hmm I wonder how garlic would work if you rubed it on the fish... :mrgreen:

Steve

Garlic
 

I have use the Kent as well, worked great for me. I use it on a regular bacsis to prevent Ich. You can also use it strait in your tank one drop per 10g if your fish are not eating.

Works awesome...just before you put it in the pan. :razz:

Don't forget the lemon! :razz:

I didn't find anything reefsafe that was very useful to treat ich in my tank.

When some of my fish first got Ich at around the 3 month mark into the hobby (triggered by my Kalk overdose), I tried Kick Ick, Rally, Kent RXP, Garlic Extreme, chopped garlic, Cleaner Shrimp, UV Sterilizer, etc. Nothing worked and all infected fish died (some fish such as clownfish and mardarins were unaffected). As a side effect, 1 of those chemicals actually caused some of my corals to close up and eventually die as well. Replacement fish that I added would get ick and die as well.

Then, I decided to add a skimmer to my tank. After that, my fish have stopped dying from ich. My replacement fish after adding the skimmer still got lots of ich initially, but this time, instead of dying, the fishes survived and the ich just disappeared on their own after a few days and the ich reappeared in less and less numbers during the ich's lifecycles. I have lots of fish for over 18 months with ich present in the tank. There are no longer outbreaks but just a few white dots here and there. Everything seems to be under control on its own. Ich attacks the fish's respiratory system (you'll see heavy breathing) and with lots of aeration, a healthy fish should be able to fight off ick on its own. Oxygenate your tank well, and maybe add a few cleaner shrimp or gobies to help.

An article on Ick

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.htm

Sam that's too bad that you lost those fish, I had a similar incident but it was entirely my fault, I bought a new tang and put it in my tank, with in a day or two the tang was dead and all my other fish were swimming facing the water return from my sump, next morning (if I remember right) all my fish were dead, Oodinium, what a mess.
I've sure learned my lesson.

Doug

I just wanted to explain that imo garlic can help with a mild case.

However, if a fish is in serious trouble with an advanced case, treatment is in order, whether that be long term hyposalinity or (yuck) copper.

I agree Emily, the garlic can be used as a preventative treatment as well, the ich doesn't like to attatch to a fish who has the garlic in it's slime coat. As far as copper goes I'm sold on Sea Chem Cuprimine, much safer than copper safe etc, much easier on the fish.

Doug

Totally agree with your statements Doug. Coppersafe is chelated and so I found it harder to test properly too. I have used both and I would choose Cuprimine over Coppersafe. Cuprimine is easy to test and works well. I would avoid the chelated forms of copper meds.

Bill