Uncurable ICH!

[docmal]

Ok I have had a purple tang in a quarantine tank for 2 and a half weeks. This tank has copper in it... I believe I used para cure or something.. The levels read pretty steady for the last week and a half... The only problem is for some reason I have inclining nitrites and the only way to subdue them is water changes. I am using some LR and a sponge filter. I am feeding prime reef flake once a day, sometimes a little to much food for one fish (but I have big fingers and its hard to get a little pinch).

anyway I think thats why the ich will not go away. It has faded a little but he still has spots. Is this ich? It sure looked like ich but it isnt gone or hasnt fallen off of him yet. Im tired of seeing this poor fish in such a crappy environment is there any other treatment that might help kill this ich? And why r my nitrites always rising when my ammonia is always 0?

Please help me I don't want to lose him...

oh yeah... His appetite was great untill today when he wouldnt eat... I think the nitrites where way high cause I havent done a wc for a few days. But I did one and I added some prime water conditioner or whatever to try and help.

[Green Mariner]

Docmal, I have had good luck with MELEFIX, others have had great luck with using garlic, why not give one of these a try! I personally have not tried garlic but I believe you should soak the food in garlic juice before you feed it to the fish! The only problem with this is your fish my get a sudden craving for pizza!!

[Playfair]

It sounds to me like your Q tank is the cause of the probs!

What is your main tank like? Cleaner shrimp will help with ick, BUT "treatment" will only work if the stressor is removed; either straighten out your hospital tank, or get that guy in a decent system. These are sensitive fish and can't handle poor water quality.

btw, herbavores prefer a constant grazing supply of plants. I would provide something like Seaweed Selects for snacking.

[aLittletank]

Originally posted by docmal
Ok I have had a purple tang in a quarantine tank for 2 and a half weeks. This tank has copper in it..... The only problem is for some reason I have inclining nitrites .......I am using some LR and a sponge filter.

I am not an expert and I don’t play one on TV how ever these few statements tell me that you have

1 killed your live rock with copper. you can not place copper in a tank with live rock or it is ruined. Do not ever put that rock back into you display or it will leach copper and do more damage. no harm leaving it where it is now though. That live rock will not act as a filter now though.

2. I would do a 30 % water change today using water from your display tank. then 5% daily until the nitrites are gone. i would think that nitrites could the stress causing your tang not to eat and to continue having ICK


These are my thoughts and I could and have been wrong before!


HTH
ALLen

[docmal]

actually your wrong copper doesnt kill live rock. copper kills invertibrates on live rock but bacteria are not inverts and therefore (and I know this for a fact) copper cannot and doesnot kill denitrifying bacteria if it would there would be know way to filter a quarantine tank. The rock in the q tank serves the same purpose as in the main tank... it just isnt pretty cause the algea doesnt survive. As for putting it back in the main tank... I'm not going to, if I was stupid enough to do this, I wouldnt have spent the extra dough on a q-tank to begin with, I would thrown the copper in my display tank and killed everything.

Anyway, the cause of the nitrites was die off of worms on the rock but that was over a week ago shouldnt the cycle have kept up by now?

two facts...
the nitrite is never really really high.
fish can handle nitrite better than ammonia (still a stressor though)

One more question:
If the copper killed the bristle worms in the rock... shouldn't the ich have sloughed off already?

[Terry B]

Docmal,
Melafix is not a treatment for Ich, but rather for a bacterial infection. Garlic does work as a stop-gap method but doesn't always work as an actual cure. The live rock in your tank will make the copper very unstable. Maybe your test kit is not accurate. It should be tested twice a day and adjusted as needed. What is the copper level you are using? Copper does work, but ONLY if administed correctly.
Hyposalinity is the best sure fire treatment. Do a search on hyposalinity and you should find all the info you need. Live rock in a treatment tank is a bad idea. You can get biological filtration from a conditioned sponge filter or bio-wheel.
Best wishes,
Terry B

[jim]

I would guess that the dying stuff from the LR could still be decaying.

I have successfully used Formalin, a dilluted form of Formaldahyde. It works well, but can be too harsh on very sensitive fish. I have used it on angels with no problem.

Formalin will kill the little nasties on the fish and in the water, and ofter in the sand. They may survive in the sand so you may have a second outbreak in 2 weeks or so.

You can treat the q-tank or use it as a fish dip.

Jim

[billsreef]

docmal IMO Terry has giving you the best advice yet...pretty much what I was going to say except he beat me to it