Preventing the Introduction of Ich?

[Luwanie]

I am getting back into the hobby and I'm making sure to cover all my bases since I'm starting from scratch and I have a question about PREVENTING ich.

 

I have only ever had a problem with ich once with a tank years ago, however it cleared up without any drastic treatment-- but it was quite the scare. So my question is the following:

 

The tank is being started with dry baserock and will be cycled accordingly-- even if I track ich in when I seed the tank, it will be sitting unoccupied long enough that it would die off.

 

When buying a fish (I plan on just having one goby) is dipping sufficient? Or medicating the acclimation water? I will be doing this in college student living conditions and can't set up a quarantine very easily so dipping or short term treatments are my only options. Is leaving them in copper medicated/hypo-salinity etc for a few hours any help or is it a waste of time if it's not long term in quarantine?

 

Same goes for new coral etc: Ich can be tracked in on just about any surface so does dipping etc do anything to remedy this?

 

Thanks so much! Feels good to be back in the hobby!

[GHill762]

I am getting back into the hobby and I'm making sure to cover all my bases since I'm starting from scratch and I have a question about PREVENTING ich.

 

I have only ever had a problem with ich once with a tank years ago, however it cleared up without any drastic treatment-- but it was quite the scare. So my question is the following:

 

The tank is being started with dry baserock and will be cycled accordingly-- even if I track ich in when I seed the tank, it will be sitting unoccupied long enough that it would die off.

 

When buying a fish (I plan on just having one goby) is dipping sufficient? Or medicating the acclimation water? I will be doing this in college student living conditions and can't set up a quarantine very easily so dipping or short term treatments are my only options. Is leaving them in copper medicated/hypo-salinity etc for a few hours any help or is it a waste of time if it's not long term in quarantine?

 

Same goes for new coral etc: Ich can be tracked in on just about any surface so does dipping etc do anything to remedy this?

 

Thanks so much! Feels good to be back in the hobby!

dipping and quarantine are the only ways to prevent.. there is an excellent link to some ich info.. i'll find it for you

[GHill762]

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-d...yths-facts.html

[Luwanie]

Hm looks like freshwater dips help but don't really prevent it. Thanks for finding that, it was a pretty simple question but I hadn't found a straightforward answer to whether or not dips are sufficient. Looks like it's okay to wipe things out on coral though since it wouldn't be protected by getting under scales/gills etc

[meirvin]

I too am cycling a tank and worried about ich, was lucky with a freshwater some years ago, would be interested in the procedure you come up with