So who has battled ich....and won?!

I've always used a UV sterilizer as well when adding new fish and after they get comfortable in the tank, they;ve never gotten it (crosses fingers). I know some types of fish get stressed very easily though, just moving some rockwork around a bit and bam they have it again /site/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif

 

I've had good luck just letting it run its cycle. I hear that the fish are still infected even though they don't show signs of it... Most of my fish are at least 4-5 years old though, so it must not be too life threatening.

 

I had a heater malfunction, and my clownfish got ich. I fed him twice a day with food soaked in fresh garlic. The ich cleared up within a couple of days (no visible signs on the fish), and he was healthy until he jumped out of the tank.

 

I had a unfortunate PH spike a few months ago that brought the little buggers out on my clowns, sailfin, puffer an Lion. Don't worry, one system multiple tank, thay aren't in together. But it did bring out Ich in both tank. I pulled the fish into another tank used hypo salinity of 1.09 and fed fresh garlic soaked foods to all fish. I only pulled the fish that showed signs of the parasite. One month of hypo salinity and all fish are doing very well. This was over Cristmas.
I have done extensive reading on this as many have. I know the parasite is still there and the only way to get rid of it is to remove all fish and run fallow for about two months. I am just not into tearing down the tank. To be honest I think I have had the stuff for years and it just pops its head up when I make a mistake in water params. I also have added a 40W UV, but experts say this won't take care of it since the parasite will has to stay on a host to survive.
So I would say I have had luck beating it back and saving fish. But it is still there lurking in the dark.

 

I had Ich and what I thought was velvet. I QT'd all my fish for 4 months (lost a few in the begining due to stupidity on my own part) in super hypo and it cleared up, no medications or garlic food, just Hyposal. I need to start getting some garlic in the foods though....

 

My blue tang gets white spots every so often. The first time I got all worked up about it and treated with a cocktail of seachem products (Garlic Gaurd, Metronidazole and Focus) it did seem to get a lot better after I started using the stuff, however, since then I've just let the white spots run their coarse and now they don't show up very often and disappear after a few days.

I've never seen a single spot on any of my other fish, so I'm not convinced that it's even ich.

-JB

 

my tang has had a few cases of some ich like stuff... idk if it was ich or not but it has shown up a few times and goes away easily within a week. i just try to make sure he gets plenty to eat.

i havent seen it on any other fish either.

 

i dont think it would matter. i would put it in the return section of the sump and have the water just go back into the return section.

its up to you.

im sure someone will chime in with good advice

 

From what I have read on UV it shouldn't matter. The biggest argument against UV seems to be that the parasites are not neccesarily free floating and there fore will never enter the UV chamber. There are some good articles on the NET dealing with Salt Water Ich and UV, I would search them out and read them. I decided to put my UV on the sump. Heck that is one of the main reasons for a sump, keep the hardware out of sight.

 

I've had ich come and go in my display tank, i really feel like even if i qt'd my fish and let the tank cook for 2 months, then ich would still find a way and show up the next time something went wrong with my tank.
There are two things that i have noticed really helped me.
the first is the logical one that other people mentioned, and that is feeding a lot, kind of like stave a fever and feed a cold. it just gives the fish more of a fighting chance.
the other is having both a male and female cleaner shrimp. cleaners aren't nearly as active as when they don't have a mate. animals live to eat and mate, and when you take away one it effects the other.

i also do run a uv all the time on that tank and it still gets ich just the same. i may take it off. one piece of advice i have for you with that uv you got is to do some research before you pick out a pump for it, the slower the water runs through it the more that will get killed, and parasites often require the slowest recommended gph on a uv.