luke33
08/01/2007, 12:26 PM
I've seen alot of questions about this so I'll fill you in on my experience. I've treated ick with just about everything on the market that is considered reef safe and whatnot, from rid ick, to ick gaurd to kick ick, its all the same to me, pure crap.
Anyhow, the current methods are copper and hypo, everyone knows this and they are the only way i have had luck.
So the problem many face like myself is my QT isn't large enough for my fish. And I have a 75g QT for the record. So I was going to purchase a blue tang and new it would probably get ick or had ick already(petco). I had watched it for 3weeks and it was eating and a very healthy looking guy for 29.99, so i got all my tanks ready for the hypo in my main tank.
I knew my LS was going to have alot of death from the bristles and pods and peanut worms and everything and anything in it. So i was ready to test for a spike in ammonia as well.
So i basically removed all my LR, Corals and inverts and put them in my 75g. I brought down my SG to .009 in two days after adding the tang. All my LS died, as figured . I added an emperor 400 for the first few days with two new filter pads and lots of carbon. It picked up tons of pods and bristles. After the first week i took out the mechanical filtration and i'm still running alot of carbon. I'm in week 5 and all my fish, corals, LR, inverts are thriving. My blue tang is getting very fat and lovin it. I'll pry go 8 weeks just to really make sure all is ok. My sand will be live again after I add the LR back, shouuld take a few weeks. IMO, this was very good for my fish as it didn't stress them out a ton. I didn't have any ammonia spikes whatsoever doing this, but i would advise using a hot filter during this time to collect all bugs. My skimmer produced a bit of skimmate, about 2 cups or so a week. All in all its a good method if you are prepared.
Luke
Anyhow, the current methods are copper and hypo, everyone knows this and they are the only way i have had luck.
So the problem many face like myself is my QT isn't large enough for my fish. And I have a 75g QT for the record. So I was going to purchase a blue tang and new it would probably get ick or had ick already(petco). I had watched it for 3weeks and it was eating and a very healthy looking guy for 29.99, so i got all my tanks ready for the hypo in my main tank.
I knew my LS was going to have alot of death from the bristles and pods and peanut worms and everything and anything in it. So i was ready to test for a spike in ammonia as well.
So i basically removed all my LR, Corals and inverts and put them in my 75g. I brought down my SG to .009 in two days after adding the tang. All my LS died, as figured . I added an emperor 400 for the first few days with two new filter pads and lots of carbon. It picked up tons of pods and bristles. After the first week i took out the mechanical filtration and i'm still running alot of carbon. I'm in week 5 and all my fish, corals, LR, inverts are thriving. My blue tang is getting very fat and lovin it. I'll pry go 8 weeks just to really make sure all is ok. My sand will be live again after I add the LR back, shouuld take a few weeks. IMO, this was very good for my fish as it didn't stress them out a ton. I didn't have any ammonia spikes whatsoever doing this, but i would advise using a hot filter during this time to collect all bugs. My skimmer produced a bit of skimmate, about 2 cups or so a week. All in all its a good method if you are prepared.
Luke