ich problems roar

Well the white spot disease just loves my tank. I have been through this lovely experience with ich two times already and I have a few questions. Firstly I have used copper two times, the first time I took out my fish and put them in a quarantine tank and treated them with copper. After two weeks i put them back in and of course a week later my butterfly fish has white spots, joy. Then i take out all the rocks and invertabrates and treat the main tank with copper. This works until I get new fish. I quarantined them for two weeks with copper, but the spots somehow snuck into the tank. I can't catch the fish without taking out the rocks, so I decided to treat the main tank again. I am afraid to use copper again because I know it can damage the fish's livers and such. Any suggestions.

 

What types of food do you feed? Do you supplement with vitamins and HUFA's to keep their immune system strong? Are they strong enough to do a freshwater dip?

 

I heard its recommended to leave the main tank fallow for 6-8 weeks to ensure all the ich dies off. Taking the rocks out is just moving the ich around in its dormant stage. To treat the main tank with copper is a bad idea as the copper can get into your silicone seams and sand bed only to be leached out later and possibly harming or killing all your inverts.

Where did you read up on ich that told you to perform such procedures?

~Will.

 

The problem is your not treating for long enough. To truly rid your system of ich your tank needs to be fallow for at least 6 weeks. By treating one tank and then swapping to fast and treating the other your just allowing the ichs life cycle to continue.

 

+1 on above. Move the fish into a hospital tank and treat with copper for 3 weeks. Then keep them in the hospital tank for another 5 weeks without copper while the ich dies off in your main tank - takes 8 weeks. If you only treat for 2 weeks and then put your fish back in the tank, they will catch the parasite again from the tank!

 

I feed my fish spectrum pellets, formula 2 pellets, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, prime reef flakes, marine s pellets and seaweed sheets. I don't know if all my fish are strng enough for a freshwater dip. I read on random sites on how to treat ich. I will definetly treat the tank longer now that i know but what method should i use, and should I change my sand since i used copper on the main tank once?

 

Are you going to ever add corals or other inverts to the tank?

 

I already have live rock and plenty of snails and crabs. I also have to cleaner shrimp. I plan on adding more snails and crabs overtime.

 

Im shocked that your snails, crabs and shrimp survived the copper treatment. If you are planning on adding coral you will probably need to remove and replace the sand.

I would follow JJK's treatment recommendation.

 

With Chelated copper you need to remove inverts to treat. But you can re-introduce them after some good water changes. Chelated copper is more stable and doesn't leech into sand and stuff. I treated my tank with copper safe. Then after a couple months added shrimp, crabs and snails. They are all fine and have been in there for over 6 months.