Aloe Vera

[charims]

Thos scientists are not sure HOW aloe vera works, it definitely does work for healing wounds.
I currently have a 55 gal. aquarium, with a diy sump. I only have one fish in it, a Clarkii Clownfish (Amphiprion clarkii). She is currently infested with ick, and i am practicing hyposalinity treatment.
I have done my homework with ich, and i know its lifecycle and all the proper treatments, but i was wondering whether it is ok to add aloe vera into the water, to promote healing for the fish. I have an aloe vera plant already that i could use for this. Some aquarium medications and conditioners such as "Stress Coat" have aloe vera in them. Is is safe to add aloe vera directly into the water?

[PoukieBear]

Personaly I wouldn't add it into my tank.

The stuff that comes in a bottle might be a VERY low concentration of Aloe. Too much may be very bad for your tank.

Hopefully someone else will have a better answer.

[clutch]

what i use is a homemade mixture of garlic and broccole grinded,frozen and then i feed for medication. I use a little more garlic for medicating it works for me IMO....

[clutch]

oh ya aloe will make your skimmer go nuts its like addind aqua plus or something like that. It works as a detergent no good for tanks.

[charims]

Thankyou all, i will try you garlic food Clutch, oh, and i didnt me aloe out of a bottle, but maybe its ok just to let the fish get through it herself.

What do you guys think about freshwater dips, becuase she gets really stressed whenever i put her in fresh water. I am somewhat confuzed as to whether it helps or not against ich, becuase some sites say it helps very little, or cuases more damage than repair. Other sites say the cysts will just fall off and die??

[clutch]

i lose about 3 to 4 gals water a day so i kalk drip at night and add a gallon or two before work in the morning (lights out and add to the overflow box so it has to go through the fuge and sump b4 it hits the display tank) 1 hour time frame with a half gallon bucket.

I use to use copper to treat in a hospital but i'm a firm believer in the garlic. Its part of the fishes diet weekly but now i use more broccoli than garlic.

[psy_chick]

aloe vera is used in natural medicine as a stomach/intestinal remedy as well as a wound/burn healer. its sliminess is supposed to A: create a natural bandage, and B: coat and soothe the intestinal tract (natures pepto!)

[Ti]

melfix/pima fix coontains some aloe and is made for this use.
SKimmers will pull it from the water though.

[billsreef]

Here's (http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=282934) a list of some good accurate information on ich and treatments. The first two links are probably the easiest to digest for the average hobbyist.

Aloe is common in one particular water conditioner that advertisers it as being good for healing and such. However, IME it does not make a noticable difference when used vs. not being used. Hence I wouldn't bother with the aloe.

Fresh water dips are usefull on some types of parasites, ich is not one of them. The ich is embeded deep enough in the fishes skin to be protected from the FW dip.

[David L 1971]

I have tried this several times and it works well. Try turning the lights off for a few days. It seems to take the stress off the fish. Fresh water dips stress a fish worse than just leaving them alone. I agree about the use of garlic, it helps blow out some parasites that may be causing some of it's stress. Healthy unstressed fish don't usually get ick.

[Flint&Eric]

id stick with melafix and garlic, works great.

[TerryB]

I see that there are still a lot of people that promote treatments for ich that work inconsistently at best. I do not recommend freshwater dips for treating ich for a couple of reasons. I would not use aloe vera, although it probably won't hurt anything. I would recommend StressGuard by Seachem and Pro Tech Coat Marine by Kent Marine. Both of them contain a polymer that has been reported to form a temporary barrier and bind to proteins, thereby serving as a temporary substitute when the mucus layer has been compromised. I would take Bill's advice and read some of those links to articles, especially the last ones. ;)

Terry B