POLL: Is your tank ich free or do you live w/ ich and reduce stressors?

Is your tank ICH free or do you live w/ ich and reduce stressors?


  • Total voters
    25
  • Poll closed .
There always has to be one weirdo....and i guess its me.
I know i have ich, velvet, flukes, brooknellya, fin rot, parasites, cloudy/pop eyes, skinny, pale, you name it because i have added fish that have shown massive symptoms of it.
None of my fish ever show any signs of disease within a month of being added, and then never show it again. All are super fat and colorful. They will all die of obesity and fatty liver before dying of disease.
All fish i have ever sold have not caused any outbreaks in other reefers tanks.

I often get sick fish from stores, and i request them to heal them up. Often the fish are cheap/free. You know that dying damsel you see at the lfs missing half its fin, only has 1 eye, and is laying on the sand bed? yeah, i buy them.
example: I scored 4 purple tangs for $40 total that were missing fin, had so much ich they were white everywhere, and were pale + skinny. They were days away from dead. 2 months later in my tank they looked great. I kept them for an additional 4-6 months, and then sold them cheap to reefers that wanted them.

The only losses from any visible disease that i have seen is: 2 clowns went down hard from brooknellya. I hadnt added anything new for 6 months, but it popped up one day, and within 36hrs, both were dead. no other fish were effected at all.

My tanks are way over stocked. I have a 7" sailfin, 2 yellows, lavender, and a vhlamingi tang, and a 8" one spot rabbitfish in a 180g main display, along with 20 other smaller fish(under 4"). swimming space and hiding spots are at a premium, as there is lots of rock and coral too. the 120 side tank is the hospital/new fish acclimating tank. This has 3-12 fish at any one time in it.
I have NO aggression issues, and everyone has their space and patterns. harmony at its best.

My secret? i have 340 gallons( 180, 120, 40), tons of fish, i add sand/mud from the beach often, literally thousands of ghost shrimp a year are added from the cape, i often get sand from stores and other reefers tanks,......
and the biggest reason is....
I feed like a mad man. Every day i feed 2-4 ounces of mixed food. Flake, pellets, mysis, reef goo, whole fish, phyto, clams, scallops, everything you can think of. Each day, i take a 6-8oz plastic cup, and fill it half way with goo and meaty foods. Add flake/pellet to taste, and then feed throughout the day until its gone. in addition, i also feed 2 full sheets of nori a day, and 3 on the weekend days.
I have .05 for nitrates, but the phosphate is 1.0+......no stony coral growth for me, but my fish are where its at.
Ofcourse, i have only done a 60g water change in the last 6 months, so that hurts too. Lol, to top it all off, my tank is 68 degrees in the winter, and 84 in the summer.
A big skimmer, a turf scrubber, carbon dosing, lots of sponge, and a deep sand bed is what runs everything.

Should everyone try this? no. but if your beloved fish is dying, and live in nh, im always accepting new pets lol.
Prepares for the incoming flame attacks.:eek:
you still going strong? still have a reef in NH? Would love to understand how you add sand / mulm from the beach in NH? Interesting in trying... I am in NH also.
 
You realize this thread is almost 10 years old, right?
Yes -I was OP! I was ich free for 10 years :( now I am gonna try ich management. Then moderate a call between Paul b and humble fish.

Since I am now doing ich management I was thinking there might be really something to the left sea water and/or the live sand.

I was as at the Boston aquarium this past weekend and they use water from the ocean for their tanks… would love to learn more …

Thanks!!
 
I try my best to keep all ich out. All fish have been qt’d and treated with copper and most with general cure for worms.

I have qt’d all inverts for 3 months in a separate tank, but I do no quarantine corals. All corals coming in are cut off frag plugs and only live tissue in treated and placed in my frag tank but always a risk something unwanted hitched a ride.

This is as far as I will go for quarantine process and have never done so before this set up
 
I have never manged or quarantined a tank yet. I’ve lost fish to carpet surfing, bullying and old age. Never to ich or any other pest. Corals on the other hand :censored:
 
I have never manged or quarantined a tank yet. I’ve lost fish to carpet surfing, bullying and old age. Never to ich or any other pest. Corals on the other hand :censored:
Chris.... so when you get ich what do you do? I am thinking a diatom filter now based on Paul B - To hlep reduce the quantity of free swimmers?
 
Chris.... so when you get ich what do you do? I am thinking a diatom filter now based on Paul B - To hlep reduce the quantity of free swimmers?
I don’t do anything special. I feed pellets 2x a day and store bought frozen a couple times a week ( no real schedule ). My Angel harasses my 6-line all day long and nothing bothers the tang but they’re all fat so I know they’re healthy and the Angel keeps the 6 line on a good cardio program lol
 
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