ick

[CHEAPREEF]

Originally Posted by Slayer33

Well it worked for me and 3 others here in town that recommended it to me. Maybe it doesn't kill it like I said but going the fallow/qt method isn't an option for everyone.

Right I get that, just this is not ridding the tank of Ich it's just letting your fish live through the cycle. Still in the tank.

[kyl]

There are only two ways to 100% eradicate ich from a tank: remove all the fish for 76 days or treat it with copper / chloriquine phosphate (and kill all the coral / inverts in the process). Hypo can't claim complete effectiveness anymore as strains have been shown in journal studies that are resistant to ultra low salinity levels, and all it takes is one theront to survive. Everything else is either a temporary band-aid to knock down the infectious theront population and weaken the reinfection cycle severity (kick ick/medic/UV), or at worst snake oil. If you want to live with ich and don't feel like spending thousands on additives to try and manage it per year, a correctly sized and installed UV system is the best option.

Unfortunately livestock isn't a viable method to keep ich in check. Any cleaner wrasses, gobies or shrimp observed picking at "ich" spots on a fish are just eating the dead skin from where a trophont detached. Ich itself isn't visible, and usually resides mostly in the gills unless a severe outbreak is occurring.