What else should I be testing?

[MarkoD]

i got ich in my tank about 3 weeks ago and lost 5 out of 8 fish.

since then i have been trying to figure out why this happen and i still cant.

i've been testing my water religiously, i even bought a new test kit thinking my previous one was old and inaccurate.

for the past 2 weeks I've been testing and i've been getting a constant reading of:

ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: below 5 but barely detectable
PH: 8.2
temp: between 25.9(night) and 26.5(day)
specific gravity: 1.023

is there anything else i should be testing that could be stressing out the fish?

[The Grizz]

Your sanity for one getting into this hobby, like the rest of us. :twised:

But seriously , what fish did you lose? What fish are left? If one was introduced to the tank that had ick and was the cause of stress for the other fish, there is really no testing that will tell you what you want to hear.

[Flash]

all it takes is one fish to get stresed out and infect the whole tank!

[The Grizz]

all it takes is one fish to get stresed out and infect the whole tank!

And then you get stressed out, hence testing your sanity :lol:

[sgreen]

When was the last time you lost a fish? Are the three you have doing OK. There is not much else to test.
Make sure when you introduce your new fish you have acclimatized them well before adding them, try to ensure they have a place to hid and adjust to their new home.

[wingedfish]

seams as though there is still the thought that stressed fish spontaneously get ich and die....

[MarkoD]

fish i lost: clown tang, copperband butterfly, spotted sweetlips and 2 clowns.

fish that survived and that are perfectly fine are: foxface rabbitfish, coral beauty and algae blenny.

i added fish 2 weeks prior to seeing any symptoms in any of the fish.
when i added them, they all seemed pretty happy and eating. none of them seemed stressed.

i have more than enough hiding places in my tank.


the only thing that comes to mind is that i might have added to much top off water too fast. but now i have an ATO

[MarkoD]

i've also been running a UV sterilizer for the past 2 weeks or so. i dont see any downside to the UV sterilizer so i think im just gonna run it constantly

[Myka]

When you're busy stocking a 180 gallon tank I would highly suggest the use of a quarantine tank. Not only will you really appreciate that new fish after waiting 6 weeks to introduce him to your tank, you will be almost eliminating the health risks to the fish already in your 180. A 180 gallon tank can hold a significant dollar value of fish, and protecting that investment would be a good idea.

If you're really having troubles double check your test kits with a sample taken to your LFS.

[Bblinks]

My battle with ich started with a newly purchased hippo tang about 7 month ago. It infected all the rest of the 5 tangs in the tank. Since I had a lot of coral in my tank I had no choice but to use a product called protomarin. I was lucky that one of the other reefer had 2 bottles of this stuff left over which I got for free. After dosing it for a couple of weeks with the addition of a uv light the ick got a bit better, but it came back again as it is the natural life cycle for them. Out of frustration I decide to give the protomarin one more shot and guess what, same thing happened. I talked to a lot of people, researched online for hours and it seems the only thing that could get rid of ich was copper. Still it comes with a great cost of a chance losing your fish. I really didn't want to chance it with copper plus there is no way I could catch any of these fish in a 210 fully stock tank without damaging something. So the last resort, I got selcom amino and garlic extract and feed the crap out of them every night. After 7 month the hippo still gets couple of dots here and there but I am confident that I am will win this battle.

So like what everyone suggested. Have a quarantine tank ready for all the new arrivals, dip all your corals before it goes into the display tank. The best personal advice i can offer is to feed you coral and fish well and try to use some king of selcom additive with a bit of garlic once a week with food for preventative measure.

Btw I forgot to mention about velvet. It can seem like your fishs are getting ick but velvet moves a lot faster then ick. It can wipe out a tank within a week or two. The only reason I say this is cause my clowns never got ick even at the height of the out break. I believe it due to there slime coat on there skin. If your clowns bite the bullet maybe it might not be ick after all.

[plutoniumJoe]

I almost believe that ich is something every reefer must be baptized with. If it is already in your tank and you have inverts or corals you need to strengthen your fishes immunity levels the best you can with food soaked in Selcon and garlic.

I have had my battles with ich and found that reef treatments were often more stressful to the fish then just trying to feed those that were eating.

Others have their opinions and they may be right but in my reef keeping I have found that a consistent environment of well fed fish supplemented with Selcon and garlic have kept ich away.

I have added fish like CBB and a Powder Blue Tang (that looked like swiss cheese after the other tangs got to him) successfully sticking to this recipe. Don't add any fish until the other inhabitants are healthy and fat. Keep up the selcon and garlic for at least a couple of months after any signs of ich and supplement occasionally after that. Small price to pay considering the price of a nice fish.

In the end you can search for hours and I don't know if you will ever find any conclusive peer reviewed research that ever answers the ich question.

My two cents and that is all they are probably worth.

-Joe

[MarkoD]

i now have a quarantine tank going. currently have 3 fish in there and they have been in there a week.

anything specific i should be looking for?

[plutoniumJoe]

If they are healthy, then it is just a waiting game. Your reef should remain empty of all fish for 6-8 weeks so that the ich does not have a host. Then you can transfer the fish from the hospital tank into the main. Make sure they are fat and healthy as even this move will stress them. Keep up the garlic and selcon even after the transfer.

[MarkoD]

If they are healthy, then it is just a waiting game. Your reef should remain empty of all fish for 6-8 weeks so that the ich does not have a host. Then you can transfer the fish from the hospital tank into the main. Make sure they are fat and healthy as even this move will stress them. Keep up the garlic and selcon even after the transfer.

i cant keep my tank empty of fish, i have the three fish in there living currently that would be impossible to catch. but none of them have been showing any symptoms for over a week now

[e46er]

Then the ich will still be in your tank
I had to take my entre tank apart to catch my fish for QT

[MarkoD]

Then the ich will still be in your tank
I had to take my entre tank apart to catch my fish for QT

im running a UV sterilizer on the tank now. wont that kill the free floating ich in a few weeks?

[dsaundry]

I feel your pain!:cry:

[plutoniumJoe]

im running a UV sterilizer on the tank now. wont that kill the free floating ich in a few weeks?

It will reduce ich that is in the water column but even if a fish does not show signs of Ich it can still be a host (I think) and therefore you will be simply re-introducing you fish into a tank that has ich present. Some believe that this is all tanks! If you fish are strong enough and have a strong immunity system they should be able to fight it. Otherwise you are back where you started.