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.

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]

Originally Posted by bean

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

[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.