Ick Problem

[alexwolf]

I have had a bad case of ick before, and nothing died. well, in the lest 2 days i have lost a flame hawk, a powder brown tang, and a neon goby. I cant figure out what the hell is going on. The only change i made was dripping 2 gal of Kalk overnight one time, and the tank warmed up the other day but not enough to cause this. All 4 other tangs have ick, both clowns too. The only ones not affected are the engineer gobies. I cant possibly get them all out to dose, so what should I do? I dont want to lose anymore fish, this is the most I have ever lost. :(

[MikeP]

I'd remove any inverts you can and lower the salinity in the main tank to about 1.017 or so over a day or so - sounds like a nasty outbreak. Additionally raising the temperature some will speed up the life cycle of the parasite - if they are in the 'spot' stage you may be able to get them to drop off and take other measures before they reattach to the fish.

Possible a ph flux added to the sudden temperature surge could have stressed the fish enough to allow the parasite to infect them - some people believe you can totally eradicate ich, others believe it can exist at a subacute stage indefinitely waiting to explode on stressed fish.

Good luck.

[RobertG]

Alex do you have a UV ster. I would hook it up & hopefully kill any of the free floating parasites. Run it for about twelve hours aday. I have also used the kick ich stuff it seemed to help after the full cycle.
I did'nt remove anything as they say it is reef safe. After treatment good water change.

[Instar]

Possible a ph flux added to the sudden temperature surge could have stressed the fish enough to allow the parasite to infect them - some people believe you can totally eradicate ich, others believe it can exist at a subacute stage indefinitely waiting to explode on stressed fish.

MikeP has it right there.

Alex do you have a UV ster. I would hook it up & hopefully kill any of the free floating parasites. Run it for about twelve hours aday.

And RobertG has a great idea. Theres a number of folks running those and they work. But, before you run out and get something else that needs research and has some difficulties associated with it, consider the following:
Since you don't have stoney corals, stop dripping kalk. First of all that is really tough to get right for your tank even if the only thing you had was sps. Second, it changes things and it changes things a lot in the buffer system. 2 gallons in one night when not needed and never done before, can make the dKh change more than enough to cause trouble. The temp spike is not what gets you, there are 2 things that happen when that happens. There are many equilibriums going on within the buffer system. Temperature spikes push the balance of those reactions to an extreme where there is less O2 because of the temp, that starts changes. Then the temp, when its spiked high, will come down. Heat is lost more rapidly than its gained. The temp comes down quite fast, the buffer system changes and so does the fish's metabolism as it drops too. With that, there is not as much production in the slime glands, not as robust a slime and ick, a stinker that is always around, can make its presence known. You must keep the tank chemistry and temperature stabile. Unless you have a fish only, its not practical to drop the salinity (sg) to 1.017. Its easier to keep stabile if you raise the temp. First to 82 and it that doesn't work, to 84 and keep it there, flat, stabile, with no changes whatsoever day to night. Feed the fish nori and some protein like ocean plankton, cyclopeeze, mysis as well as the nori. Get a few live mussels from the grocery store, split one, rinse it and place it on the bottom. If they don't eat that, then take it out the next day. Its a great source of Vitamin A.
Consider also that you have a new tank going. Did you use cultures to start up in addition to whatever else you did? If you raise the temp, keep everything stabile and the ick doesn't go away, then I use Reef Vital DNA Professional, a colloid (protein catalyst similar to steroid and stimulant). I've never done anything else to get rid of ick, mostly because that works great with inverts of all kinds. They love it. As for the ick, it always disappears with this method, so far anyway. You have a new tank, keeping it stabile is not that easy. New salt water, without some caulerpa growing good in the fuge is a little on the sharp side. Ick is quite a common pest for new tanks. If the flame hawk bit it, it sounds like you have messed up the water chemistry more than anything else. The two preceding events that led to this can be controled. Now, here is the kicker - make temperature changes gradually. Especially when it comes to dropping them. You can probably bring the salinity (SG) down a little, SLOWLY, without hurting your clams and other inverts, but, not below 1.022. I don't know the full list of softies you have, so that is a general guess really.