Friday, July 31, 2009

How do you get rid of "Velvet" in your saltwater aquarium? I have 55gal, sand substrate, live rock.

All levels good; nitrite 0, ammonia 0, ph 8.2, nitrate 20-40 ppm. I use premixed Ocean Seawater. Have gone fallow for 8 weeks, velvet still present.
Answers:
I'd have to ask what you've been using to treat this so far, but whatever it is obviously hasn't been very sucessful for you. Also, are you positive of your diagnosis? Marine velvet symptoms and those of a few other conditions can appear similar.

There are a number of methods that are proven to treat marine parasites, among these are freshwater dips (won't rid your tank of the parasites, only the fish undergoing treatment), copper, and formalin. The copper and formalin, especially when used in combination, provide the most effective treatment, but these will have negative effects on any invertebrates you may keep and does stress the fish. You can treat the fish outside the tank (using a "hospital tank") to protect any inverts, but unlike ich, the parasite causing velvet can remain for quite some time without a fish host. Formalin is also a known carcinogenic, so you need to be careful when handling this. I'll include some links to marine velvet and it's treatment below:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-0... - marine velvet biology and treatment
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/body_vm004... - link on marine velvet

If you are using a copper based treatment already, are you testing the amount of copper present in the water? Copper has the unfortunate tendency to bind with organics (you should always do a water change and gravel cleaning prior to its use), so you may not be getting an effective dose. You also need to pull any carbon from your filters as this will remove medications.

I've never tried Kick-Ich personally, but from information on this product (which is provided by the manufacturing company), it doesn't claim any benefit for treatment of any other marine diseases other than ich. Nor have I found independent research supporting the effectiveness of the product other than the manufacturer's claims. Information I've found on the web, from a website with a panel headed by a marine scientist and author, doesn't support the product even as an ich treatment, rather it lists this as a "non-cure":

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/cryptnoncures...
Are you referring to red algae?
Oodinium ich is easy to treat with KickIch. ONLY. This also will not hurt your inverts corals or anything else in your tank.

8 weeks is a long time to have velvet. kick ich will take about 12 days to cure totally.

If you need more help feel free to email me.

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