I have ich what do i do

[wxl14]

I currently have ich in my 90 gallon tank. I only have fish except for one anenomie. I do not have a quarantine tank. I dont really care about ever getting live rock at this point i just want the fish to survive. What do I do? an what is the best treatment.

 

[reefman]

how many fishes? r u sure is ick?

 

[wxl14]

i am 90 percent sure they look as if someone has sprinkled salt on them. I have also seen them rubbing up against the rocks in the tank. And I saw my majestic angel just sitting at the bottom of my tank on and angel.

 

[reefman]

theres 2 types of treatments.
hyposalinity and copper.
copper more dangerous but works faster
hypo safer but slower n more work

heres a good site on it
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/marineich.html

 

[reefman]

bare in mind some fishes r very sensitive to copper,ie-angels,blennies,etc.
either way, it is much easier to treat in a smaller tank or tub. also leave the disease tank fishless for at least 6 weeks assures traces of ick gone.

 

[marrone]

Wexel

Make sure you read the site that Reefman posted. It's very important to determine if you have ich or not. If you do hypo and you don't have ich it's not going to work, so it's important to correctly id what you have.

Also do all your fish have it or just a couple? If just a couple you may want to get a rubbermaid container and treat them in that.

Michael

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

If you have a large population of fish(which renders you to take them all out impossible) and if only couple fish have "seeable" ick, they should be treated seperately. However, there are still ick in your tank. If you are ready to keep a little more live stock, consider adding couple cleaner wrasse and cleaner shrimps. Some fish will eat shrimps and cleaner wrasse is not easy to keep either. Cleaner wrasse is ralatively inexpensive and works very hard to keep your fish clear of ick.

 

[fritz]

The problem with a fish solution (cleaner wrasse) is that fish can get ich. If you go the cleaner shrimp route, shrimp are imune to ich. Also getting something to eat the ich will never cure your tank, just keep the ich in check. There will always be eggs hatching and infectiong the fish, which will then be eaten. There will be some fish that won't go to the cleaner shrimp and thus never get cleaned.

I would use copper but not in your display tank. I know that you said you never plan on getting live rock but you never know how you'll feel down the road. An all fish tank in a setting full of live rock is something to be seen. Once you see one a tank full of fish and nothing else can't compare. Dosing copper is permanent. It will never come out of your tank. For the angles hyposalinity is most likely your best bet, in a separate rubbermaid tub then the rest whom I'd treat with copper.

(Just my 2 cents)

Also, I told you www.wetwebmedia.com This hobby is 99% about learning and while sites like this a great resources an education it is not. There are millions of bad things that live in the sea and you will get to experience ALL OF THEM if you don't prepare for them. Your saltwater experience will become "Hey how do I get rid of..." over and over again. Most of these bad things (ich, nusiance algae, etc) are very easy to prevent but very hard to get rid of.

It's a great and rewarding hobby that you'll love but you need to protect yourself and your investment. At least you're in the right place

Here's a good article as well
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ichartmar.htm

 

[cla009]

If most of the fish are still eating and other than the ich appear healthy I would slowly go to a hyposalinity treatment for 6-8 weeks. Slowly means drop it over the course of a week. Ive done this and it killed most of my inverts although all of my snails and hermits lived. It also killed my liverock. I couldnt chance the nice and expensive fish collection I had in the tank. All of the fish made it after the 8 weeks and I have yet to see ich in the following 8 weeks. I raised the salinity over the course of 3 weeks back to normal levels because controlling PH is a real pain when youre in a hypo state.

 

[Deanos]

If most of the fish are still eating and other than the ich appear healthy I would slowly go to a hyposalinity treatment for 6-8 weeks. Slowly means drop it over the course of a week. Ive done this and it killed most of my inverts although all of my snails and hermits lived. It also killed my liverock. I couldnt chance the nice and expensive fish collection I had in the tank. All of the fish made it after the 8 weeks and I have yet to see ich in the following 8 weeks. I raised the salinity over the course of 3 weeks back to normal levels because controlling PH is a real pain when youre in a hypo state.

Great advice for a FO tank! Just remember to take out the anemone during hypo.

 

[marrone]

This is the recommand time period to bring down the SG when doing Hypo:

Starting with a SG of 1.025:

• 
  ((1.025*4)+1.000)/5 = 1.020 approx.

Then, after 12 hours:

• 
  ((1.020*4)+1.000)/5 = 1.016 approx.

After 24 hours:

• 
  ((1.016*4)+1.000)/5 = 1.013 approx.

After the 4th change:

• 
  ((1.013*4)+1.000)/5 = 1.010 approx.

After the fourth water change the specific gravity should be 1.010 or pretty close. Wait a few hours to make the final adjustment to get down to 1.009.

On top of inverts & LR take out any Sharks or Rays.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

If most of the fish are still eating and other than the ich appear healthy I would slowly go to a hyposalinity treatment for 6-8 weeks. Slowly means drop it over the course of a week. Ive done this and it killed most of my inverts although all of my snails and hermits lived. It also killed my liverock. I couldnt chance the nice and expensive fish collection I had in the tank. All of the fish made it after the 8 weeks and I have yet to see ich in the following 8 weeks. I raised the salinity over the course of 3 weeks back to normal levels because controlling PH is a real pain when youre in a hypo state.

This is the recommand time period to bring down the SG when doing Hypo:

Starting with a SG of 1.025:

• 
  ((1.025*4)+1.000)/5 = 1.020 approx.

Then, after 12 hours:

• 
  ((1.020*4)+1.000)/5 = 1.016 approx.

After 24 hours:

• 
  ((1.016*4)+1.000)/5 = 1.013 approx.

After the 4th change:

• 
  ((1.013*4)+1.000)/5 = 1.010 approx.

After the fourth water change the specific gravity should be 1.010 or pretty close. Wait a few hours to make the final adjustment to get down to 1.009.

On top of inverts & LR take out any Sharks or Rays.

Both are the proper way of executing hypo. in the main tank but just make sure you also have a spare and new filtration(like active carbon) in place. Most of the bio filter already in your tank will be dead as well as the parasite. Oftenly, people forget about the sand bed they already have nor the bacteria in the canister filter will now become ammonium factory.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Go to petland discounts and get a cheap tank setup and use it as either a holding tank for your inverts or a QT tank for your fish and either copper or hypo in the qt tank. Better safe than sorry.