marine ick

eddie pr

Non-member
Hi i just have a few questions i just got ick like tree months ago as the last thing it could happen since i start this hobby on february .have got green algae blooms..diatoms blooms black cyano on my sand bed .... well after been reading for few weeks i decide to make a hospital tank .put apart my whole tank to get my fish . treat them whit cupramine for four weeks .now there is the question manny people says to leave the tank follow for tree ,fore ,five ect.,ect.. i decide leave it for five weeks start to put my fish back in .and sorprice after two weeks see my clown fish have two white spots then my black and white chromis also have two spots after a week there was gone and not come back .now just today i see two white spots on my yellow tang none of the other fish have it hes eating well and very active ..now i need some advise should i wait to see if they got some inmunity on ick or should i get the stress of put my tank apart agen and treat them whit cupramine ang leave the tank fallow for nine or ten weeks ? (Sorry for the spelling)
 
Take out all of the fish and treat them with the correct copper dosage for a minimum of 3 weeks in your case. Make sure that the hospital tank has a bear bottom w/o any substrate. Make sure there is no life in your main tank either that way without a host the parasite (that is ick) will die off. After 4 weeks of waiting (3 weeks treating with copper and 1 week wheening them off it) you can put them back into the main tank. keep the lights of in the main tank during this 4 week span and with a water change or two all of your diatoms/cyano bacteria will dissipate leaving your tank spotless with a little elbow grease.
 
Research "Tank Transfer Method" if you do not feel comfortable with Copper.
Also some strains of Ich have lasted upwards of 72 days on a fallow tank.
Reef Central has a few stickies with proven theories and practices.
 
Research "Tank Transfer Method" if you do not feel comfortable with Copper.
Also some strains of Ich have lasted upwards of 72 days on a fallow tank.
Reef Central has a few stickies with proven theories and practices.

Second that, all of it ^
 
Agreed with all of the above info... I would keep the display tank fallow (no fish) for 2 months and quite possible 3 months to be sure. You can also speed up the marine ich life cycle by SLOWLY increasing your display tank temp to 80-82 degrees... your corals will be fine if you do it slowly... by increasing the temp , it will cause the ICH to die off faster in a fallow tank since there will be no fish to feed off of and the ich will starve to death. I would also incorporate a UV sterilizer to potentially kill off any ich that may have survived...

Also, going forward I would Quarantine any new fish you buy for 30 days with a copper treatment in a QT tank before putting in the DT. Just my 2 Cents
 
to be clear... by increasing the temp in your tank you are increasing the lifecycle of the ICH.... after if incubates in the sand it releases new ICH into the water column... if the ICH in the water column can not find a host (fish) it will starve and die
 
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