Problem with ich, I think

I think I my tank is infected with ich or some other pathogen and looking for a little advice. First let me give you some background on my tank and stuff. I have a 210 display with a 75 G refugium with Reverse lighting. I have a neptune controller that controls the lights and temp (always at 79, except it went down to 75 the last two nights) For filtration I have a large reef octopus dual recirc skimmer, carbon reactor, and bio pellet reactor. I manually dose a two part from BRS, and occasionally use a kalk drip as well. I have a ATO hooked up to my RO water. I grow chaeto, although it grows very slowly.

Edited by eldiente - April 16 2012 at 2:46pm

Good background info and pics. Thanks for answering my unspoken questions.
Within the last couple weeks there have been at least 3 of these same discussions here. Have you read those threads?
If you review the Reefkeeping Tip about Garlic Oil, you will see that, if within just a few days, one Garlic Oil product does not eliminate Ich, you must try another. How many different Garlic Oil products have you tried and what are they? Don't worry, If the first doesn't do it, the second usually does. (Please feel free to call me if you would like to take care of this quicker.)

You said, "So my question is why do my fish that I have had for years and have never had a problem are now getting sick? The answer is in what you have been doing:
1- 1.5 years of neglect of a six year old tank
2- recently tried to increase pH by adding chemicals
3- recently added a boat load of fish, including several that are very prone to Ich
4- assuming you only tried one Garlic Oil product, it wasn't the right one for your tank
5- Sea hare died in the tank(?)

At this point don't even think about a Hospital Tank. It will do no good. It will kill the fish to move them.

You also asked, "Would I benifit from a UV Sterilizer, I know that people either love em or hate em."
I know of nobody that hates UV Sterilizers, but there are some people that hate spending money on unneeded equipment. A UV Sterilizer would probably be helpful, though it's almost too late. Those fish could be dead tomorrow. From the pics and what you have said, a UV sterilizer is not needed. Assuming you are open to suggestions/advice, I can describe some no cost improvements to the health of the tank.


Edited by Mark Peterson - April 16 2012 at 3:50pm

thanks for the info so far.  Most of the questions I have asked, I knew the answers to (or what I believe the answer to be). I just wanted to see if there were other answers. As far as garlic, I don't remember the name of the product I used(i'm at work now). I have also used the garlic juice from a jar of minced garlic, really smelled up the whole house. I will have to go find some new garlic tonight, can anyone give me some recommendations besides garlic extreme. I will have to up my temp on the tank. I unplugged the heater during some maintenance a few days ago and forgot to plug it in and my tank got cold at night, 75 or so.

Edited by eldiente - April 16 2012 at 3:34pm

My wife is on the phone right now so it wouldn't do any good to call me. 
The time difference is 4 hours and because I work from home, you may call any time after 10AM Mountain time and up to 2AM your time.

In the Grocery store health food section look for a bottle of Garlic Oil Gel Caps. Don't buy the Odorless stuff, this needs to be stinky Garlic Oil. Poke the capsule with a pin and squeeze 1-2 drops on each frozen cube of fish food. With less fish a full cube is probably too much. Use one drop on the 1/2 cube of frozen meaty food. Do this in a small cup without adding water. Let it thaw and stir it around to allow the thawed shrimp, etc. to marinate in the Garlic Oil. After 5-10 minutes feed small clumps, allowing the fish to eat it up before adding the next small clump.

More Tips coming...also see the Reefkeeping Tips below, especially the one called "Secrets of adding new fish, fish training and the Miracle of Garlic Oil"

I do have a closed loop on my tank with an octopus wave maker. It is not in the pics as I was cleaning out precipitation when I took the pics. I do have a lot of rock on the sand as it seems most of my corals like it down near the sand and so I place them there with the intention of eventually moving them up, but never getting it done. I will move them up slowly so as not to stress the corals too much.

Ich can infest the tank and every fish can get it and die, wrasses included. Some fish we call "Ich Magnets" because the parasite loves their body. These are the Blue Tang and Powder Tangs. Something about the body of Tangs seems to be an ideal place for Ich to live. Unfortunately it also can infest the gills of most if not all fish.

The Ich Parasite lives for a long time in an aquarium without fish.
It only takes a drop of water to reintroduce the parasite in one of it's forms. A single parasite might survive on a fish even after being treated in a hospital tank and it only takes one to produce 20 more. It can come in on LR, Coral or anything wet. That's why I strongly encourage the gaining of knowledge about:
1-  what makes a healthy tank in which fish feel very happy and
2-  to find and use a workable Garlic Oil for five days after introducing every new fish and periodically thereafter(even after changing things in the tank that stressed them).

LR needs room all around it for water to flow so positioning of the rock can make a big difference, especially in the long term. An example of the aquascaping I am speaking of is in the pics below. I believe there is a Reefkeeping Tip about the "Tripod" method of placing LR. Rock is not really placed this way in the ocean but for our tanks it makes them much healthier places to live because we don't always have the advantage of wave and current action moving water all over. The Octopus is definitely a step in that direction though.

Sand needs to be refreshed. More important than vacuuming is to stir it up like a big ocean storm from time to time. Vacuuming can be done, but I recommend only once or twice a year in selected small areas only, where detritus is most commonly building up. Stirring the sand, on the other hand, is a very beneficial action. It is just the simple action of using a stick or your hand poked and wiggled down to the glass and stirred to bring detritus out into the water where all inverts (coral, worms, bugs, feather dusters, clams, shrimp, fish, etc.) can feast on it. Yes, they all find something delicious from the stirred sand. Stir small spots every week or two to treat your tank.

These are pics of a tank I ran for a few years in St. George, UT





Edited by Mark Peterson - April 17 2012 at 1:01pm