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Originally Posted by Bob_I
I am sick and tired of hearing about ick. There is only one cure, and that is TIME. If your system is old enough you will not get ick period.
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Bob, I respectfully have to disagree on your statement. Have done some serious reading over the past few months on the subjects of ick and velvet, and what you say is not correct.
Have kept fw and marine tanks since 1998. Have QT-ed very few fish and have had no ick or other parasitic or bacterial problems in that time, until recently. Feel like I have a pretty good grasp of the nitrogen cycle and am getting better at understanding marine tank chemistry, but am still an utter chemistry dummy in the grand scheme of those who are chemists.
Since 1998, have kept everything from a 110g indoor goldfish pond, a 180g oscar tank, a 2.5 gal sexy shrimp pico reef, a 75g mixed soft/sps/lps reef (our first reef) that was eventually upgraded to a 180g, a 33g reef, and pretty much everything in between. Have moved around a lot over the past 10 years, so have never kept any tanks for over 2 years.
Back in Mar/03, we set up our first major tank since our latest move, our 42g hex. Put in 3" of aragonite substrate, NSW, ~40 lbs of cured LR. Waited a week or two for the thing to go through a mini-cycle, then put in a few fish and corals. Wrote about about my quick set up on this board and got ROYALLY blasted by several people for my total stupidity and ignorance
In the 42g, did not experience any algae blooms, ammonia spikes, dead corals or sick fish, though it would certainly have been prudent to quarantine the fish before introducing them to the tank.
Now, my 72g has been a different story. 3" aragonite sandbed, ~80 lbs LR, 3 months of curing and cycling before adding fish or corals. Once the tank was cycled, put in a posse of snails and began feeding the tank in preparation for the eventual addition of fish. At 3 months, put in some corals and fish. All the fish died within a month of velvet. Shoulda QT-ed them, which would have made treating them for velvet possible.
Waited 6-8 weeks before adding more fish to the tank, to make sure all velvet was gone. Added more fish without QT-ing. One of them had one itty bitty ick spot on it that I did not see until it was in the tank, and the tank got ick. Am still battling ick in the 72g and my H-tank is taking forever to cycle
Anyway, if a tank has not had fish in it before and no parasites have been inadvertently brought in on corals or mobile inverts, then ick, velvet or similar parasites will not become a problem. Ick and velvet have specific life cycles. When they hatch from the cyst phase of their life cycle and there are no fish to attach to, they die. Plain and simple. Young tank or old one.
If a fish becomes stressed for some reason, it will not get ick unless ick has been introduced to the tank. Stress is not a trigger for parasitic invasions unless the parasite has been introduced to the tank. That's why QT-ing new fish is so important. If new fish have parasites, the parasites won't be spread to the rest of the fish in the display tank, but can be treated in the Qtank.
Sorry for the long post. I'll get off my soapbox now
