The old garlic debate

[jennytheleopardgrouper]

Ok, I've heard mostly good reviews about using garlic soaked food, and some bad (It stops the skimmer from working?) I'd like to know what anyone out there thinks about it, and if it has to be in the form of oil? Could I just blend up some cloves with my mysis shrimp and re-freeze it? Thanks!

[TNTCanada]

I have used the Kent garlic as well as fresh garlig juice it all seemed to work really well. I have never had a ich problem sence I started my tank 6 or so years ago.

Just My 2 Cents

Cheers
Tyler

[Chin_Lee]

Originally Posted by jennytheleopardgrouper

Ok, I've heard mostly good reviews about using garlic soaked food, and some bad (It stops the skimmer from working?) I'd like to know what anyone out there thinks about it, and if it has to be in the form of oil? Could I just blend up some cloves with my mysis shrimp and re-freeze it? Thanks!

my skimmer doesn't stop skimming when i add garlic extreme directly into the tank and I have added as much as three dropper fulls in at a time.
However my skimmer does stop foaming when i feed with mysis (with or without being soaked with garlic extreme). This is due to the oil from the mysis.
In all likelihood, results will probably vary from skimmer to skimmer. Mine is a single beckett skimmer powered by an iwaki 70 at ~1650 gph.

[michika]

I've always had really great results from garlic, usually I just buy organic garlic extract from the healthfood store. I have crushed my own for the juice, but if you don't use the juice immediatly it will go bad very quickly.

For application I usually put a frozen mysis cube in a small egg tray, drop on a few droplets of garlic, leave it for a few minutes, then come back and add warm water to fully defrost the mysis. I also then soak my nori and any pellet foods I will be feeding in the garlic water.

Garlic I find is helpful preventing ick, and once you have ick it seems to take a couple days off the time it clears up.

As for our skimmer, its a DIY beast, but it doesn't seem to be affected by the mysis oils. Possibly because the amount fed isn't enough to compromise the water entering or exiting the skimmer.

[Aquattro]

I've used raw garlic, it always worked and didn't stop my skimmer at all. I've only ever had ich in my tank twice though, so not tons of experience!

[danny zubot]

After completing hyposalinty in a q-tank for ick I put the fish back in the tank. Low and behold my regal tang had spots the next day so I used garlic, and they went away. A couple of weeks ago I added a baby perc to the tank as a mate for my adult male. The male (now female) developed spots and rapid breathing for a while after, most likely due to the sexual transition. I fed with garlic again and all is well today.

I'm cheep, I don't buy garlic from the LFS. I take a few garlic cloves and minse them, add them to a sealable jar of RO/Di and let sit in the fridge until I need it. It might not be as concentrated but I find it works well.

[Ryan7]

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