Looks like I'm losing the battle..

Well despite all my efforts, I feel that I've lost the battle against ich. My Coral Beauty and Clownfish died today. Leaving only my last Black Clown, and Lawnmower Blenny, who don't look too promising either. I treated with Kick Ich every other day for almost 3 weeks, 3 days ago had the LFS do a good 20% water change, added a little prime over the last two day, and have been adding extra oxygen to the tank starting yesterday by turning my powerhead on its side so it could take in some air. Everything they've told me to do at the LFS, and still my fish are droppping like flies!!! Here are my test reading as of now;
KH 180
Nitrate 30
Nitrite 0
pH between7.5 and 8
Please tell me what I should do to clear my tank before adding any more fish.. Any suggestions on what to do if this starts to happen again.. I've heard alot of mention about garlic... How long should I continue to treat my tank to make sure it's gone. I was going to switch to Ich Attack.. it's supposedly 100% organic.. I have corals.
Please HELP!!

 

Oh and my cleaner shrimp, arrow crab coco worm and corals all seem to be doing fine... except yesterday my Coco worms 'feathers' were curly, that was before I addded oxygen( the advice of the LFS).

 

KH Carbonate Hardness 180 ppm (mg/L). It's pretty high on the strip the range is 0-240. I'm not exactly sure what it means..

 

What are you doing to lower your nitrates? Also, have you used any other test kits besides the strip type? If no, I suggest you test your water again with a liquid test. Those strip tests are not at all reliable.

 

Don't give up.

Get those water params good and stable before adding any more fish...may not be for month or so. Then add fish or two....wait another month or so, and if water params good and steady, you can consider adding more.

Stick with hardy varieties early on.

Good luck.

 

Yikes, I feel for ya. I went through a bad spell myself with Ich or Velvet. Not sure which but mine died within 24 hours of seeing the spots. I have tried all the remedies out there in the main tank, even the Kordon Ich Attack. I had 1 Anemone and some mushrooms at the time. Although I still have them today, they definately did not like the treatment.

Some things I have done to help is, First I started by switching to a new tank. This was for other reasons as well, but havnt had Ich since. Started feeding Garlic and Vitamin C with the food, Got UV light, started using Hospital tank, .

If you have Corals and such they likley will not make it through treatment but they may.
I think you either need to move the fish to a QT tank and treat with something stronger. and keep doing water changes on the main tank.

After 2 months, if all looks good, move everyone nback into the main tank one at a time over a couple of weeks.



\Good luck

 

DJISIS, I as most everyone has has gone through that. I'll tell you my experience and what I did. I bought a sailfin tang and stuck him right into my tank. I'd not had ich in my tank in a long time so completely 'did a stupid' and just stuck him in there. (This is before I learned about tangs and ich ). Needless to say he developed ich and it soon caused an issue with the rest of my stock. I used Ich Attack for probably 3 weeks. I also used Kent Garlic Extreme on their food every feeding and added another product to help boost their immune system/slime coat (cant for the life of me remember what it's called, but it was 2 square bottles attached to each other). In addition, I raised the temperature to speed the growth process of the ich, did frequent water changes and ran a UV sterilizer.

End result... I didn't lose any stock, but I eventually DID take the fish back to where i bought it. It was a huge pita and expense dealing with all of that over a fish...lesson learned...

I run a UV sterilizer and have since set up a quarantine tank for any new fish. I also continue to use garlic with every feeding. It's akin to giving them vitamin C (?) I'm not going through that mess again if i can help it. FYI, Ich Attack did not affect my inverts. I've seen people say it caused an algae bloom, but I didn't experience that. You can also create a hyposaline ATJ's Marine Aquarium Site - Reference - Hyposalinity Treatment environment, but could be a problem for your inverts. I'd say your best bet if your fish are still alive is to take them out of your main tank and put them in a quarantine tank. It's much easier and cheaper to treat a small tank vs. your main and you can lower the salinity and raise the temp w/out fear of hurting your inverts. Google Marine Ich. There's a multitude of links to learn about your enemy including this site. In closing, from what I understand is Ich is always present. It's like us catching a cold. It's in the ocean as well, but due to the closed systems of our tanks, it makes it much easier for fish in our tanks to 'catch it'. I wish you the best in working through it!

ps. I've never heard or read of putting more oxygen in the tank to help rid ich

 

I have used ick attack in a reef tank, like it much better than kick ick JMO. But I have found mixing metrinidazole with food and garlic works quick, that is if they are still eating.
I add some pellets to a cup add just enough garlic to moistin the sprinkle with the medicine stir around mix well, then let dry. This has not been proven, but I have had atleat 5 people now try it and swear buy it.
John

 

I used chem marin stop ich, and that didn't really work.... just got to let the fish fight the disease and let it take its course.