Worst mistake ever! Read before using Ich Attack!

I have a 75 gallon fish and reef system up and running well for 18 months. Never had a problem until last week noticed my purple showed signs of ich. Unable to put in hospital tank I took advice from my local fish store and treated the system with Kordon Ich Attack 100% all natural treatment. Says completely safe for reef tanks. Followed directions to the T. measured out dose. Seemed fine that day but when I woke up the following morning all fish were dead! I have felt sick to my stomach ever since. Stock list that passed away were - purple tang, purple dottyback, percula clown, bangaii cardinal, foxface, diamond goby with pistol, sixline, pencil urchin, two cleaner shrimp. Survived was all corals, most snails, serpentine star, bubble tip. Corals didn't look great but turned on filter and skimmer and next day looked fine again.
So, I used dose in morning, did second dose that evening. Took out carbon and turned off skimmer like directions stated. Not sure what happened, water parameters all normal. Wonder if this product takes O2 out of water.

So depressing, feel sick everytime I look at the tank .

 

I've used it before in a tank with corals. The corals survived, the fish did not. The stuff is simply not an effective treatment for ich. If it's not strong enough to kill sensitive coral, is it strong enough to be effective against ich?

QT is where it's at.

 

I suspect in turning off the filter and skimmer you decreased available oxygen drastically. Oxygen levels drop of at night.

If a product for Marine Ich states that you can add it directly to a reef tank beware!

I would stop dosing the tank immediately. Leave the tank fallow (with out fish) for 2 months and research Marine Ich as much as possible.

If it were my tank I would run some carbon, keep skimmer on and all filtration on, and prepare for a possible decline in water quality by having water made up for a water change and testing for ammonia and nitrites.

Next time treat the tang conservatly or invest in a QT and QT all fish from here on out.

This is a must read when treating for Marine Ich.

Marine Ich - Myths and Facts

Sorry for the frustration and loss, that has to be depressing. The product would not have worked, but the directions to turn off the skimmer and filtration is a recipe for disaster.

 

bapull,

Sorry for your loss, I understand how you must feel.

Welcome to 3Reef!

I do hope you decide to continue Reefing.

 

Thank you all for your comments. I just wanted to give others a heads up on the product and possible outcomes of using it.

I do plan to continue reefing and enjoy learning from everyone's experiences.

 

all those treatments are pretty much a joke. Ive tried them too and never had any change at all. The only thing that I have found to have a obvious effect is a good UV sterilizer.

 

Wow, I thought you were going to say copper!

 

so sorry to hear about your losses! I know that feeling and it's awful - I had all of my fish die (except one) after adding biopellets without sufficient skimming - result was low 02....many of the fish I had had for 3+ years very sad day. It is thoughtful of you to make sure others are warned about the product.

 

damn i would be devastated. sorry big guy

 

And it has to be a big one. You cannot simply put a UV sterilizer on a tank and expect to be ich free. It is important to understand the UV exposure you get for a given flow rate then compare it to what is needed to kill ich.

Also, a sterilizer will not rid your tank of ich - it helps control it, which is fine. The main thing to remember about ich is that a couple parasites will not kill your fish. It is when they get a TON of parasites that they die. In the wild this doesn't happen because the concentration of ich is relatively low. In your tank a single parasite goes through its life cycle, creating like 100 more. Each of those goes through its own life and a bunch more are created. Since, unlike the ocean, there is nowhere for the parasite to disperse to, they concentrate in the tank (and hence around the fish). The fish get exposed to more, more attach, create more, even more attach and before long the fish can't support them all and dies.

A sterilizer at the proper dose stops the concentration from ever getting to that point.

The thing is that getting a sterilizer that can provide the proper dose can get expensive. However, what I do on my system is provide enough dosage to kill marine velvet (far more deadly than ich) which is about 1/3 that required to kill ich. Since installing it I've had only one ich "outbreak" and that was maximized at about 4-5 cysts on each my purple tang and kole. What I did was slow down the flow rate through the sterilizer for a few days and it disappeared, having reduced the concentration to a level where the fish could fight them off.

My belief is that even the 1/3 dose kills some of the weaker parasites while in their swimming stage and helps keep the population low enough to allow the fish to take care of them on their own.

EDIT: I meant to add that I will never again have a tank without a sizable sterilizer on it. It gives me a lot of piece of mind.