Blue Hippos and Ick

[RayAllen]

This is not a post for help, lol. More annoyance and blabbering. Whats with Blue Hippos and ick. I have a large 7" fat blue hippo. Ive had now for 4 months I guess. Beautiful fish, but so prone to ick. Drives me nuts. I had my first round with ick a couple of weeks after having it; wasnt to bad. Just feed Macro, Formula 1 and 2, did water changes and it was better in 2 weeks, wasnt passed on to any of the other fish. Now weeks later due to stress im sure it has ick again; I noticed it on Saturday a few spots, Today it is Covered and looks horrible. Not eating anymore and hardly swimming. I think i induced the stress by first introducing a new fish and also rearranging rocks. Someone on here told me if you look at a Blue Hippo wrong the will get ick, ITS THE TRUTH, LOL. Today I gave it a very quick freshwater dip (which normally I wouldnt do but its beyond bad). Every fish in the tank now has ich. The sailfin has it bad but is still eating, all the others have spots here in there and are acting normal. I did a good size water change last night, cleaned the skimmer and HOB overflow. Macros in the tank readily available. If it pulls through and recovers I might sale because I dont want to deal with everytime I add a newfish or rearrange my rock.:bareteeth:

Ok im done venting:bigsmile:

Thanks for listening

Ray

[Bill S]

Mine's 5 years old. Still gets Ich when I freak it out. Even just a little...

[RayAllen]

Doesnt it drive you crazy? Its like "Here we go again".

[erikharrison]

Have you bought a UV yet? Seriously, it works. IME! If you can kill as many of that parasite while it is in the water column by it going through the UV and getting a suntan, you will cut the breakouts down considerably. Each time it cycles, less and less will make it through the UV, but it keeps it in check. As long as you change that bulb religiously, you will have great results, and super clear water. I know alot of people do not agree with most of what I just said, but I can only say that I know it works from trial, error, and experimentation. I have seen it subside the same day, or the day after plumbing it in. As long as the fish is healthy otherwise, it works, without a doubt in my head.

[Bill S]

I have a new UV sterilizer with a new bulb...

[erikharrison]

Bill, you were anti UV, are you still? :)

[RayAllen]

Yea if I keep him it would be a good investment. Every little bit helps.

[lhoy]

Hmm, what is cheaper the UV or not buying the Hippo? I love the looks, but Ray is one more reminder of why I didn't!! Same with PBT's or Achilles!!! I love the looks but don't want to risk it (particularly with my duss on the way!)

Let us know how it turns out Ray!

Lee

[RayAllen]

Hmm, what is cheaper the UV or not buying the Hippo? I love the looks, but Ray is one more reminder of why I didn't!! Same with PBT's or Achilles!!! I love the looks but don't want to risk it (particularly with my duss on the way!)

Let us know how it turns out Ray!

Lee

I will keep you guys updated. The things we put are selves throught to be in this hobby, lol.

[erikharrison]

Very good point Lee. The discount Chinese branded bulbs that I use are still 16.99 and they need to be replaced every three months. The normal price is about 40.00
Since I don't have my puffer anymore, I only use it on rare occasion. Since I started dosing vitamin c, I have not used it at all.

[RayAllen]

Very good point Lee. The discount Chinese branded bulbs that I use are still 16.99 and they need to be replaced every three months. The normal price is about 40.00
Since I don't have my puffer anymore, I only use it on rare occasion. Since I started dosing vitamin c, I have not used it at all.

Eric is yours plumbed into your sump or on your return line back to the display? If possible id prefer to just run the water in my sump through it with the use of a small pump and let the outlet go back into my sump, should work. Which brand do you have; some of these are not inexpensive.

[Bill S]

Erik,

I was NOT a fan of UV. I won one at a MAAST raffle. I run it only when I'm going to stress something (like add a new fish). I don't think it does much - my hippo still gets Ich.

Of course, it COULD be that I've bred a UV resistant form of the parasite. Having done this in grad school with bacteria, I'm well aware of how easy it is to do! But probably NOT for multi-cell critters.

[kaiser]

Eric is yours plumbed into your sump or on your return line back to the display? If possible id prefer to just run the water in my sump through it with the use of a small pump and let the outlet go back into my sump, should work. Which brand do you have; some of these are not inexpensive.

Most UV units can't handle the high flow you would have in a return line. Usually a 9 Watt UV is only supposed to have 150 GPH running thru it. You can put that in your sump and it'll still work. On another setup I had I ran a UV with a small Rio Pump and had that discharge into my 'fuge.

[RayAllen]

Good to know, thanks

[erikharrison]

Eric is yours plumbed into your sump or on your return line back to the display? If possible id prefer to just run the water in my sump through it with the use of a small pump and let the outlet go back into my sump, should work. Which brand do you have; some of these are not inexpensive.

That's the right idea you have Ray. Yes mine is plumbed in, but it's through a mag5. A little faster is good, I feel, because it gives the pods a chance to make it through alive. I just have a Coralife Turbo Twist 3x. A 6x may be good for yours, you'll have to check it out.

[Mr_Cool]

What about having it plumbed to pull water from the display tank and then return back to the display tank? You could use a small powerhead/pump for that and probably save a lot more of your pods.

[aquasport24]

or you can tee it off at the return line and have a ball valve after the tee to control your flow to the UV.

[jake]

I have my UV from the sump back into an other chamber of the sump. As for the ick...I have a cleaner wrasse, a cleaner shrimp, and a pair of neon gobies. I have a mimic tang, sailfin tang, foxface, and a powder brown. The only one(most recent addition) that has a couple of spots is the powder brown. They all still have a healthy appetite. The only thing is when the neon gobies start getting to work, the wrasse runs them off. All four of the fish have been added in the past 2months. All I can do is cross my fingers and hope the powder brown does not get worse. Plan to add a naso and a powder blue within the next two months depending on the health of the powder brown.

[RayAllen]

My tank is a FOWLR. All the small fish you listed above for cleaning purposes would just be killed or eaten in my tank. I have a moray eel that would just eat them. Cant keep inverts either due to moray and non reef fish I have Niger, Bird wrasses etc.....

Im just going to run the water through a small pump through the uv and out a small chamber. Simple

[Jeff]

is the macro you have available, live macro? during my tank moves and rearanging the hippos never got ick anymore, even when i almost killed them. it also might be the new tang had a newer strain if ick the hippos immune system hasn't fought yet. add as much live calurpa to the tank and the tangs will get better.

[RayAllen]

Jeff I really havnt heard about the diffrent strains of ick, but it makes since. The sailfin does look a little diffrent. And there is macro in the tank for them to eat

[RayAllen]

well some good news after yesterday fresh water dip the hippo is eating and the ick doesnt look as bad.

[SoLiD]

I got extreme on Friday and brought a Coralife Turbo-Twist 36watt 12X. Up to 1100GPH... Not bad. It is part of my journey into the Powder Blue REALM. -David

[Richard]

Jeff I really havnt heard about the diffrent strains of ick

Yeah there are different strains or variants. Even some that tolerate hyposalinity. Each time you bring in a new strain you'll see an ick breakout. If you don't bring in a new strain the one in your tank will eventually die out. I forget the exact number but what was found in research is that after x number of cycles of growing ick in the lab they found that it suddenly died off completely for unknown reasons. On my tank it took a little over a year of not adding new strains before it completely went away. Now my fish (Hippo included) never break out with ick. A few weeks ago I found my temp was getting down to 68-70F at night (bad heater) and not a spot on any of them. So now any new fish will get a lengthy qt period before going in that tank.

[SoLiD]

Yeah there are different strains or variants. Even some that tolerate hyposalinity. Each time you bring in a new strain you'll see an ick breakout. If you don't bring in a new strain the one in your tank will eventually die out. I forget the exact number but what was found in research is that after x number of cycles of growing ick in the lab they found that it suddenly died off completely for unknown reasons. On my tank it took a little over a year of not adding new strains before it completely went away. Now my fish (Hippo included) never break out with ick. A few weeks ago I found my temp was getting down to 68-70F at night (bad heater) and not a spot on any of them. So now any new fish will get a lengthy qt period before going in that tank.

Thanks for the info, Richard.

[RayAllen]

yes very good to know

[kaiser]

I got extreme on Friday and brought a Coralife Turbo-Twist 36watt 12X. Up to 1100GPH... Not bad. It is part of my journey into the Powder Blue REALM. -David

You might want to look at this chart.

Per Manufacturer's recommendation:
Model, Flow Rate for Parasites, Flow Rate for Algae, Flow Rate for Bacteria
9W, 55 gph, 121 gph, 253 gph
18W, 110 gph, 240 gph, 500 gph
36W, 290 gph, 680 gph, 1,550 gph

[SoLiD]

Hmmm ok. 290gph for PARASITES. Maybe I should read more about UV filtration. Thanks for the heads up.

[Jeff]

thanks richard, i knew i wasn't crazy thinking there were other strains.

[Bill S]

OK, so my parasites were just getting a suntan...

When I plumb in my new chiller, I'll plumb this in more correctly!