Herbtana microbe-lift parasitic expellant WARNING!

[kpiotrowski]

I had a kole tang showing ich after about a month after addition to my tank and tried the above remedy. my lfs said it kills ich in the free roaming stage but the product makes no such claim. Not only does it not work at all from my experience because after using it for 2 weeks it has not helped any of my fish and all are showing spots now when it was only the tang with visible ich...but the biggest problem is this stuff will make your skimmer go INSANE! I had my reef octopus 200xs skimming nice, dark, thick skimmate running it wide open before adding the herbtana ( you need to shut down the skimmer for treatment) and now after trying to turn it back on it immediatley foams white water straight to the collection cup, filling it with clear water in a matter of seconds. After searching the internet I found a few others with the same problem and even one stating his skimmer is still not working right after many months and many water changes. My plan is to do a massive water change....like 80% and see what happens. Lost a kole tang, coral beauty angel and 2 chromis.....man I love this hobby!

 

[Krish]

Bummer on the losses...Maybe run some carbon as it absorbs alot of stuff out of the water even medications. Also, you probably try and flush out your skimmer with some warm/hot water and see if that helps. I know some people use vinegar a lot to clean aquarium equipment etc, but not 100% sure if they use it on skimmers so I'd confirm that first before using it, but vinegar is a good cleaning agent as well.

Good luck!

 

[justforfun]

yes it sucks when you listen to someone that dosnt know reef tanks.....stay on the boards there are great ich treatments people can tell you step by step on there procedure......go with the crowd on this kinda problem(do what works)

 

[Sasquatch]

snake oil like the rest. You may have to remove the skimmer and run it with 50/50 vinager mix, plastic absorbs moisture and may be coated with whatever crap was in the additive, three cures only for ich and after all these years there are only 3

 

[kpiotrowski]

Hyposalinity ( which I have a tank set up for) copper....and what the 3rd sure for ich?

snake oil like the rest. You may have to remove the skimmer and run it with 50/50 vinager mix, plastic absorbs moisture and may be coated with whatever crap was in the additive, three cures only for ich and after all these years there are only 3

 

[Krish]

Here's Lee's sticky which has all you need to know about marine ich.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f15/marine-ich-myths-facts-27003/

 

[returnofsid]

Hyposalinity ( which I have a tank set up for) copper....and what the 3rd sure for ich?

The tank transfer method.

 

[kpiotrowski]

oh, crap, yes!!! I forgot that one! I was really liking the concept of that method but have a serious lack of places to set up more tanks regardless of thier size. I soooo need a fish room!

 

[pandora32]

I have used vinegar for cleaning my skimmer. It works really good at cleaning it. I havent had any problems with it affecting the performance. Just rinse it out really good before putting it back in. Sorry for your losses.

 

[kpiotrowski]

tanks krish, carbon reactor is running now. and we will take it frrom there.

Bummer on the losses...Maybe run some carbon as it absorbs alot of stuff out of the water even medications. Also, you probably try and flush out your skimmer with some warm/hot water and see if that helps. I know some people use vinegar a lot to clean aquarium equipment etc, but not 100% sure if they use it on skimmers so I'd confirm that first before using it, but vinegar is a good cleaning agent as well.

Good luck!

 

[Aquanaut]

Welcome to the club, lol. I used the Herbtania product for 2 end to end cycles. And the directions do state NO SKIMMING. I was able to clear the system after 50% water change and using an entire tray of bags containing charcoal and resin absorbing polyfiber for an additional 2weeks. Only then would my skimmer not misbehave. My system is now running fallow for a 10 week period w/fishes all an QT tanks using Cupramine followed by CryptoPro. I recommend you do the same and bite the bullet. Likely your system was seeded by the non-QT'd chromis you used to cycle your system. I wouldn't rely on Hypo either, not fool proof.

 

[Sasquatch]

I like the third option... stop buying fish for a year, ich dies off, THEN QT everything you buy

 

[NC2WA]

THEN QT everything you buy

Amen to that, and hard lesson to learn.

Every fish that enters my display tank goes thru a 6 wk QT process. One of the weeks is a PraziPro treatment for flukes and worms.

 

[Sasquatch]

yup, in a perfect world there wouldn't be std's either, reef smart lol

 

[kpiotrowski]

Yep, lesson well learned. since my lfs quaratines for 3 weeks I took the chance and just threw them all in. oh well, tank will run fishless till christmas and then...yes I will freaking NUKE everything and qt forever. much to learn about dipping corals and need to set up a few realistic qt tanks as I only have a 55g set up right now. There has just been so much work and money put into this new sytem...I got lazy and lost a bit of motivation. so Now I have a sytem worth in the $7000 range that houses 2 cleaner shrimp and a bunch of crabs and snails....and a really cool macro fuge with jelly fish lol.

My wife wants me to convert it to freshwater.....she has no clue how close she came to being a single woman for that comment lol.

 

[Sasquatch]

there's no lesser of two evils in this hobby, but just think you could have blown the money on wine,women and song with nothing to show for it in the end (with luck lol)

 

[kpiotrowski]

Welcome to the club, lol. I used the Herbtania product for 2 end to end cycles. And the directions do state NO SKIMMING. I was able to clear the system after 50% water change and using an entire tray of bags containing charcoal and resin absorbing polyfiber for an additional 2weeks. Only then would my skimmer not misbehave. My system is now running fallow for a 10 week period w/fishes all an QT tanks using Cupramine followed by CryptoPro. I recommend you do the same and bite the bullet. Likely your system was seeded by the non-QT'd chromis you used to cycle your system. I wouldn't rely on Hypo either, not fool proof.

Wow Deb, knowing your are maticulous and methodical, do you mind sharring how this happend to you? I figure if it can happen to you it can happen to the best and I would like to learn from that.

 

[NC2WA]

kpiotrowski,

If I may suggest, Lee's sticky on the proper way to QT a fish is a good read.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f15/quarantine-process-27022/

Read it once through, and then read it again to understand.

I've done this process with all my fish (12) and it works. In my case, I add a week PraziPro treatment to my schedule as most of my fish are large angels which can be susceptible to flukes or worms.

Since you are having an issue with Ich, I thought I would post this for you.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f15/marine-ich-myths-facts-27003/

 

[Aquanaut]

Wow Deb, knowing your are maticulous and methodical, do you mind sharring how this happend to you? I figure if it can happen to you it can happen to the best and I would like to learn from that.

Yup, skewed judgment and my fault for breaking protocol by not QTing a rare, sensitive and healthy appearing Angel. A fish that supposably came from a reefers system of 1.5yrs durration w/o additions no illness and still had been through standard QT. The Angel broke out with Oodinium 36hrs after being in my DT. Where, I hadn't had illness in 7+years due to following QT protocol. Nothing is safe! Please, learn from my error. I'm very grateful for the support of my PSAS friends whom rushed to my aid to help host my fish as I get my system through this long 10week fallow period.

Deb