Ich and the Bare Bottom Reef

[AcroporAddict]

Can a bare bottom reef tank with lots of water flow upset the ich life cycle? I will assume this is the cyst stage that resides in the substrate. I saw a couple references to this, but wondered what our regular posters here thought of it?

Thank you. I learn a lot from these forums.

[jamesbaur13]

It'll give the parasite less places to harbor... keep in mind, the parasite can still complete it's life cycle on pretty much anything else inside the aquarium.

So, IMO it will help lessen the potential for a massive outbreak.

[AcroporAddict]

What I was thinking was that in a BB tank with lots of flow, most detritus and in this scenario, ich cysts, would be kept in suspension, and can be mechanically filtered out if you use a small enough micron filter socks. For example, my reef is 465 gallons with a 155 gallon sump. I have 4x MP60s and 2x MP40s, which give a peak flow rate of about 40,000 gallons an hour. I use 100 micron rated mesh filter socks, and all water entering the sump is filtered by these.

My tank bottom is spotless, outside the coralline growing on it, because of the extreme flow.

Just not sure what the diameter of a marine ich cyst is? Crazy concept or does what I am posting make any sense?

[jerpa]

Ich can encyst on any surface in your aquarium. Removing the sand may reduce the surface area it has to work with but there is still plenty of available space. The free-swimming stage can navigate ocean currents to actively infect fish so flow will have little effect on their life-cycle. The size of the parasite will be dependent upon the stage of life it is at but they can be as small as 20 microns across.

[ali1]

It's nice to start deep conversations regarding the treatment of ich. I'm not convinced quarantining is the only measure we can take. If it is true that simply bringing in corals/inverts can also bring in the parasite and they need to be QTed as well, then this would be painstakingly difficult for any hobbyists to keep a reef tank. Problem is if we need to QT every fish before putting them in the display tank, and qt every invert/coral, then that means we need separate qt tanks around the house. Corals can't be held in copper/hypo treatments, so they get their own quarantine tank. Fish need their own tank for hypo/copper treatments(if necessary). Also, many fish can't take copper, so now you need to have a separate tank for your butterflies, angels, etc. In addition to all of this, this forces you to put a fish one by one inside your display tank... causing aggression for territory. I just don't see QT as a full proof solution and I really think we should focus more on ridding ich, despite it's complicated life cycle, than preventing ich.

[jerpa]

Aquaculture facilities and public aquariums would kill for a way of eradicating ich without killing the biological systems established in a reef display. It would eliminate their quarantine procedures and equipment and save a lot of time and money. Instead they quarantine new additions up to a year or more to ensure they are healthy before they are added to their systems. They have a lot more skin in the game so I will follow their lead.

Quarantine of corals is necessary for parasites other than ich. AEFW, red bugs, montipora eating nudibranchs, zoa eating nudibranchs, and pyramid snails can wreak havoc on the invertebrate life in our aquariums.

Each reefkeeper has to assess what level of risk they are comfortable with. Some keep successful tanks that have been infected with various parasites for years. Some add one fish without QT and lose the entire tank. IMO you either choose to QT everything or you accept that parasites will likely make it into your system at some point and deal with them when they present themselves.

[crazzyreefer]

I have been running BB tanks for last 25+ years, When my wife dumps in a bunch of fish that has not been QT, then we have an ich outbreak, it usually hits the fish that she just bought but the second cycle usually wipes out most of the entire tank. So to answer your question, BB doesn't do much with helping to control the outbreak. Sorry....

I run a 1000 gal tank with huge amount of flow and fiteration.

[psykobowler]

I use ozone and my tank is bare bottom. The ich never last. Never an outbreak. It is still in my tank after a year because I would see occasional spots on my white cheek tang but never an outbreak. I will never run a tank without ozone again.

[wooden_reefer]

Can a bare bottom reef tank with lots of water flow upset the ich life cycle? I will assume this is the cyst stage that resides in the substrate. I saw a couple references to this, but wondered what our regular posters here thought of it?

Thank you. I learn a lot from these forums.

This is of very minor importance.