I am using ro/di water, i have a auto top off [ 13 gallon reserve] that is heated to 78 degrees before it goes into the tank, is the 8 gamma uv light to small for my 90 gallon? it states it's geared up to 200 gallons. should i put it directly in- line with the return line. Right now i have it hooked up to a seperate pump in the sump that feeds the uv light and kicks the waterback to the sump. I'm running a mac 12 pump for the return to the tank and I think the flo would be to fast for the uv to work properly. That's why I went to other way. for me to cut back the flo before going into the uv {in-line] I would lose to much GPH for the tank. I have a 18 watt turbo twist on my 55 gallon...I should switch them....?
I have a 18 watt turbo twist on my 55 gallon...I should switch them....?
Absolutely!
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
In fact if there's any way you can run them both on the 90, do it until this problem goes away. Don't, under any circumstances, let any water from the infected tank get to the 55. Common transfer methods are hands, nets and othe equipment. Remember the tomites cannot be seen and can transfer with a drop of water accidently left on your hands or in a net.
Dick
Hey, good night guys, it's been a long day. Left this am at 4 am to take my mother-in-law to the Orlando airport. I'm beat.
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
I ran across this post this evening. I am having a bad outbreak of ich in my reef and I have been out of town for the last 3 weeks, unable to properly treat the tank. I have since lost a naso and I have a anthias on the ropes. I'll finally get home tomorrow night and hopefully will be able to treat the tank even more. I am trying the Kick Ich product and I'll raise the temp in the tank tonight (if I can get hold of my wife and convince her to look to see if the heater is in the water properly...). All I can really do is raise the temp, change the UV bulb to make sure its new, and hope for the best. I don't think I can fresh water dip the anthias and save it, but tomorrow, I will try.
But the reason for the post is to thank you for the best straight forward response I have seen anywhere. If someone posts about an ich problem, they get blasted without any sympathy. ____ happens and we have to recover from it!!!
i have heard of and tried on one occasion of dipping the affected fish in a freshwater bath for 10-15 minutes while keeping a close eye on the infected fish. i was told the Ph difference between the two waters makes the ich cyst explode almost on contact with the fresh water then dropping off the fish in the treatment bucket so you can add it back to the tank ick free. like i said earlier i tried it on my blue tang after i bought it. (he was a little fella) and it got better right away. if it was the fresh water bath, or just settled in to where the ick disappeared i couldn't say for sure? has anyone else heard of this before? its no dought a risky maneuver, i can only imagine the stress the fish goes through but i bet it fells a whole lot better without those buggers bothering it!....
Secondly, sorry to hear of the ich in your reef. I hope you are able to lick it. I am not convinced that fresh water dips are effective for ich. I have never heard of the pH change causing the cysts to "explode" although perhaps the change in osmotic pressure could. However, even if the freshwater dip will kill the cysts or cause them to otherwise drop off the fish in this case they are still in your tank. The UV should take care of the free ich in the water column but won't help with those on the fish or in the sand or rock. If your tank is generally healthy your fish may then be able to fight off the parasite but I would not consider it ich free.
IMO, in order to ensure that your tank is free of this parasite you will need to remove the fish, treat them with copper even if they appear unaffected and let the tank lie fallow for 4-6 weeks. The trophonts must have a host (fish) to complete their life cycle and this will absolutely break the lifecycle.
Yes, 24/7, a 25W on a 135 pushing about 300 gph through.
That's quite a lap full you have there.
Dick
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
Tony, who ever told you that is lacking in the truth about UV. UV only has an effect on the water that passes through the UV. It has no effect on corals what-so-ever!!!
__________________ Amphibious
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT USE COPPER IT IS A MISTAKE. Copper will burn your fishes gills it is not a good idea. Think about a real reef in the ocean, when is the last time a fish in the ocean, that had ich was take out of the ocean had copper pored all over it, then put back in the ocean after 6 weeks so the ocean could cycle, stupidest thing I ever heard. There are always side effects to trying to cure diseases with chemicals in a reef system or fish only, but the most natural ways are always the best, cleaner shrimp or cleaner wrasse. Or just keeping your water at consistent levels of ph, nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, calcium, alk, or just sticking to the basics because ich is 99% in all tanks reef or not. But if fishes immune systems goes down or stress levels go up then ich shows, and when you can actually see ich its already laid the first set of eggs in, on or around your fish. When ich is maturing and about to die and fall off (which is why some days your fish look great and others like garbage) its not too late but it is defiantly time to look into the problem of WHY. And since we dont drink the same water that our fish have to live in, a lot of problems can be solved through a good water change and letting a fish build its immunity back up and i think garlic is a great organic way to help a not eating week fish to begin eating because without food you can not get stronger. When we get sick we dont take a flu pill and are ready to run a marathon and everything is back to normal but we do temporarily feel better, fish in some ways ( i know i sound weird) but fish are like people, but people have the opportunity to fix a problem or say something to fix the problem and fish have to show you with disease, dying, fungus, and other bad stuff that none of us like to see in our tanks. And please remember this is only my opinion but i know from experience that throwing chemical fixes at a natural problem like copper is NOT and i repeat NOT the way to help fish. Skimmers and UV sterilizers are sweet and they should be run all the time, And 1 more thing if ich attaches itself to a fish, and you take that fish out of the water expose it to air, then put it back into water that it can not breath in (no salt / freshwater bath), then put it in a new tank or put it back into its natural surrounding's, what is the stress level of that fish now and how much more susceptible is it to a disease that shows when a fish is stressed or sick. Its all commonsense. And please believe that any fish shop owner will try to make a sale and make a profit no matter how your tank looks or does at the end of the day and if they were there for FREE advice and not to make sales or $$$ then they would not be there at all. I have had in the past a $1100 fish/reef tank crash and had $250 in chemicals that are the "miracles" of "miracle" workers sold from 3 different shops around me only to figure out that my water was insanely out of line partial to the chemicals, skimmer was going crazy and no UV sterilizer because it would kill all the toxins i was trying to treat my tank with and I was doing exactly what i should not have been doing BUYING CHEMICALS AND DOING FRESHWATER DIPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reaching my 70th BD, I realize that I cannot help but grow old. However, I refuse to grow up!!! My wife would tell you, "He may be 70 but, He's going on 17". Life is wonderful with a woman like that.
, 
icon under their name to add to their reputation. 
Crazy for using chemicals 
and I was doing exactly what i should not have been doing BUYING CHEMICALS AND DOING FRESHWATER DIPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!