always getting sick

[hound96]

i have about 70 lbs of rock my parameters are all good except nitrates i can't get below 20 and thats doing water changes every 2 weeks

[mseepman]

You may want to look into the new biopellets to help you get those last nitrates down. Some have suggested that a uv filter will help with the ick as well...eliminate it from the water column at least, but I haven't tried that.

[plutoniumJoe]

I would also add that dosing all food with Garlic and Selcon keeps ich at bay for me. When I made my switch over to my new tank I added a yellow tang, probably too soon and within a day it had black ich. Uped the Selcon and Garlic and it disappeared in about two days and did not return. I then got brave and added a Copper Banded Butterfly. This time traditional white Ich struck him and my regal tang. Stayed up with the Selcon and Garlic and all are doing fine.

-Joe

[mark]

if your tank has had ick, there's a chance every fish you add it will catch it no matter the quarantine, as the ick is in the tank.

Keep the fish healthy as you can, keep the stress down, keep the water quality up will help reduce outbreaks but won't eliminate ick. For that you'll need to remove ick hosts from your tank (fish) then let the tank go fish fallow for something like 6 weeks to break the ick life-cycle. Then to ensure you don't get ick re-introduced you need a rigid quarantine of everything that goes in (fish, corals, macro) for a month plus, not just 2 weeks.

[reefwars]

I have the same prob always at 20 lol it's a curse not a big deal just gives you something to choose from. Do you treat them with any meds before placing them in??

[Slick Fork]

Ich is a parasite that goes through cycles. The ONLY way to get an Ich free environment is to break that cycle.

Pull the fish that are in there and put them in a hospital tank to treat with Hyposalinity or copper. Leave your display fishless for up to 8 weeks.

Quarantine EVERYTHING that's bound for your tank for a month or two.

[hound96]

problem with pulling everything out is i have corals glued to the overflow and i have a bta as well as mushrooms and green star and a peacock mantis (hard to house all in a small hospital tank ) as for medicating i have to stick with dosing garlic as i cant afford to buy reef solution,selcon, or any of the other things i could use

[reefwars]

May be able to help you out there we can get your corals off the overflow and if you want to house them in my tank your welcome to same with the peacock Ive got a refugium he can use as for fish I'm fully stocked except for a 33 g I have some left over paraguard I used with some fish when I got them don't think it's reef safe but your welcome to it

[mark]

Originally Posted by hound96

problem with pulling everything out is i have corals glued to the overflow and i have a bta as well as mushrooms and green star and a peacock mantis (hard to house all in a small hospital tank ) as for medicating i have to stick with dosing garlic as i cant afford to buy reef solution,selcon, or any of the other things i could use

You only need to remove the fish to break the cycle, corals etc can stay.

[hound96]

if someone has a spare 25 gallon i can borrow to house the fish in for 6 weeks that would help then i could break the cycle also that stuff you offered me would it hurt the anemone or the urchin?