Quote:
Originally Posted by mattr
Got a fish with some ick on it and I saw that now another fish has signs of it.
I am wondering if a uv sterilizer would do the trick.
I have been feeding them with garlic soaked food that has been vitamin enriched and the stuff is still there...
It is a reef tank with corals and lots of inverts.
Taking the fish out and putting them into a quarantine tank is not a option
Thanks for the suggestions!
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UV is pretty useless against marine ich or any marine parasites. To get rid of all parasites in a tank, somehow all parasites have to pass through the UV before they complete their life-cycle(has a chance to multiply). Even if you have a way to make all of them pass through the UV, the UV bulb has to be proper size and the pump has to be proper size to be able to kill parasites.
garlic and vitamin have no effect on marine ich. They are appetite stimulant at the best.
IMO, all marine ich treatments that are labeled reef safe are snake oil. Think about it, if they are strong enough to kill parasites, they can and will kill some of your more sensitive inverts including corals.
Someone mentioned chloroquine phosphate earlier. It's a good drug to treat marine ich if you have a QT and dose the correct dosage. But doing it through feeding in a DT is next to impossible because you can't control the dosage and a lot have to depend on the size of the fish too.
If you have no way to get the fish out to a QT or reluctant to do that, you can try to live with it. Feed the fish the best food you can find, keep them full all the time, no aggressive fish, keep good parameters and don't shock them. However this is not ideal and sometime hard to maintain the above long term and consistent.
Good luck.