What helps prevent ich?

Question

What equipment prevents marine ich? UV sterilizer? Protein Skimmer? etc.?

Answer 1

The ONLY piece of equipment that will keep ich out of your tank is a quarantine tank. Period. But even this will be effective ONLY if you use it for a period of several weeks (4+) and for every living item (and every non-living item such as live rock or live sand that's been in contact with with water that may possibly contain infected fish) put into the tank.

That's not to say other equipment or methods can't help - but they are not 100% effective in killing the parasites. UV will be the most recommended by stores as "curing" or "eliminating" the parasite, but this doesn't happen. I've worked with commercial tanks that have larger UV units than are typically used for home aquaria and were for both fresh and saltwater fish. These tanks had new UV lamps (less than 2 months old) yet the fish inside were getting ich. Why? Because UV has limitations to what it can do.

The way a UV sterilizer works is by having the water from the tank pass through it. This can be by gravity feed or by using a pump to move the water out of the tank and into the unit. UV sterilizers can't work on the tank directly because it uses UV radiation (the same thing that's in the sun's rays that causes skin cancer) to affect microorganisms. So the unit is in a protective seal that the water has to pass through, and microorganisms in the water are hit with the UV radiation. The radiation doesn't kill immediately - it works by causing DNA inside the cells to mutate. The mutation may not cause death by itself, but may affect the DNA in such a way that the microorganism is no longer capable of reproducing, or it may not be able to use the DNA to produce proteins or enzymes that are necessay for its survival. The amount of this affect will depend on the rate of flow of the water through the unit (some have a spiral flow within the unit to increase the contact time), the size of the unit, the age of the lamp (these decrease in efficiency and need to be replaced at least once a year), the clarity (lack of cloudiness) of the water, and the size of the organisms passing through it. Organisms that are smaller (single cells) are affected more than those made of several cells. Larger organisms (including some parasites) are too large to be affected to the point of being killed. So UV isn't a cure-all.

UV is also limited in that the microorganisms must be able to be removed from the tank to me moved through the UV unit. To this purpose, UV is an excellent piece of equipment for removing single-celled algae that causes "green water". The algae is small, and suspended in the water, so its concentration is the same throughout. If a parasite is free-swimming, and can control its movements sufficiently that it can avoid being pumped/drained into the UV unit, it never reaches the radiation, so is never affected. The same for parasites that attach to your fish and remain attached. That's why UV won't affect attached algae, although it may affect reproductive spore efficiently enough to prevent the existing algae from reproducing.

A protein skimmer is used to remove the organic "film" the accumulates at the top of the water. Everything you feed to your fish contains proteins, which are eventually broken down in the digestive system of your fish or by bacteria into their components (amino acids) which react with water and dissolved oxygen to form dissolved organic compounds. These molecules have a charge at the ends, and the way the water molecule is arranged, they also have a chargge (negative at the oxygen end, positive at the hydrogen end). The charge of the organic molecule is attracted to the opposite charge on the water molecule, particularly where the water molecules are aligned similarly (around an air bubble). As the bubbles move through the water, more organic molecules are attracted until they are moved up the column and into the collecting cup. Bit the ich parasites are too large to be "attached" to the bubbles in this way, even if they had an ionic charge.

So really, neither the UV, nor the skimmer will do what you're hoping. You can do a lot more to prevent ich from entering your tank by examining any fish you might want to buy very closely before purchasing it - don't get one if it shows signs of ich, or any other conditions. And make sure to quarantine any new purcahses before you add them to your tank. This also lets them adjust to your water and tank conditions and should allow them to feed in peace before they need to compete with tankmates. You don't need a fancy set-up. I just have a few spare tanks (2.5 to20 gallons in size), some people use Rubbermaid storage bins for this. A heater and a filter, a light over the tank, some PVC pipe or other "hiding places", and a cover to keep fish from jumping out. I don't use any substrate to make the tank easier to clean. I don't use UV on any of my three marine tanks, and have yet to have marine ich, velvet, clownfish disease or other marine disease or parasite in any in almost 9 years of saltwater fishkeeping.

Answer 2

I am sorry but the first poster is totally wrong. A UV Sterilizer will kill the ich parasites as well as other parasites and some algaes in your tank. Your UVSterilizer will cycle thru your tank water at a specific rate and will KILL all ich parasites that pass thru the light tube. (All water gets cycled thru the pump) that would be like saying not all your water gets filtered. Ich reenters the water via water changes so it is best to let the light run 24/7.

Protein skimmer will not remove ich parasites from the tank.

If you need more help with the UV Sterilizer let me know. I run them on my Salt, some of my fresh and my outside ponds as well.


A UV is the ONLY way to keep ich out of your salt tank. Ich is present in the water source no matter what. When your fish become stressed (for any reason and not just with the addition of new fish) ich can attack the fish. If there is no parasite in the tank to start with no matter how stressed your fish becomes, it will not get ich. I've had tanks for more than 30 years and have run Sterilizers for a long time, with no Ich.

Answer 3

To be honest really no equipment for your tank will do very much in preventing "marine ich". While it's true that a UV sterilizer will kill some of the parasites in the water, you need to have a very strong UV with a long dwell time ( how long the water is exposed to the UV light). Even then, it can only effectively kill what ich happens to be sucked into the unit and then only in one life stage. Given that and the cost of a UV unit and the maintenance requirements, it's a poor investment from a parasite prevention point of view. Some people still swear by them, but testing shows it takes far more power and exposure time than most aquarium keepers use to have any measurable effect on parasite loads. For an excellent article on Crypt (marine Ich) and it's treatments see this page:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ichartmar.htm

For more on UV sterilizers see this page:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/bcorsettingup/a/aa120197UV.htm


The single best thing you can do to prevent any parasite or other disease for that matter in your tank is a quarantine tank. Use it for each and every item that goes in your tank, even live rock as any living purchase may have been exposed to parasites and could be carrying them on their surfaces.

MM

Answer 4

One of the biggest causes of ich is a too rapid temperature change. If you get fish from the store and their water is say 75 degrees, then you put the fish directly into an 82 degree aquarium without an adjustment period, this will almost certainly cause an outbreak. For one oscar in a 55gal aquarium you need a turnover rate more like 500 - 600 GPH in your filtration. The 55 is minimal and needs beefed up filtration to handle the huge wasteload an oscar will put out.

Answer 5

Raising your temp. if possible to 81 to 83 degrees will stop ich. Ich strives in cold water but doesn't do well in warmer water.

Answer 6

The best way to treat and treat any disease in your tank is good water quality meaning keep up your scheduled water changes pristine water is the best prevention and treatment!

Answer 7

simple solution...... go to the pet store there are many products that can help with ich... petsmart

Answer 8

No matter what you do some fish are just going to get it.