Marine Ich? :( :( :(

[Logzor]

Yeah just take one step at a time. In most cases it is not an emergency. The fish parasite I picked up was very unfortunate and happened to be extremely deadly and kill fish within 36 hours. I lucked out. Ich is not too big of a deal 80% of the time (providing tangs are not involved).

Realistically you have someone with a refractometer test your water and just adjust things based on the true reading. I think soaking the unit in vinegar overnight may help. In addition, I would wash it out after each use with tap water. I think stuff can build up on the arm or clog around the mechanism on which it 'swings' causing a high or low reading.

If you have some white vinegar laying around soak that puppy overnight and see if it gives a new reading in the morning. I think I tried this and it did not help but it may make a difference on yours! Good luck!

[Logzor]

I believe that is the exact same one I use, it works great

[Arcade_Guy]

I have a deep six and a red sea hydrometer. The red sea always reads .001 lower than the deep six so I keep the red sea at 1.024 and the deep six at 1.025

Bring your hydrometer over when you dropoff the RO/DI and we'll see what it reads compared to mine.

it'll depend on if i have time before work, i may just have to bring your filter to work tbh...

i'm going to clean the hydrometer with vinegar, rinse it plenty good and "season" the needle.. see what that does for me.

i'll also try to get my hands on a refractometer on loan here soon, and buy that one from marine depot, thanks for finding that lightningfront

and thanks again logzor for the help

[jeremyt]

got my refractometer from north dixie reef for 40 45 $......also i have had great sucess with bringing temp to 80 81 for ich.  i have read that it can only survive in 80 degree temp for 3 days but it usually takes a couple of weeks for fish spots to go away.  also cleaner shrimp eat the parasite off of the fish.

[Joel]

There are some inaccuracies posted in this thread about parasites and their treatment.

There was a long post about parasites and treatment methods posted a while ago that someone made a sticky but I can't find it. It was a friend of Micki that was having a parasite issue and was covered at great length.

Can a board member or mod find this thread?

Joel

[slandis3]

i think this is what you want

http://www.ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=1761.0

[Joel]

i think this is what you want

http://www.ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=1761.0

yup, that's the one.

thanks Mike

[slandis3]

anytime 

[ohioreef]

I stickied it. I should sit down and pull out all the important info and create a page for it.

[Joel]

I stickied it. I should sit down and pull out all the important info and create a page for it.

That would be awesome, thanks Gary.

[Arcade_Guy]

wow, tons of good info in that thread.

so my gramma's spots are almost all but gone today, but he's still scratching.

He isn't hiding any more tho and he's eating, hopefully this isnt just the lifecycle of the parasite and he's actually improving.

i cleaned my hydrometer and "seasoned" the needle over night, cleaned it again, then tested this afternoon... reads a bit lower, hopefully more accurate. Says 1.026 (before was ~1.027)

time to track down a refractometer to make certain and reduce the salt content.....