No Sick Fish is Crap!

shozbot · #1 10/15/2007, 12:25 AM

Had a resurgence of ick in my tank and had this "no sick fish" stuff that I won in a raffle a while back. So, I admit that I took the easy way out and gambled and lost. Applied the med according to instructions which meant no skimming for 7 days and 1 drop per 25g both am & pm.

What I observed is that ich got worse, corals started to bleach out and Ph dropped precipitously to 7.6. I stopped treatment after 7 days which was the recommended duration and which was about 5 days ago. I improved the Ph, did more water changes, and turned skimmer back on.

However, today I sadly lost the 1st fish that I ever bought. It was a Large Powder Blue Tang that I've had for 10 yrs. He has been through a lot. Especially when I was a nubie and didn't know what I was doing, but succumbed finally to my poor judgement in using this crap.

I guess it was worth what I paid!

R.I.P.

PL-Reef · #2 10/15/2007, 05:53 AM

that sucks! i hate loosing fish. especially one that you had for ever.

how are the other fish?

LRLS · #3 10/15/2007, 05:58 AM

use garlic when you feed them it works and when I had ick I used kick Ick and that did work but I did some reading on the garlic, so I use garlic at least 3 times a week when I feed frozen foods just take a small piece and press it into a cup add the frozen food and feed, good luck and sorry about the fish.

shozbot · #4 10/15/2007, 07:03 AM

Other fish have ich as well, but I guess they are a bit less affected. In increasing order of infection are the following fish:

1) Goby
2) Clown
3) Cow Fish
4) Wrasse

I have been feeding garlic for over 2 yrs every feeding and for the longest time the ich was completely gone, but recently resurged.

As week speak I'm setting up a hospital tank and will move fish tonight. The positive side, I guess, is that I don't need that large a tank to treat the remaining fish.

Steve

PS. My new motto is NSF is POS!

KingOfJericho · #5 10/15/2007, 10:01 AM

Do you use a UV Sterilizer?

BennyL69 · #6 10/15/2007, 11:17 AM

I always just raise my temp and lower my salinity and that works great. sucks about the fish man.......

chirocato · #7 10/15/2007, 11:19 AM

Steve get a bottle of Kick Ich. Stuff works awesome. I've used it many times w/out problem. Get the big bottle to save yourself additional trips to the store. I got mine at Fintastic. Think it cost like $35-$40. Sorry to hear about your tang bro.

pecan2phat · #8 10/15/2007, 11:27 AM

You are sadly one of quite a few that have been frustrated with NSF.

I actually tried it for 5 consective weeks @ a cost of $250 and told most of my friends not to use it. Here's one guy from my old club and his rant:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1150485

I've used Kick-Ick probably about 10 times in the last 15 yrs and it might have worked once so It's a no-go recommendation also

N-A-S-O · #9 10/15/2007, 01:32 PM

wow...sorry to hear about that steve. I also won a bottle at a club raffle. I had a severe outbreak of ich, and used NSF in a all sps tank and had no issues. The ick went away faster than any product I've ever used. Only thing I did diffrent is I didn't turn off my skimmer. Also whats the shelf life on this product, didn't you win this awile ago? Could this be an issue?

Freed · #10 10/15/2007, 01:38 PM

People please! The only reason the ich went away is because that is its life cycle, not because of the "magic potion" you used. The only reason you didn't notice it come back is that when the ich DID continue its life cycle it didn't multiply in plague proportions for you to notice it. You more than likely still have ich in your tanks but not in the numbers necessary to visually see it or to cause scratching/flashing in the fish. Most likely in the gills but still not in plague proportions. The only proven method of ich erradication is either copper or hyposalinity in a QT tank. More people have complained about "wonder cures" like these than there are long term success stories.

N-A-S-O · #11 10/15/2007, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pecan2phat
You are sadly one of quite a few that have been frustrated with NSF.

I actually tried it for 5 consective weeks @ a cost of $250 and told most of my friends not to use it. Here's one guy from my old club and his rant:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1150485

I've used Kick-Ick probably about 10 times in the last 15 yrs and it might have worked once so It's a no-go recommendation also

People have also had issues(bleaching) with kick-ick. I've used that many times and think it's worthless.

J8851 · #12 10/15/2007, 01:47 PM

I have half a bottle of kick-ich at my house. Your more than welcome to have it if you can pick it up.

-Jim

KingOfJericho · #13 10/15/2007, 02:35 PM

Are you guys using UV Sterilizers?!

shozbot · #14 10/15/2007, 04:41 PM

Never went the UV Sterilizer route since I think there is way to much maintenance involved in order for it to be effective for any appreciable amount of time.

Can someone tell me more about Kich Ich? I suppose its some sort of anti-biotic? Kind of fearful at this point.

What are the pros & cons of hyposalinity and using copper?

Thanks,

Steve

Freed · #15 10/15/2007, 04:48 PM

Pros of hypo: easy to do, kills ich, don't have to keep buying treatments, keep water level at same level a couple times a day is all you have to do once you get the salinity down to 1.009SG. Cons: there are a few species of fish that don't tolerate it well but those numbers are very few. More handle it quite well than don't. DOES NOT STRESS FISH LIKE SOME WILL SAY THAT DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT.

Copper: Kills ich safely when done properly. Cons: must test often, must add copper meds often, must not overdose, will not be able to keep inverts in tank down the road, kills inverts and corals.

chirocato · #16 10/15/2007, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by N-A-S-O
People have also had issues(bleaching) with kick-ick. I've used that many times and think it's worthless.

Hmmmmm, you got me wondering now. Kick ick worked for me everytime I tried it (different tanks and different times w/out ich returning) but I did have quite the bleaching event in my sps too. I thought it was from my light upgrade but now you got me wondering. Hmmmmm...

N-A-S-O · #17 10/15/2007, 05:21 PM

yup... there are a couple threads addressing this issue

OK · #18 10/15/2007, 07:30 PM

In the fish and disease forum there is a sticky with ich treatment articles. There is one in paticular that goes into a method called the "Three day transfer method". I have had great success with this method as it actually breaks the life cycle of ich rather than trying to kill it. You transfer the fish every 3 day to a cleaned (wipe out with a towel) and dry (24hrs minimum) container with NSW. By the 3rd move the lifecycle of ich is broken, the last 3 are just to make sure. I just use 2 rubbermaid containers with lids, 2 extra heaters, 2 small power heads, and some PVC fittings for hiding places. All extra stuff I had laying around. There is also a modified version that uses Hyposalinity also, but more to reduce stress, not to kill the ich.
Medications don't always work because the ich can burrow deep enough into the fish to never come into contact with meds.

There is a little more to the process than what I just described so if you can't find anything on it, PM me and I'll dig around in my piles of printed articles off the net to see if I can find it.
Mike

shozbot · #19 10/16/2007, 09:28 AM

Scott,

I think it was the meds that bleached your coral and not the light. From what I learned at MACNA, it seems very difficult to give the corals too much light. The coral that you gave me bleached out 100% within 2 days of using "No Sick Fish Crap"! However, the LPS, and acros were unaffected.

Steve