[nicholash]

We just started using an ich treatment after we saw the white spots come back on our fish after a freshwater bath... can the carbon filters be used after a few hours of using the treatment??? will the carbon and the treatment cause a chemical reaction?? I am afriad that if i leave the carbon out for so many days my fish will die

[msbdiving]

The ich that is on the fish is in the tank. The fresh water bath will drop the ich on the fish, but will come back if placed in the same tank. You might want to look into hyposalinity or copper options depending on what's in your tank. Also, garlic has been used to treat. Carbon is like a sponge to chemicals. It will filter out some but probably not all of the treatment. It will get saturated to a point and then need to be changed out. What is the ich treatment that you are using in addition to the FW bath?

[nicholash]

We are using KICK- ICH in addition to the freshwater treatment.. We have inverts and coral in our tank. if there is anykind of treatment that we can use please let us know.. thanks

[msbdiving]

The above mentioned options are the only that I would try. I have tried the "natural" stuff before and it didn't do much of anything. I finally went and got a small tank dedicated only to copper and leave my fish in for 3-4 weeks. It seems to have worked for me. Look into it. I know not everyone is a copper fan. If you use hyposalinity, you are still going to need a qt and allow your main to go fallow except for inverts for about 6 weeks.

[pogodzib]

Be careful adding any kind of "reef-safe" ich chemicals. Some are not reef safe and the others don't do any good. The ich may disappear after a few days, but that is only because of the life cycle of the parasite and not the treatment. Ich may re-appear a week later, only 100 fold stronger. The only proven ways to treat ich is copper or hyposalinity, either of which needs to be done in a q-tank. Garlic may help by boosting the fishes immune system and it can be dosed into your reef tank. A q-tank can be very simple - a 10gal tank ($10), a cheap powerfilter ($15) and a small heater ($10). You don't want any type of carbon or calcium based substances (live rock or sand) in the q-tank. Small sections of PVC pipe can be used to give the fish a place to hide and a clip-on light may be used for the tank lighting.

[Dara]

It's impossible to maintain any meds at stable levels that are going to help your fish while you are using carbon, also it's difficult to dose a main tank accurately since you have to figure out how much water you are actually treating. Once a 55 gal tank has sand and live rock in it, you don't actually have 55 gals of water anymore. Your best bet is to remove your fish and treat in a QT tank.