We have been treating our fish for 5 days now with Aquari-Sol for Ick. On the bottle it does not say anything about doing water changes during the medication period. Some things I have read on the net say to do water changes, others don't mention it. The only difference I have notices when doing the testing of the water daily is that our nitrates have now gone up to between 20 and 40 from 10 a couple of days ago. The ammonia and nitrites are still at zero. We are going to do a water change of 50% now and then remedicate the water and add the additional salt. We do have our temperature up to 85 degrees. Is there anything else we can do to cure this, we have already lost 2 bristlenose and don't want to lose our pitcus catfish too.
Ick medication and water changes
- Thread starter Litespeed
- Start date
Personally I would stop using any medication and simply stick with the heat/salt treatment. I would do a huge water change to get the medication out, add salt, leave the temp at 85 (or lower to 83 if the fish are suffering) and keep the salt in two weeks till after all signs of ich have gone, and then slowly, over the course of another week or two take the salt out with water changes...
I usually also do a once every other day water change with a good gravel vac for the two weeks the salt is in (to get all parasites that have fallen on the gravel).
My experience is that when I use malachite green (quick cure) I loose fish, with only salt/heat I don't...
L.
I usually also do a once every other day water change with a good gravel vac for the two weeks the salt is in (to get all parasites that have fallen on the gravel).
My experience is that when I use malachite green (quick cure) I loose fish, with only salt/heat I don't...
L.
i keep my temp around 86-87 with my community tank
angel fish
black mollies
corys
rummy tetras
harl rasboras
german blue rams
all those fish do really well in those temps, just remember you need lots of water aggitation to get the water oxygenated
then i do 2 tsp of salt per gallon of water. i just use Kosher Salt that i buy from walmart. $1.40 for like 3 pounds. dirt cheap just as effective
just remember to slowly add salt and turn temp up
has worked for both my instances of Ich
angel fish
black mollies
corys
rummy tetras
harl rasboras
german blue rams
all those fish do really well in those temps, just remember you need lots of water aggitation to get the water oxygenated
then i do 2 tsp of salt per gallon of water. i just use Kosher Salt that i buy from walmart. $1.40 for like 3 pounds. dirt cheap just as effective
just remember to slowly add salt and turn temp up
has worked for both my instances of Ich
I've just finished with a bout of ich, and I treated with salt/heat. I got some really good advice on this site, and by far the majority of people have said to skip the meds all together. I used the same salt/heat treatment and all the fish came through.
With ich, water changes are essential (IMHO). Without getting into too much technical detail, those white spots are actually a parasitic infection. Once they drop off the infected fish, they enter a kind of reproduction phase, where the spots burst and the parasite divides and swims around looking for another host (your fish). This is the only stage at which they are vulnerable to meds (if you use them).
Salt is also effective against ich, without the additional chemicals. Heat will speed up the lifecycle of the parasite, and help get rid of the infection altogether. Water changes are necessary to help dilute/remove the free-swimming parasites before they have a chance to find a new host.
I have a 28 gallon tank, and I did 40% water changes 3 days in a row, one off day, and then another 3 in a row for two weeks, plus daily salt dosing. I have plecos in my tank so I went a bit lighter than the recommended dosage of salt, but they adjusted nicely and everyone was fine. While the water changes seem excessive, I've got a pretty good system set up for water changes so they don't take long at all, and the fish obviously loved the clean water.
Whichever way you decide to go, good luck.
With ich, water changes are essential (IMHO). Without getting into too much technical detail, those white spots are actually a parasitic infection. Once they drop off the infected fish, they enter a kind of reproduction phase, where the spots burst and the parasite divides and swims around looking for another host (your fish). This is the only stage at which they are vulnerable to meds (if you use them).
Salt is also effective against ich, without the additional chemicals. Heat will speed up the lifecycle of the parasite, and help get rid of the infection altogether. Water changes are necessary to help dilute/remove the free-swimming parasites before they have a chance to find a new host.
I have a 28 gallon tank, and I did 40% water changes 3 days in a row, one off day, and then another 3 in a row for two weeks, plus daily salt dosing. I have plecos in my tank so I went a bit lighter than the recommended dosage of salt, but they adjusted nicely and everyone was fine. While the water changes seem excessive, I've got a pretty good system set up for water changes so they don't take long at all, and the fish obviously loved the clean water.
Whichever way you decide to go, good luck.