Learned about ich the hard way..

Well, noticed my blue hippo showing signs of ich, I thought he was rubbing against my trigger to be friendly. Started treating the DT with a reef safe ich treatment 4 weeks ago. No suprise here went through 7 bottles and it didn't do anything . So... did a whole bunch of reading and fought out the bad news the hard way. Took my beautiful rockscape down, my rocks were getting really sweet too. put all 4 fish in qt. They seem to be fine, all are eating. my water quality went to you know what. The copper medicine says it's good for a month should I do a water change in a couple weeks? Anyway waiting for the dt to fill back up, got the skimmer going and my new phosban/charcoal reactor going. Haven't had this much stress in awhile im really bummed ....

 

yeah thats why quarentines can be a life saver..especially when your dealing with tangs..ich magnets..sorry to hear

 

Tangs get ich, bottom line. You have to prepare for that, and it sounds like you have. Qt's the way to go. How long where the fish in quarantine?

 

Learned this the hard way as well. I've had fish for 2 years now and not one of them has had ick, guess its bound to happen sooner or later. I will qt from now on.

 

yeah i dont have a qt now but im not dealing with tangs and angels, but when i set up my large tank then i will def have a qt before introducing any tang, angel, or wrasse

 

I put the blue hippo in for 2 weeks, I didn't realise I waited too late, he bounced right back but my other 2 fish had it already. I thought treating the dt with the reef safe stuff would work, I dont think it works though. All fish are now in qt tanks, how long should I keep them in qt I belive from reading its a month or so right?

 

Funny though, my last tank I had a foxface and a yellow tang, both were as hardy as damsels and never got sick.

 

I had it in my 150. Started with my hippo too. Within a week, lost half my stock including the flame angel, fire gobies, PBT etc. I used one of those reef safe things too but I also got a UV sterilizer. I know it kills the pods, but the Manderin was already gone.
A week later everybody was gettin better. I believe the UV was the reason. It kills the ich. Just thought i'd share..

 

not to be such a kill joy but UV will kill them only in free floating stage of there life cycle. Also this is if they happen to pass through it. Just wanted to clarify that.

But I run one for the same reason nuke em all as i say. As far as pods have not noticed any decline in my pod population they breed like rabbits in my display so tis all good

 

I got ick for the first time in twelve years from a soldier fish from my LFS that went out of business- I didnt quarintine-(I know- stupid of me) just a few mos. ago- I didnt remove anything.

Here is what I did

First crank the heat up to 87-88 degrees
Added a powerful air pump and air stone to make up for oxegen loss
Add aquarium salt to up the natural mineral levels- Did this for two days

then:

Turned off skimmer and reactors, it is very important that you do this, otherwise your skimmer will go nuts and your media will be ruined, not to mention, defeats the purpose of treating the tank, because with this equipment running you are removing it from the water, therefore no treatment is being given.

Added melafix and pimafix for two days, water pumps and power heads at max flow, this keeps the ick in a suspended state more easily, and helps to kick it- did this for two days to help the fish with any possible other issues they might have, and beef up immunity.

Added reef safe kick ick as per the directions (got it from premium aquatics) this stuff really worked well for me.

only lost 2 fish

everyone is doing really well now and the tank looks great- didnt effect one coral nor any of my anemones, snails, shrimp and other critters- not even my star fish, all are fine.

I hope this helps