911 ...Nothing is Working

[newsalt]

Please help. Nothing I've tried to rid my tank of ich has worked. I've tried garlic, ginger, selcon and nothing is working. This morning I notice that my clowns now have it as well as at least one of my chromis. The hippo is nowhere to be found. Quarentine is simply out of the question. I'm thinking of resorting to medicating the tank. My feeling right now is that if I medicate the tank and loose my snails, hermits, and shrimp, then so be it. Saving the fish is my main concern. Can someone recommend a treatment. How is Rid-Ich? Please help!

[Brucey]

NS . . . . . . have you tried raising the PH via Kalk dripping. I've gone on and on about this in every thread you have raised. Have you started this yet. ICH hates high PH (8.4 to 8.6) and a high stable PH will induce less stress on your fish. You could also invest in a UV filter which is how I recently beat ich although it only kills the parasites when they fall off the fish
Brucey

[newsalt]

Brucey, I simply can not raise the pH. I have not tried kalk. Don't your water params need to be stable before adding kalk? My Ca is about 300 Alk is about 12 dKH, and Mg is around 1170.

[Brucey]

Originally posted by newsalt
Brucey, I simply can not raise the pH. I have not tried kalk. Don't your water params need to be stable before adding kalk

NS . . . I'm not sure what you mean by saying "Don't your water params need to be stable before adding Kalk". Kalk WILL help stablizie your water parameters. Your Calcium levels will rise, your Alk will rise buffering PH, your PH levels will rise, the Kalk will precipitate nasty's like Phosphates. There are some really sucessful marine aquarists out there that add NO additives to their systems at all apart from dripping Kalk and partial, frequent water changes. Whatever methods you are trying to use to raise PH, dripping Kalk is by far the cheapest and most beneficial you can undertake for your reef tank. Please do it now.
Brucey

PS, Please take a look at my tank. I add NOTHING at all to the water, no additives at all except to drip kalk. HTH mate

[newsalt]

Brucey:

I've spent so much money so far on this aquarium. I'm going broke. I bought a diatom filter hoping that will filter out the parasite. Granted I have only used it once. I am willing to try kalk I guess. What I meant about the water params. was that I thought they need to be stable first and Kalk will keep them there. You seem to be saying that adding kalk now will raise my Ca, lower my Alk and raise my pH. Is that true?

[hunterd_67]

Its gonna take time for ur fish to fight it off, maybe even go out and get a 30 g storage tote and set that up as a qt tank

[Woodstock]

Keep the diatom running constantly.. at least one month. Clean it twice a week.

Continue adding garlic to the fish food. Feed high quality food.

Drip kalk (as mentioned above), and do water changes twice weekly. Vacuum the substrate too.

GL~

[newsalt]

Brucey,

Can you explain (one more time) how to go about mixing and adding kalk. I was going to try this DIY Kalk doser:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/skip/agu/kalkdripper.htm

[Brucey]

NS . . . . I explained it one of your other threads. I'll find it for you
Brucey
PS . . . . Kalk is inexpensive and costs less than the loss of one fish if you drip it from a bucket so it need not cost much money at all. HTH

[Brucey]

NS . . . . It's all in this thread started by you called "Adding Kalk". Wasn't too hard to find.
Brucey

Adding Kalk

[BoomerD]

You're thrashing all around and totally ignoring the best solution to the problem...Quarantine & hsopital tank. Not convenient, not, expensive, maybe. As hunter said, you can use a rubbermaid container for a QT, all you need is a heater, airpump and sponge filter to run one successfully, although I prefer a hang-on filter like an AquaClear or biowheel type to the sponge. Then, you can treat with medications that will actually work, instead of just "flavoring" the water. Sorry to say, but in my experience, (I've been at this almost 30 yrs.) NONE of the reef safe ich medications are very effective. Quarantine tanks and copper are a time proven way to fight the parasite. THEN, you quarantine EVERY fish for 4 to 6 weeks, (preferably 6) before you put them in your tank...
That is the best and most effective way. Otherwise, you will always have problems...

[Witfull]

yup, ditto and what he said!

[addict]

One thing to keep in mind is that ich is not nearly as serious as you might think.

I had ich pretty bad in my tank once, and I just let nature take it's course. Ich is mainly brought on by stress, and the more you fiddle with things, the more stressed the fish get, compounding the problem.

My neon and red-head goby had ich so bad they looked fuzzy, yet they both are still with me... in fact I didn't lose a single fish just by letting things go away naturally.

Your best bet is to simply keep them well-fed and as stress-free as possible. Like Brucey said, you can also try a higher than normal pH regimen and that will help as well.

Ich hasn't shown up again on my fish in over a year...

Mainly, just take a deep breath and realize that you're not dealing with that serious of a problem... not enough of a problem to get overly stressed about anyway...

HTH.

P.S. You might also try using the 'size' tags in your sig... you got a pretty long one there...

[Spooda420]

Do all the above, I have a UV on the tank running 24/7 no problems I used it orginally to rid the tank of HA slow flow is the key to UVs. Feed wit high quality food. stable pH and temp. Keep the pests at bay. I'd set up a UV, start a QT tank with existing tank water treat the QT with copper put the fish in there for 6-8 weeks keep nothing living in the tank let it run fallow for the 6-8 weeks (dont treat the display with copper what ever you do) the ich will die off with no hosts. The ich be sucked through the UV and die and your problems should be over.

BTW I run my UV at a 1/4 of the reccomended rate. Longer the parasite has in the UV chamber the more chances it will explode and perish.

HTH

C

[newsalt]

reefer:

What are (is) "size tags"?