[xXSuPeRhErO_gIrLXx]

After 6 years in the aquaria hobby and ~8 months in saltwater/reef tank...I think I've got my first case of ick.....guess you can only knock on wood for so long...

So...the plan is to set up the QT tank and put my two angelfish in quarantine...seems like they're the only ones showing signs of being sick (cloudy eye)...I plan to do a hyposalinity dip for 30 seconds before placing them in the QT...Shall I treat the QT with anything? Not familiar with ick treatments...

The bigger question is what about my DT? It's 60 gallons with softies/leathers and one sun polyp colony and an anemone...I have noticed very small white spots on the back glass...I can't quite say that they look like cotton tufts but some actually look like they form a ring...I'd say these spots are <0.5 mm in diameter.......will the DT just have to wait this out? I plan to perform a 10% water change this afternoon...followup with another 10% tomorrow?

Again...first time ick problem...argh...this makes me nervous...

[pogodzib]

In order to kill off all of the ich, you need to get ALL of the fish out of the display tank and leave it fishless for 6 weeks. During that time, you should treat all of the fish in the q-tank for ich, whether they show signs or not. The only two proven methods is copper treatment or hyposalinity treatment. Copper is quicker, but I feel that it is more dangerous to most fish. Hypo, IMO, is safer if done correctly, but you need to have a refractometer and it takes on about 6-8 weeks to treat using this method. A short hyposalinity dip isn't very helpful unless the fish are peppered with ich. In that case, I'd to a straight freshwater dip for 3 minutes.

Here's a link on both the copper and hyposalinity treatment methods.

ATJ's Marine Aquarium Site - Reference - Treatments

[DEWAYNE]

okay, I don't agree with taking the fish out of the tank for this long, if you have a QT tank do your treatments using your best judgement, all fish carry the ich parasite, its when they get stressed out, then you will see the ich come out on the body of the fish, I have had a saltwater tank for over ten years, never had a QT tank, just by trial and error, just because one fish breaks out in ich, dosen't mean that they all will, if this happens, you need to test your water for anything and everything, keep in mind your temp. should not go up or down more than two degrees.

[jimw369]

DEWAYNE....Dont want to start anything but do you believe a fish can be completely rid of Ich never to come back again? Even when stressed?

[DEWAYNE]

hey, I believe anything is possible, just sharing with you from several books that I have and still read, if we had this down to a science we'd be in a worry free exsistance.... use your best judgement on this, I am still learning myself.