Ich...

[Kargawd]

I came home tonight and noticed that three of my fish have small white spots on them and after researching it, I have come to the conclusion that they have Ich. I do not have a quarantine tank and would like a recommendation on what product or products to use in the display tank to treat this and not harm my Corals. Help!!

[GrantMBrady]

Which fish have Ich? The one thing you really want to figure out is why or how they got it also. Is the tank having big temp swings? are any fish being harassed? have you changed anything? Are the fish eating still?

As far as a treatment personally the only thing I have used to treat Ich in my own reef tank is soaking foods in garlic xtreme I like to soak flakes and pellets preferably because I believe they absorb liquids better than a frozen food would.

Every time I have used it they got better and are perfectly happy now, I do not know how much was the garlic and how much was the fish fighting off the disease but I do believe the garlic helps.

That is my:2cents:

[Black]

Theres no good/easy anwser. All tanks have ich or ick living in them. Its the fishes health that determines whether they get it or not. Water quality is usually the number one factor.If its the 30 gallon do a 10 gallon water change now, in two or three days 10 more and so on for a week. Next is food. If you dont feed a varied diet the fish aren't getting all they need. It would be like you eating salad everyday. It could be done but not without other supplements. Vary their diet. Next is tankmates. If you have added fish lately then it will stress the added fish and possibly the existing fish. Until a heirachy is established youll see ick/ich. Temperature is also a big factor. Even a fluctuation of a couple degress over a few hours is somtimes the reason they get ick. Is your tank in direct sunlight at anytime during the day, AC ducts etc. Your goal is to bolster there immune system. Ick is like a cold in humans. The germs are out there, your body is either healthy and can fend it off or weak and more apt to get infected.
UV is a good remedy but a little costly. WetWebMedia is a great resource on the subject and you can further understand the life cycle. Bottom line is, unless you want to take the infected fish and put them in another tank, you can treat them with copper. Another option is to take out all the fish and let your tank go fallow, meaning no fish, separate infected from uninfected etc. There's really no "fix all" when keeping live rock, inverts, corals, to treat your main tank. Also when treating a tank with sand, LR, copper tends to absorb, even into the silicone and then you get to fight that battle. I had a bout with ick, did the same thing your doing, trying to find a god sent fix, but im telling you it doesn't exist. Some say they find something that works better, be it chemical or feeding with garlic or whatever. I found that if you look at water quality, feeding, temp and tankmates you'll usually find your anwser. Be patient it may take a few weeks to get everything back on track. If you were to come up with a solution to fix ick you would be a millionaire. Good luck.

[Kargawd]

I only see white spots on the Atlantic tang, blue tang and the royal gramma and yes they are eating. I believe the blue tang brought the ich in to the tank. thank you for the suggestion, Im going to hook up some of the Garlic xtreme tomorrow.

[Kargawd]

Thanks Black! Good information!

[Black]

Which fish have Ich? The one thing you really want to figure out is why or how they got it also. Is the tank having big temp swings? are any fish being harassed? have you changed anything? Are the fish eating still?

As far as a treatment personally the only thing I have used to treat Ich in my own reef tank is soaking foods in garlic xtreme I like to soak flakes and pellets preferably because I believe they absorb liquids better than a frozen food would.

Every time I have used it they got better and are perfectly happy now, I do not know how much was the garlic and how much was the fish fighting off the disease but I do believe the garlic helps.

That is my:2cents:

Good too. I did the garlic guard along with all I said above. Maybe it helped but who knows for sure. Also look at what your feeding. I prefer H2O or Formula 1 and 2. A more vitamin packed food. Also Spectra or Spectrum, i forget the name, is a pellet food that has copper in it. Maybe that works. Buying garlic soaks is cheap and might be effective but before you find yourself a 100 dollars deep in magic cures I would check the easy stuff. Oh yeah I can also sell you a 100 dollars worth of magic cures. LOL. been there done that.

[junkie]

neon gobies, they can be a big help in erradicating it, they will clean it off your fish. but first like mentioned earlier you need to figure out why you got it, and how to fix the problem so you dont keep getting ick.

[kjsreef]

I recently went through something similar and I used garlic and Kick-Ich (expensive but seems to work). I lost my royal gramma and flame but saved by 11 year old pair of clowns, blue chromis, convict tang, hawk and lawnmower blenny.

[acbaldwin]

I find a high quality/varied diet soaked in garlic is a good thing when treating ich.
Raising the temp in my tank to ~84 helped a lot too.
All of that is useless if you don't find the source of the ich (stress, aggression, temp swings, water quality, diet, etc.) first, otherwise it'll just come back.

A lot of folks have had good luck with the ich cocktail:

The Cocktail Recipe:

In a clean small glass or plastic dish.

-Add one measure Metronidazole (spoon comes with it)
-Add one measure Focus (spoon comes with it)
-Add one capful Garlic Guard (cap comes on it)

Stir thoroughly with a clean stick thingie.

-Add freeze dried brine or mysis.

Stir thoroughly with a clean stick thingie.

Add a few drop of tank water if necessary until the shrimp has "plumped."
Feed just what they will eat right away. Fridge the rest. Use later.

*If infected- every feeding (twice daily) every day for 5 days. It clears after 2-3 days.
*If not infected- once a week for prevention.

[cornelas53]

You should read about atlantic blue tang they are like that looks like they got ick but thats the way they are I have one atlantic and I read about it and they said is normal those white spots on their body but the garlic xtreme is very good idea.

[Kargawd]

I have come to the realization that if Im going to do this the right way, a Quarantine tank is necessary, so I hooked a 18 gallon with the fixins up today and upgraded my filter/skimmer at the same time. Thank you for the input and suggestions, it is much appreciated.