Ich Treatment

So we've been battling what we thing is ich for several weeks now. Tried several "reef-safe" treatments, with little to no sucess.

Friday night/Saturday morning lost half of the tank in one quick swoop.

We've got everyone who survived (2 chromis, 2 clowns, wrassle, and sailfin) in a small qt for the moment. We're working to setup a much larger 55 qt at the moment.

Here's the question though....whats the best copper treatment out there? Most lfs seem to only carry the "Super Ich Cure" which doesn't seem to have any copper in it, and since Saturday morning, hasn't made any difference.

Any suggestions out there?

 

Dont use copper in your reef system.Use it in a quarintine/hospital tank.Put a uv sterilizer on your reef system.Copper will stay in your rocks and kill many corals you may put in there.I lost alot of fish until I got a uv sterilizer.Just try to stay under the max flow rate and it will do its job.I havent lost any since I got one.great investment.

 

Right, I wouldn't use copper in the dt, only my qt tanks. I'm just trying to find out what copper med to buy, as the only thing in my lfs is the "Super Ich Cure" and it doesn't seem to be doing anything.

I've got a UV in my dt, but it didn't seem to make a difference. Although it may need a new bulb....

 

As most fish are very sensitive to copper, I would do a low salinity treatment in the quarantine tank. I would use copper treatments as a last resort.

 

ruby reef makes a good ich treatment and I think it is formaline instead of copper.

 

ruby reef kich-ich
It worked for me when I got my black clowns.And was easy to remove afterwards

 

The Ruby Reef product is "Kick-Ich" which is indeed a copper-free treatment. Problem is that I've tried 4 copper-free treatments in my dt before I moved all the survivors to a qt, without success. I'm specifically looking at copper because its proven to kill the parasite.

 

by any chance do you have anything new in the tank like rock or frag plugs?If so check your ammonia levels.When I ran into an ich problem it turned out to be a small piece of rock making ammonia and I found I was battling the wrong problem.I ended up useing amquel+ to beat the ammonia and relieve the stress on the fish and the ich went away.

 

The ammonia on the dt has consistently show to be 0. I'll take some water to a lfs tomorrow to double check my readings.

But I'm already to the point of having moved everyone to a qt tank.

I'm not apposed to hypo-salinity, does anyone have a link to an article detailing how to do this?

 

You need a qt tank for hipo-salinity, fish are the only thing in your tank that can live with a lower salinity concentration in a tank. You want to slowly decrease the salinity so there is know further stress put on the fish. Within the first day take down the salinity from the starting point(1.025-1.027) to 1.017-1.018. slowly do this over several hours. Your gonna half to check alkalinity and if its dropped add a buffer to correct it. The second day drop the salinity from 1.017-1.018 to 1.010-1.012. Check alkalinity again and adjust if you half to. Keep the salinity at this and the white spot lesions should disappear within 3 to 5 days(typically). Keep the fish at this salinity for about three weeks after the last lesions are gone. Your gonna half to check alkalinity regularly and correct if its dropped. Then over a period of two to three days carry out partial water changes with extra strength sea water to raise the salinity back to normal. Then keep the fish in the qt tank for a week to make sure the parasite does not return.