Reef - Ich - Organicure - Fallow Tank - Aaaaargh ! ? ! ? ! ?
 

After running my reef for a year without any signs of ich, I did a little bit of aquascaping & disturbed the sand bed. I always QT everything before it goes in my tank. Well, everything except for the LR which I've picked up from 5 fellow reefers & 2 different LFS.

Anyway a few hours after I finished, my fish got ich :(

I removed everyone & put them in my QT tank & started treating it with some Organicure & a week or so later signs of ich are virtually gone from the fish.

How long do I need to leave my reef tank fallow for to make sure the Ich dies off completely? I've read & heard anything from 6 to 12 weeks.

Not a problem normally but I don't really want to keep butterfly fish in a 10g QT tank for 12 weeks!

I have set up a 15g for my frogfish but I'm guessing that has ich too as the LR & sand was from my reef.

Organicure says it's safe for fish, crabs & shrimp. Should I risk using it in my reef or in my frogfish tank (contains some LPS, gorgs & clams)?

It also says it contains 1.25% copper & 17% formaldehyde, so it'll probably kill my corals, clams, pods, worms, starfish etc. ?

Oh & to anyone running UV. This is a good example of it being useless against ich that's not already in the water column.

.

I would not use a product containing formaldehyde or copper in a reef tank.
I would observe but not treat the frogfish.
Can you get garlic extract into its food? If so, do so.

So don't treat even if he starts showing signs of Ich?

I could get some garlic extreme into his feeder shrimp tank & also soak the feeder shrimp food in garlic too.

.

Yes, don't treat. There are some fish like mandarins (and I believe frogfish) that don't have typical scale exterior and meds harm them.
Use garlic extract whether you see the ich or not and add selcon if you can as well.

I'll enhance his food & fingers crossed he'll not succumb to ich.

Meanwhile, how long shall I leave my reef fish free?

12 weeks seems a lot to bare. In that scenario I might just break it down, sanitise everything, cook the rock for a few months & get rid of the rest.

.

Garlic is a waste of time. Observed recoveries based on its use are annecdotal at best. Allicin, the active enzyme in garlic, is wildly unstable and will rapidly decompose once formed.

Stick with known macrophage stimulants such as beta glucans and lipopolysaccharides.

Peace

Really, I have been keeping fish for 18 years and during that time had some pretty severe ich infestations. In every case but one, the ich cleared without any loss of fish.
But, of course this is merely an anecdotal comment at best.

WTF are beta glucans and lipopolysaccarides?

For Ick I like No Sick fish Ick remover, it lists as reef safe and I've used it a few times in my display tank when introducing a new fish that got ick and it has worked every time, with the best thing being that the treated fish have never gotten ick again, even when a new fish with ick was introduced. My snails, crabs, pods also showed no adverse effects.

Beta glucans are an immune booster that can be bought at health food stores. The beta glucans that come from the cell walls of brewers and bakers yeast are the best but you can get them from some cereal grains like oats.

Unless your prepared to crush your own garlic and feed immediately the health benefits are limited. I would suspect most of your fish would of recovered from ich even if you hadn't fed garlic :mrgreen:

Thanks for the info.
On a few occasions the tank had a fairly mild ich infection and your comment that they would have recovered anyway is possible.
But, I have had very serious ich infections that in the past, without intervention killed the fish.
By using garlic extract (garlic extreme.) the ich went away after a few weeks
I would like to see a scientific test done with ich and garlic. I would do it myself but would properly be accused of bias. Until than each to their own I guess. Oats versus garlic, ha ha