the facts to support their absurd opinions.

Read it, be logical & you'll understand what needs to be done to prevent ich & deal with it properly.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1986013

[pacislandaqua]

Ich in a closed system vs the ocean is not comparable. 2 totally different aspects of the ich life.

You can get rid of it out of your systems. It takes time, patience and a GREAT QT method... which is where 90% of people go wrong in the first place.

Once you have it, the only way to get rid of it is a fallow tank for 2 months.

However, a healthy system can overcome ich pretty easily. once you start messing with the system it will make it worse. Unless you can get the fish out easily, dont try anything, just let them fight it off.

[vamaro]

I had ick in my display earlier this year because I took at fish out of the QT too early. Anyway, my fish seemed to fight it off. I also noticed that the ick seemed to get weaker over time, maybe about 3 months. By weaker, I mean at first the fish were getting a lot of large spots. Over time, the spots were getting smaller, less frequent and the fish seemed less bothered by it.

I have an Aqua 57 watt. I change the bulb about every 9 months. The UV is not a cure. However, a UV may help reduce the free swimming ick but the fish will still get ick. It just spreads so quickly.

[BAJA272]

I have a 57 watt aqua uv w/wiper (I broke the bulb) sterilizer, brand new in the box for $150.00 if your interested.