I almost believe that ich is something every reefer must be baptized with. If it is already in your tank and you have inverts or corals you need to strengthen your fishes immunity levels the best you can with food soaked in Selcon and garlic.

I have had my battles with ich and found that reef treatments were often more stressful to the fish then just trying to feed those that were eating.

Others have their opinions and they may be right but in my reef keeping I have found that a consistent environment of well fed fish supplemented with Selcon and garlic have kept ich away.

I have added fish like CBB and a Powder Blue Tang (that looked like swiss cheese after the other tangs got to him) successfully sticking to this recipe. Don't add any fish until the other inhabitants are healthy and fat. Keep up the selcon and garlic for at least a couple of months after any signs of ich and supplement occasionally after that. Small price to pay considering the price of a nice fish.

In the end you can search for hours and I don't know if you will ever find any conclusive peer reviewed research that ever answers the ich question.

My two cents and that is all they are probably worth.

-Joe

i now have a quarantine tank going. currently have 3 fish in there and they have been in there a week.

anything specific i should be looking for?

If they are healthy, then it is just a waiting game. Your reef should remain empty of all fish for 6-8 weeks so that the ich does not have a host. Then you can transfer the fish from the hospital tank into the main. Make sure they are fat and healthy as even this move will stress them. Keep up the garlic and selcon even after the transfer.

i cant keep my tank empty of fish, i have the three fish in there living currently that would be impossible to catch. but none of them have been showing any symptoms for over a week now

Then the ich will still be in your tank
I had to take my entre tank apart to catch my fish for QT

im running a UV sterilizer on the tank now. wont that kill the free floating ich in a few weeks?

I feel your pain!:cry:

It will reduce ich that is in the water column but even if a fish does not show signs of Ich it can still be a host (I think) and therefore you will be simply re-introducing you fish into a tank that has ich present. Some believe that this is all tanks! If you fish are strong enough and have a strong immunity system they should be able to fight it. Otherwise you are back where you started.