tank may need reetablished

[sadielynn]

due to the out break of ich and the corals not tolerating low spg for long periods I may need to break the tank down and begin again
my question is that can I dip live rock in fresh water to rid it of ich
I can always take some h20 from the 2.5 gallon and an old sponge filter from it to seed it I would also replace all sand ect and wash off the filter power heads and the heater (all hard ware) now my second question is does fresh water dips erraticate all ich on fish and if I can dip live rock and corals will it erraticate it on those as well the sand I have no problem replacing but the other stuff well that gets expensive ..

 

[incysor]

Sadie, First I just want to say I'm sorry for your loss. It sucks watching a favorite fish go downhill.

Ich is in all reef tanks. I haven't read of anyone that QTs and treats EVERY piece of rock and coral and fish that goes in their tank.
Running a QT tank will certainly help, but even if you treat every fish, and dip every piece of LR, you still have corals coming into the tank that aren't going to tolerate FW dips, and medications. Since part of the ich parasites life cycle is in the sand/rock, some of it is bound to be on pieces of rock that coral is on as well.

Keeping your water quality high, and not mixing animals that are gonna stress each other out is the best ich prevention there is. A fish's immune system naturally fights it off unless it's weakened by stress. At least in the fish you can keep in a nano. I'm not talking about ich-prone tangs.

I think that fresh water dips and hyposalinity simply cause the animals more stress and weakens their immune system further. Yes sometimes it can be effective, but I think it's mainly effective in those ich-prone animals that show ich while their immune system is relatively strong and can bounce back from the stress of the treatments. Garlic has worked very well for me if the tank is treated in the fashion that I've posted a few times. You have to use fresh garlic, the commercial garlic additives are a waste of money.

B

 

[Kris]

What I would do in your situation is get the SG back to where it is supposed to be. Check your PH and other items and make sure they are also in line. Leave the system alone for a few weeks and do a weekly/bi weekly waterchange. Let the system stabilize. Watch the corals to make sure none of them are going down hill from the sudden change of SG you did (maybe not sudden, but they won't be happy either). Remove any that will not make it.

Hold off on fish for a while. When you start purchasing more fish, make sure they are active, happy, healthy and eating. Stay away from suppliers that treat their tanks with copper. All this means to me is instead of keeping them healthy in non treated tanks, they dose the tanks on a regular basis. This is not good IMO. It causes trouble down the road. Get fish that are in a healthy UNTREATED environment.

Also pick of some food by the name of.. Spectrum Thera A + A by New Life.

The food contains anti parasitic things to keep the fish healthy, boost immune system and give good color. Mainly its for their immunity. Its a very small pellet (pin head size) and my fish love it. Not to mention they have not been more healthy.

Good Luck!

 

[djconn]

I've heard that ich will disappear after a few months because the parasite will have nothing to live on if you don't have any fish. I'd just keep your parameters in check and let things run their course. As Kris said, I wouldn't buy any fish for at least two months as well.

I just think all the FW dips, etc will not be very effective and a big pain in the butt. Just my 2 cents though. ;-)

 

[dragon79]

i had a sick fish, I removed it from the display and added to a hospital tank. I treated with hyposalinity and a combination of kick-ich. When I fed the fish I soaked it's food with garlic. I also monitored ph to make sure it stayed stable and wonderfully, my fish recovered fully. Display tank did not show signs of ick, but I did treated it with all natural herbal ick medication, for 1 month just to be sure. Fish was transferred back to display tank, and there hasn't been an outbreak since.