More Questions : )

[jinenon]

Frag, i was reading the post about eveyones setups. In one of the threads teeka said she heard that you shouldnt use a UV sterilizer on a reef tank. You posted a reply saying that its nice to know that if you have an ich outbreak you have one handy. Well, i Just noticed my blue tang has a couple white spots. Everything has been going so good so far im scared and unsure of what to do if the blue tang does have ich. No other fish show signs of stress or ich. What should i do? Purchase a uv sterilizer or can the fish fight it off themselves? Thanks,
Jesse

[FragOutpost]

If a fish has an ich outbreak then the fish is most likely stressed. Ich is almost always present in the water cloumn and usually only becomes a problem when a fish's imune system becomes lowered because of stress. A UV sterilizer will treat the symptoms but not the cause. UV can speed the recovery time if you are able to treat the root of the problem. You first need to ask yourself why is the fish stressed? Is it getting bullied by other tank mates? Most blue tangs shouldn't have the problem of being bullied though. They can usually stand their ground. What are you feeding it? Tangs need lots of nori or fresh algae. Tangs that are being fed nothing but meaty foods like brine shrimp are more suceptable to having problems. I read the ingredients when buying nori and only get the kind that is pure seaweed. There are some that have additives in them but I've always avoided them so I can't comment on them. So...Do I think that you should buy a UV sterilizer? No, I wouldn't. When I first got into the hobby I didn't know any better and my LFS said that I "needed" UV so I bought a unit. A while back I realized that I really didn't need it, but I keep it around just in case. Running UV 24/7 will reduce the amount of bacteria and micro fauna in the water column and reduce the amount of ich living in the water column, but you need to figure out what is stressing out the blue tang first. How big of a tank is the tang in? What does its diet consist of? And what other fish are in the tank with it? How long have you had the tang?