ich problem
- Thread starter drty811
- Start date
Here's the garlic method I've used successfully copied from another board. I've posted it a couple times on here, but it took me a few minutes to find it again. Obviously in a nano you don't need to use as much.
B
I don't soak their food but instead add it directly to the tank. For my 75 gallon tank I would take 6 to 8 nice-sized cloves of garlic, crush them as flat as humanly possible and then mince the flattened garlic. The goal is to try to do as much cellular damage to the garlic as possible. I scrape it all together and add it to half a cup or so of tank water and let it steep for 15 - 20 minutes. Allicin, the important component of garlic, is very short-lived so don't skip out and buy any store preparations of garlic. Also, don't let it sit for more than an hour or so. Pour the tank water through a small mesh strainer (or you can just strain the garlic out by hand) into your tank. I like to press out all the liquid of the soaked garlic too. Any bits and pieces that get into your tank are likely to be eaten by your tang, which is a good thing. I know it may be hard, but try to pour the garlic water on or near the affected fish. You should notice less cysts on your fish. You can repeat this for a few days. The only time I ever overdosed a tank was a 20 gallon tank with a very deep sandbed that had little gobies in it. I bet there wasn't 10 gallons of water in it between the sand and live rock taking up so much space. I added about 6 cloves' worth of garlic to that little tank that already didn't have much filtration on it and it nuked some of the gobies. On my 75 gallon tank, I've added as much as an entire pod of garlic to it without any ill effects on my fish, inverts, anemones, or corals. They might look ticked off for awhile but they'll get over it. Don't worry if the garlic temporarily gives a slight haze to the water. It will all filter out later in the day.
Hope that helps! I saved a horribly infected purple tang from certain death with garlic, and since then have used it several other times too, all successfully.
B
I don't soak their food but instead add it directly to the tank. For my 75 gallon tank I would take 6 to 8 nice-sized cloves of garlic, crush them as flat as humanly possible and then mince the flattened garlic. The goal is to try to do as much cellular damage to the garlic as possible. I scrape it all together and add it to half a cup or so of tank water and let it steep for 15 - 20 minutes. Allicin, the important component of garlic, is very short-lived so don't skip out and buy any store preparations of garlic. Also, don't let it sit for more than an hour or so. Pour the tank water through a small mesh strainer (or you can just strain the garlic out by hand) into your tank. I like to press out all the liquid of the soaked garlic too. Any bits and pieces that get into your tank are likely to be eaten by your tang, which is a good thing. I know it may be hard, but try to pour the garlic water on or near the affected fish. You should notice less cysts on your fish. You can repeat this for a few days. The only time I ever overdosed a tank was a 20 gallon tank with a very deep sandbed that had little gobies in it. I bet there wasn't 10 gallons of water in it between the sand and live rock taking up so much space. I added about 6 cloves' worth of garlic to that little tank that already didn't have much filtration on it and it nuked some of the gobies. On my 75 gallon tank, I've added as much as an entire pod of garlic to it without any ill effects on my fish, inverts, anemones, or corals. They might look ticked off for awhile but they'll get over it. Don't worry if the garlic temporarily gives a slight haze to the water. It will all filter out later in the day.
Hope that helps! I saved a horribly infected purple tang from certain death with garlic, and since then have used it several other times too, all successfully.
See above post.drty811 said:
Yes you treat the whole tank.
Ich will not affect your corals.
Ich is present in pretty much any reef tank. Most fish can naturally fight it off as long as their immune systems are healthy, although some fish are more prone to outbreaks than others. There are different stages in the parasites life cycle when it is in the water, or in the sand/LR. Using a QT tank can help to keep it out of your display tank, but most people don't QT every coral, and piece of rock. If you don't do this along with new fish you're likely to have an outbreak at one time or another.
I've used kick-ich with excellent results as well, FWIW. Garlic is a lot cheaper though, especially when you're talking about a large system.
B
leaffish75
New Member
if you soak krill in the garlic will it hurt corals if they eat it?
drty811
I may be a little late at this stage to add any input
but some where I read that you can use garlic gels from walmart (make sure it is garlic only) we treat our tank 1 time a month as a preventive , what we do is cut the gel tab open squeeze onto food let soak over night feed next day you will get some oily deposits on the surface of the h20 but that will filter out I have had good luck with this too for stressed fish (I have also used the powder not that great but does work ) the gel tabs keep for up to 5 years (if kept in cool dark storage) and you only need 1 at a time we keep it in the feeding pouch for their food . Just my thoughts we also used fresh water dips too to help
I may be a little late at this stage to add any input
but some where I read that you can use garlic gels from walmart (make sure it is garlic only) we treat our tank 1 time a month as a preventive , what we do is cut the gel tab open squeeze onto food let soak over night feed next day you will get some oily deposits on the surface of the h20 but that will filter out I have had good luck with this too for stressed fish (I have also used the powder not that great but does work ) the gel tabs keep for up to 5 years (if kept in cool dark storage) and you only need 1 at a time we keep it in the feeding pouch for their food . Just my thoughts we also used fresh water dips too to help
