# 120 gallon tank



## T3MPO (Nov 26, 2009)

I live in Florida and do not have a heater for my tank nor know what my temp is. I currently have Ich in my tank and am working on it. Should I get a heater? how important is it? Is it the reason why I got the Ich? Are all tanks inffected with Ich and the only way to keep it off fish is to keep a healthy tank and happy fish?


Thanks for all your help!


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## trouble93 (Nov 8, 2008)

T3MPO said:


> I live in Florida and do not have a heater for my tank nor know what my temp is. I currently have Ich in my tank and am working on it. Should I get a heater? how important is it? Is it the reason why I got the Ich? Are all tanks inffected with Ich and the only way to keep it off fish is to keep a healthy tank and happy fish?
> 
> 
> Thanks for all your help!


 All tanks have ICH and parasites to a degree but they need a Catullus to become active stress, poor water conditions and so on is the reason a heater is so important. These fish and coral in the wild come from water the is for the most part is 78 to 81 degrees. And even in sunny Florida I'm sure you don't keep your home warm enough to keep your tank in that range. Fish store's keep there salinity at about 1.018 or 9 where the ocean is 1.026 and some places it's 1.027 because at that low level ICH is kept at bay. It's called a Hypo salinity treatment. So you may see no signs of ICH at all in the store you take it home put it right in your main tank without quarantine it first, and bam there's your catullus. I said all this to say yes it is very important to have a heater in your tank.


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## Imaexpat2 (Jun 17, 2009)

touble93 is spot on here. In all probability you temp was probably the mitigating factor at work here. Since you dont have a therometer we really cant accurately make a guess as to if this is the case or not. If your water temp is below about 74 then it is a good possibility that the fish are stressing a bit which makes them suseptable to this problem. Some fish such as Tangs are quiet prone to such problems. Poor diet can also cause the fish to stress and become suseptable to Ich as well.

I would suggest that you get a thermometer and check your temp and see exactly what it is. If the water temp is found to be under 78 degrees I would highly recommend a Heater. If you have no corals then you may want to slowly lower the SG of your water as you gradually bring the water up to the proper temp and keep it there for several days. Ich generally will have about a 30 day life cycle. So you may be fighting this for a while. If your fish become sluggish when eating adding some Garlic to thier food will usually result in a more aggresive feeding response...well fed fish are usually healthier and have a stronger immune system.

HTH's...


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## trouble93 (Nov 8, 2008)

Imaexpat2 said:


> touble93 is spot on here. In all probability you temp was probably the mitigating factor at work here. Since you dont have a therometer we really cant accurately make a guess as to if this is the case or not. If your water temp is below about 74 then it is a good possibility that the fish are stressing a bit which makes them suseptable to this problem. Some fish such as Tangs are quiet prone to such problems. Poor diet can also cause the fish to stress and become suseptable to Ich as well.
> 
> I would suggest that you get a thermometer and check your temp and see exactly what it is. If the water temp is found to be under 78 degrees I would highly recommend a Heater. If you have no corals then you may want to slowly lower the SG of your water as you gradually bring the water up to the proper temp and keep it there for several days. Ich generally will have about a 30 day life cycle. So you may be fighting this for a while. If your fish become sluggish when eating adding some Garlic to thier food will usually result in a more aggresive feeding response...well fed fish are usually healthier and have a stronger immune system.
> 
> HTH's...


Well put thanks.


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