Ich in reef tank

[George]

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!

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.

[Sebae again]

Cleaner shrimp and the little neon yellow gobies.

[gregzz4]

There are so many threads about MI ... and just as many opinons
I just searched Canreef for threads with Ich for a thread topic

I've only ever been successful using a QT with hypo salinity, and that's if the fish are strong enough to survive the whole ordeal

Good luck

[daniella3d]

That's what I thought. How to control dosage that way? unless you mesure it precisely and intubate the fish somehow with the proper dosage this would be nearly impossible to do. Well, unless overdosing is not a problem that is.

It's always best to quarantine all new fish and to get rid of ick in a QT with proper treatment. Otherwise any parasite is a bumb waiting to explode.

Originally Posted by George

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.
Good luck.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Otherwise any parasite is a bumb waiting to explode.

LOL,.. Daniella...don't know if that was a keyboard slip, or English/French translation thing,... but I needed a good morning laugh...

I totally agree with you, though, on hypo QT, as the preferred preventative control on ich. But once you have ich in your DT, not easy to achieve a successful outcome.

[daniella3d]

oh my..I just looked at the definition for bumb, ..definitly not what I meant! I meant bomb

I think once the ick in the tank you have 2 options, let it be and not add any new fish for a very long time, as it is said that with time ick will exhaust itself after like 10 generations or so, not sure if it is true.

Other option is to remove the fish and treat in a QT. What is anoying with ick is that it can be mild infection and the fish go through it quite easy, but once in a while I can read about some strain of ick that are very bad and virulent and kill most fish in a tank.

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

LOL,.. Daniella...don't know if that was a keyboard slip, or English/French translation thing,... but I needed a good morning laugh...

I totally agree with you, though, on hypo QT, as the preferred preventative control on ich. But once you have ich in your DT, not easy to achieve a successful outcome.