So confused..ich or not??? Help

[Coralgurl]

Soaking food in both selcon and garlic.

[Coralgurl]

Well it's a sad day, my coral beauty didn't make it, found her dead this morning. She stopped eating yesterday, I watched her try to catch food but couldn't get to it. All the other fish are still showing great appetites and not any signs of problems yet even though they have I h on them as well. Today is the third day of treatment, hopefully it is making a difference.

[jtbadco]

Unless you want to remove them to a QT tank and treat with copper, then garlic and Selcon are your best bet.

I tried a couple of 'reef safe' meds but with little to no noticeable effect.

I have been told that fresh water dips can help remove some parasites too.

[Coralgurl]

The selcon garlic and herbtana seem to helping. One of my clowns barely came out of it's nem yesterday, but today is swimming all over. My blenny is also moving around more today and picking at the algae, yesterday he just sat on a rock up by one of the power heads, was still eating when I fed the tank but that's it. so there appears to be a bit of improvement. I tried to catch the coral beauty last night when she finally came out to try to do a fw dip, then place her in the qt tank as she was by far the worse, but I couldn't get her. I did set up a qt this week but felt the stress of taking my tank apart to catch everyone was going to be more stressful and cause more harm than good. Not out of the woods yet but I think things look a bit better today! Will keep updating this thread.

[jtbadco]

Doing frequent water changes is also advisable. Pristine water will help the fish heal and it will help to remove free swimming parasites from the water column. Do a FW dip on anyone you can catch.

The visible ich parasites will disappear and re-appear on the fish's skin as it follows it's life cycle. Once you have gone 10-14 days without any spots you should be fine.

[Coralgurl]

Ahh, I wasn't sure if I should do any water changes while treating. I did one on Sunday, will get one set up to do tomorrow. I usually do 10 gl on my 55 gl tank, is that enough as I don't have a big enough container to do a larger one.

I still see spots on them, but the clowns and blenny are flashing less. Also, can I treat with the herbtana every 12 hours or just once a day? Instructions say daily so I've been doing at the same time each night, an hour before lights out so they are swimming less.

Thanks for the input!

[Gripenfelter]

If you have a UV sterilizer it would help prevent future breakouts.

[Coralgurl]

I don't have one at the moment but will pick one up before treatment is complete. It would have to be turned off during treatment anyway, I need more salt so will probably head out in the next day or so to pick one up - any recommendations on a decent one? I was at Pisces earlier this week and they have one for around $160, plus the pump and lines, not sure on brand.

[Gripenfelter]

Check how many watts it is. You don't want one too big or it will kill all bacteria. One too small does nothing.

[Coralgurl]

Thanks! I will check out options and add one to the tank. Going to treat for additional 2 weeks once spots gone, have a feeling tank is going to be a mess after with protein skimmer off and extra feeding.