Need ICH treatment advice from experienced reefers

[Gooli]

Here's the situation...
I think i got ICH in my reef...i cannot remove fish or corals or anything else. what is the best alternative to treat this problem or at least minimize it. I have to do this IN the reef tank.

please help. Experienced reefers only.
thanks

[Duddly01]

I hate to say it but a year ago I had an ick outbreak in my display. I tried everything (kick-ich, etc.) and nothing worked. It killed almost every fish I had. I had to move my survivor(s) into a quarantine tank and treated with hyposalinity. That did the trick for the fish. I also left the tank fishless for better than 6 weeks. I wish I could tell you there is a miracle treatment in a reef tank, but I don't think there is.

[s1xtyfe3t]

I've had a lot of good results using garlic and vitamin c supplements and sometimes nori sheets will help with tangs. It's definitely not a miracle cure by any means, but if you cant remove anything from the tank, your only choice is to try and feed the fish as much as possible to help their immune systems beat the ich.

Kent marine makes a product called ZOE that might help with this. You also might want to try some of the H2O life vitamin enrichment products.

[savethereef]

i think just try and lower your salinity really slowly in your tank. When i had ich in my reef tank i just lowered my salinity from 1.026 all the way to 1.018 in the span of 10 days. my corals were all ****ed off. i held that salinity for about 3 weeks and fed all the food with garlic (kent marine) after that i did a water change and raised the salinity back to 1.026 i lost 2 hammer head corals everything else like zoos colts all survided and came back to there normal selfs after 1 week. its kinda risky but i did it. i have no experience with meds so thats why i did the Hyposalinity. Oh and i increased my temp up to 82-83

[gtrestoration]

It's really going to depend on the fish you have. Some will get over it with improved diet alone. Others are more difficult to cure (like powder blues).

SteveU

[s1xtyfe3t]

hyposalinity does work, but I don't know I'd want to risk it with sps.

[gtrestoration]

If the corals can survive the lowered salinity so will the disease which means it not low enough.

SteveU

[skairik]

Ozone works like a charm although it won't kill the ich on the fish itself. You'll also want to get to the root cause as to what caused the ich to manifest itself to begin with. Until the cause is actually discovered and remedied then you're likely to experience future outbreaks of ich.

[Duddly01]

Hyposalinity will kill your corals, shrimp, crabs, etc. For it to be effective it will have to be lowered to 1.009-1.010. Above this and the ich will likely survive. Building up their immune systems will help the fish better resist the parasites, but it will not kill off the parasites. Eventually one of them will become stressed for whatever reason and WHAM!!, it's back.

Ozone or a UV sterilizer will help keep it bay as well, but again, it will not cure it.

[wshive]

I know I'm not really answering your question, but I guess I'm trying to get you to take the long-term view of things. In short, you have to go hypo. All the other treatments are either ineffective or very dangerous. It's like fumigating your place and staying inside because it'll take longer to kill you than the bugs.

The only 100% certain as well as safest (though not riskless) way is to quarantine and hypo for at least four weeks. The plus side is you could keep your main going just as normal and you wouldn't be putting your corals or inverts at any risk. Without a fish host, ich will eventually die (normally 2 to 3 weeks, 4 weeks to be safe).

For me, tearing down your tank temporarily to pull out your fish then reaquascaping is worth the piece of mind to know you've obliterated the ich and it's not just in some diminished density or something.

[Gooli]

thanks everyone...i am feeding lots of nori to the tangs and i am adding Zoe and garlic to the foods...will keep my fingers crossed.
PS. I will be setting up a 40G quarantine tank very soon.

[laverda]

Cleaner shrimp and Neon gobys can help if the ICH is not to bad, as both will actually pick the ICH parasites off the fish. Captive bred fish may not like it, as they are not used to cleaners on them.

[audiowerks]

a good sized U.V. sterilizer can stop the spread of ICH in the free floating stage of growth, will not cure ich already on the fish, but will prevent spread, and reinfection.

[CW from the OC]

This is literally THE most frequently asked question. I know RC search never works, so I'd suggest that you use Google and their advanced options. In those options, you can tell it to just search reefcentral.com, and you'll get specific answers.

To give you a head start, I will answer your question generally:
1. No, you can not treat or get rid of ick in a reef tank, the only treatments that work will kill any corals and invertebrates you have.
2. Ick lives on the fish, in the water, and on the bottom. You have to remove the fish for at least a month to get them out of the tank, 6 weeks is better.
3. With the fish out, treat them with copper in a hospital tank. I prefer Cuppramine. Check for ammonia and/or nitrite daily, and change water to maintain the quality. Plan on changing water DAILY.
4. For the future, set up a quaratine tank, where you can treat new fish with cuppramine, so as to avoid introducing ick again. Use some sort of filter with bio balls, and feed it a bit each day, even with out fish in it, to establish and maintain biological filtration.

[SEAREEF]

im gonna go out on a limb here , but heres what I think works also some of my high powered freinds believe the same .. a very high watt uv ,,,and marc weiss vital dna used weekly
everything else is crap in my opinion

[gps]

I have a few tangs in my reef and therefore a few itch outbreaks in the last several years. And, just had one two weeks ago.

The best way, at least for me, is to leave it alone and reduce the stress level for the fish. I feed the fish normally and did not disturb them at all and now the itch is faded away.

Itch for fish is like cold for human. Just need plenty of rests to reduce stress and it will go away.

[ezcompany]

REMOVE the substrate and QT the FISH with hyposalinity. leave the tank fish and substrate free for 3 months and you'll be clear of the parasite.

[Old Yeller Tang]

So how did eveything come out?

[BurntOutReefer]

Gooli,

I have brand new un-opened bottle of Kick-Ich you can have.
I cannot guarantee that it works or is reef safe (albeit, thats what its advertised as)......

LMK

[Gooli]

thanks...i think the worst has passed. Several fish died but the ones who remain are eating and im adding garlic and Zoe to the foods...seems to be working.

[Old Yeller Tang]

Yeah, Ich in a reef tank is a difficult situation. I hadn't dealt with Ich since I set up my 200g years ago and when I got my new tank a couple years ago, I got Ich. It was an aggressive form that wiped out every fish in about week and only fish that survived the onslaught was my marroon clown and leopard wrasse. I lost fish I had for several years due to that epidemic. Well, about 3 mos later, I had my tank restocked with fish again. I had a mild case of Ich that lasted for months. Some fish looked good one day and bad the next. I had always added garlic to their food but it wasn't keeping the fish clean. Since I had expensive fish in there, I tried Kick-Ick to no avail. So I broke down and bought that pricey No-Sick Fish Ich treatment. After treatment, all the Ich went away for good and I had no casualties. I must be the only one who had good results with this product as many have complained about it. I think it only works in light cases of Ich. I had added a couple more fish to my tank and one must've had slight case of Ich as my emperor started showing signs. I used this product called Rid-Ich by Kordon and the Ich signs went away again. Fish have been healthy since.