Ich in a reef tank

PAYNR · 05-08-2008, 05:47 PM

I'm really new to the hobby and have started a reef tank. I have some soft corals, sponges invertabrates and some fish. The problem is that my blue tang and powder blue tang have come down with Ich. I was told that it is possible to use Ich-X and it wouldn't hurt anything. I was wondering what others thought. I tried to catch them and give them a fresh water bath but that was pretty much impossible. My tank is 125 gallons and trying to catch a 3" fish isn't easy. Does anyone else know how to remedy this problem.

In trouble

ScruffyRubicon · 05-08-2008, 05:50 PM

Welcome to TRT!

I know it is difficult to catch them, I have a 125 too, but it really is best to try and treat outside the tank. Here is a thread I started with the treatment I used and it work very well.

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f6...t=hyposalinity

chrischris · 05-08-2008, 06:50 PM

ya hyposalinity worked for me its the best treatment i find

kwdelre · 05-08-2008, 09:24 PM

sorry to here that. IME if you look at a tang the wrong way they get ick!

depitch · 05-08-2008, 09:53 PM

Be careful with "ick remedies" in reef.

Most will drop pH, stress corals if not kill them.

If you can't catch them drop salinity slowly, feed garlic or add garlic drops to food and pray for the best outcome.

Doug

PAYNR · 05-10-2008, 06:51 AM

Thanks for your suggestions to solve my problem. I'm going to try a couple of things and I will let you know how things turn out. The hyposalinity suggestion is out at the moment as I can't afford to buy a digital salinity meter at the moment.(they are quite dear up here in Canada) I'm told by some experienced aquarists that if I can get the fish healthy and then feed them garlic it seems to keep the ich away. I'm going to catch the fish and put them in a hospital tank and treat them for ich at the same time give them doses of garlic with their food. Once their healthy I will put them back into the main tank and see how it goes.

tellycoleman · 05-10-2008, 07:44 AM

yes you really ned to catch them.
A powder blue tang is very ich sensitive
I like the lights off lights on method for catching tangs and its easy .
when your lights go off in the evening turn off all the lights in the room the tanks in.
Get everything ready with the lights off. At about midnight when all the fishy are sleep, bet a flashlight. (best if you use a red flashlight filter but i have used a regular flashlight) and filnd the fish you want to catch. If he likes to sleep under a rock then have a turkey baster ready as well. when you find him . cut on all your fish tank lights at once. he will be blind for about 20-30 sec while his eyes adjust to the light.
easy catch

tellycoleman · 05-10-2008, 07:46 AM

Oh yeah DO NOT FW DIP A POWDER BLUE TANG. I think its to much stress and made my problem worse

Kevin1000 · 05-10-2008, 07:55 PM

Ich is easy to kill ... but very difficult and often impossible to do safely in a reef tank environment.

The two common and effective methods of killing ich are copper and hypo salinity .. both are considered lethal to inverts are not recommended for show tanks.

If you want an "ich free" show tank then I suggest you setup a QT tank .. gather every fish (whether they show signs of ich or not) and treat them for ich. This will kill the ich on the fish .. but won't kill the ich within the show tank. Ich need a fish to perpetuate their life cycle and if you leave your show tank without fish for about 5 weeks any ich within the show tank will naturally die off.

In the future .. I suggest you QT all fish before you introduce them to your show tank .. saves a lot of headaches.