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whats the best way to treat white spot in a reef tank ?and whats the best stuff to treat
The best way to treat whitespot in a reef tank is to remove fish preferably all fish to a hospital tank. DO NOT PUT COPPER IN A REEF TANK!
Just get a small cheap tank, add a simple filter and heater. Add a copper safe medication like cupramine from seachem which is copper bounded to an orgainc so less toxic to fish. Follow direction on back of the bottle.
Let the reef tank lie fallow without fish for 4-6 weeks, vac the substrate do water changes and maybe add a UV.
Reef safe treatments don't usually work in my and many others experience and will likely kill your corals/inverts don't add chemicals even if they do say reef safe.
READ THIS ALSO http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ichart2mar.htm
The best way to treat whitespot in a reef tank is to remove fish preferably all fish to a hospital tank.
I would say that depends on what species of fish has the w/s ,moving the fish is not always the best method,i am dealing with an outbreak atm(5ft tank with tangs)which would mean i would have to strip the tank to catch them and have another large tank suitable to treat my fish,sometimes its best just to leave them(if they are feeding) and they will shake it off as mine are doing,keep your hands out of the tank,use a UV if you have one but again this will not kill off w/s but may help,once you have an outbreak of w/s in the tank it's there period,keep your water in good condition.
Jim
What fish are affected?
are you sure it is white spot (Cryptocaryon irritans)? There are many diseases with similar symptoms.
It goes without saying no more animals should be added until the problem is eradicated
If you are happy it is white spot I'd recommend having a read of the white spot threads in the fish health section but you really have two or three options
1 remove the fish to a quarantine tank and treat with a copper based medication, or if your tank is fish only treat the tank they are in with a copper based medication. All invertebrates as well as sharks, rays and some delicate fish do not tolerate copper well
2 if the tank is a reef system you could attempt a hyposalinity treatment reducing the SG to around 1.015 over a few days and keeping it there for 6-8 weeks. Some fish and invertebrates do not tolerate this well
3 try a reef safe treatment these are less effective than copper but if combined with hyposalinity can be effective. Also they may take several courses of treatment, one after the other, to deliver a cure.
Other strategies you may want to consider New Era Aegis range of flakes and emulsions (or other feeds with immunostimulants in them), Ozone and/or UV
IMHO things that don't work against marine white spot.
Garlic
Freshwater dips (although these can be very effective against some ectoparasites)
From an earlier post for reference.....
which is copper bounded to an organic so less toxic to fish.
I've just been in our institutes library doing a bit of research and came across this data
Organic copper has an 24hr LD50 for Blue gill sun fish of 0.12 ppm
Inorganic copper (copper sulphate) has an 24hr LD50 for Blue gill sun fish of 0.1152 ppm.
source
Chu fa Tsai and Kwei yang Chang (1983)
Intraspecific variation in copper susceptibility of the bluegill sunfish
Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 13(1) 99-103
So there is not much in it
chrisgregg
12-11-06, 16:32
i have used myxasin by waterlife before when i had whitespot in my reef got rid ok and nothing died
i have used myxasin by waterlife before when i had whitespot in my reef got rid ok and nothing died
i am with chris on this one, this always works for me in our nano tank.
chrisgregg
12-11-06, 18:01
i swear by the stuff as i have tried all sort and its the only one that worked, and it help with a few different infections
simon garratt
13-11-06, 00:28
i am with chris on this one, this always works for me in our nano tank.
Does anybody else see the problem in this comment or is it just me ???
i have used myxasin by waterlife before when i had whitespot in my reef got rid ok and nothing died
Chris, how can you say that.? the life forms that Myxazin would/could affect are by and large not visible to the naked eye. they inhabit your substrates, and LR as the larvae of adult phases of your critter population. not to mention a multitude of other largely unknoticed fully adult species that are still only visible by looking at sand samples under a microscope. whilst very small and seemingly insignificant, these can form a considerable chunk of biomass in a system, and be responsible for the long term stability of the systems biological processes.
regards
Si.
IMHO it kills clams PDQ
but having said that I have had success with it for white spot in reef tanks
angelfishman
02-12-06, 15:43
have you tried dropping your sg down ,this can cause cysts to burst killing them.i did this about four years ago from 1.023 down to 1. 016 for about ten days then gradually raise it back to normal over a few days.giving a freshwater dip will kill the ones on the fish but not the free swimming ones.once the fish have been exposed i find they tend to build up an imunity to it.derek
Actually a freshwater dip has no effect on the parasite in the skin as they are embeded in it rather than on the skins surface. So the freshwater cannot reach them and kill them off.
angelfishman
29-12-06, 11:52
if its only the tangs which have whitespot and they are feeding ok i would not add any treatment to the tank just leave them to fight off the infection.years ago i added myxazin and cuprazin for whitespot treatment and a lot of the corals never recovered also what else do these treatments destroy beside white spot nobody knows.most tangs if in good health can fight off whitespot and develope an immunity to the disease.derek
years ago i added myxazin and cuprazin for whitespot treatment and a lot of the corals never recovered
Not really surprising copper (the active ingredient in cuprazin) is fatal to just about every invertebrate, so in any tank treated with a copper based medication virtually all of the invertebrates both beneficial and problematic will die.
In all my years of fishkeeping i never added anything to my tanks,but I used myaxzin as a lost resort and would never use it again,my powder blue had a bad case,spread through all the fish,being regal,purple yellow tangs ,the outcome lost the powder blue ialso lost a brittle star and two small short spined urchins(down to myaxazin),many of my zoo's are no longer as colourful,all of the other fish have recovered themselves,i also had cloudy eyes on my regals,i had also turned off my ozone,i think it shows if they are left alone(if feeding) they will recover on their own.
Myxazin is a known echinoderm killer, However I can't say I'm convinced that no action will lead to the disease resolving
Myxazin is a known echinoderm killer, However I can't say I'm convinced that no action will lead to the disease resolving
I tried this, did nothing to the white spot but killed all my starfish and pulsing xena, also made the shrimps ill after a few days.
My xena still hasnt 100% recoverd, that was about 8 months ago and I have changed tanks since!!!!
Give Myxazin a very very wide berth!
Letting them fight it off up to a point is ok but you reach a point where QT + copper is the only way to go. Unfortunatly I spotted this point too late as may people do.
I tried this, did nothing to the white spot but killed all my starfish and pulsing xena, also made the shrimps ill after a few days.
My xena still hasnt 100% recoverd, that was about 8 months ago and I have changed tanks since!!!!
Give Myxazin a very very wide berth!
I used this in my kids nano tank with great results and had no problems with any of the things your talking about and i have all but the starfish in there that you mention.
I used this in my kids nano tank with great results and had no problems with any of the things your talking about and i have all but the starfish in there that you mention.
The starfish were the worst affected, within hours of me putting it in I saw both of them disolve right in front of me from the tip of the legs to the centre untill they dissapeard, not nice to watch :(
Myxazin is a known echinoderm killer, However I can't say I'm convinced that no action will lead to the disease resolving
I agree with what you say allthough it appears to be working for me,my fish look their best ever,been about 3 or 4 weeks now(w/s free),i have also given up using ozone 24/7 and now turn it on twice a week for 24hr period.
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