ich help

[asylumdown]

I know this is an old thread - but... it's a good point to revisit occasionally. It is entirely possible to keep ich out of a tank. My tank has been ich free since November of 2012. No outbreaks, no spots, no flashing, no scratching, no nothing. In that time I've added fish, removed fish, accidentally dropped my salinity down to brackish levels twice, and wrapped the tank in plastic and subjected it to a 2 month home renovation that required 3 weeks of jack-hammering (with an actual jack hammer) out a tile floor on three sides of the tank and poisoned half my corals with self levelling cement dust. If there was any credibility to the notion that it's 'always' present and only flares up when a fish is stressed, my powder blue tang should have looked like I'd dipped him in salt at least 3 times that I can think of.

I've messed up just about everything with this tank at some point or another, and the longer I go with this hobby the more I realize I don't know very much about anything, but what I *do* know is that we need to retire forever the idea that ich is always present. It is not. Not worth the trouble to get it out once in... maybe. But possible to eliminate and keep out forever? Definitely. IMO keeping it out is probably the most straightforward part of keeping a reef tank long term, if it's something someone chooses to do.