Curing ick

On Aug 25, 1:51*pm, "NoSpam" wrote:
"mike d." wrote in message

news
I had three or four fish in a ninety-two gallon tank, and they got
ick, and I treated it(the tank) with the blue copper compound *but I
didn't remove any charcoal. I don't know if my charcoal was old and
spent, or if it just didn't stop the action of the copper sulfate,
but the fish very quickly & very completely *recovered. *Mike.
"Gottcha" wrote in message
...
I recently had an ick outbreak in my tank and was wondering. If i
add kick
ick do i need to take my activated carbon out of my filter? I was
told that
it will remove all medications from the water.

Activated carbon absorbs what it can in about 1 week. Then it is
'used' and will do nothing. You should replace it.

If you had a UV sterilizer and a cleaner shrimp it would be rare that
you get ick in the first place, and if you do just increase the amount
of time the UV light is on.

If you get ick again dip the fish in a separate container of distilled
water or RO/DI water for around 1 minute.

You will NEVER get rid of all the copper (a poison) but do several 50%
water changes and you'll be able to reduce the amount.

3-4 pounds of live sand + whatever amount of white sterilized play
sand (home depot) will give you 100% live sand in around 9 months. For
a 6' tank you'd want a 3" sand bed.

Putting vcoper in a marine fish tank is bad to do. A quick and simple
dip in RODI water that is preferablly temp and PH matched tothe tanks
water is a very effective way to fix an ICH problem. Use a separate
tank or container to use for the dip of about 1 or 2 minutes. I let em
in for as long as possible or up till the fish starts to stress out. I
also like to keep the tank free of any fish for a couple of weeks as
well after the infected fish are removed in additon to healthy fish as
without a host the ich parasite will die. It pays to have a basic bare
hospital or quarantine tank with fresh or salt water fish.

Odds are you may have problems if you ever decide to have any inverts
with the copper that is in any live rock or silicone seals, but if its
a fish only tank its not a problem other than the usual staining of
the silicone seals. When you dip a marine fish with ICH in freshwater
you can literally see the parasites
"explode and drop off the fish"