Hey everyone,
Some of you may be familiar with the story already, but for everyone else I'll fill you in; I had a new 21 gallon aquarium that I ran for two weeks, adding Cycle and Waste Control (I was naive) and then added 6 small fish, 3 platys and 3 mollies, I did a water change waited another week and then added some neon tetras. ( I realize now this was too much too fast)All was fine for about a week until I noticed some of the fish had ich. I looked it up in the internet, bought a treatment "Nox-Ich" and began treating (the bottle said three days but I had read to treat for two weeks) and I also raised the temperature. Unfourtunately, the medication killed my beautiful little neons, and even worse, I had to leave 5 days after the outbreak on a two week "family vacation" out of the country. My fishsitter fed the fish (too much) added the medicine, and even removed dead fish, and by the time I got back home and rushed upstairs, only 1 was left, covered in spots :sad (incidentally, my fam and i were in florida when hurricane charley hit, Friday the 13th (weird)we were evacuated! Didnt have great luck this August!) The next day the fish died and I asked the forum what on earth I was going to do-i though I would have to completely clean the tank and start over-but I was told that if I raised the temp to 86F, added 1-3 teaspoons of salt per gallon, and left it for two weeks, the ich would die out. I was told to add doses of ammonia or a few fish flakes (theyre were already MANY uneaten flakes at the bottom) to keep the beneficial bacteria alive. After the two weeks I would have to do a major water change (or several) to get rid of the salt and lower ammonia levels and lower the temp of course to make it suitable for fish. Well the two weeks are up and I was wondering if there is anything else I should do. Im not sure if the whole process could be considered a wierd, half fish half fishless cycle-but im pretty sure theyre is lots of beneficial bacteria in there because b4 I left the water became cloudy and then cleared up, and because the ammonia levels are probably very high.
Thanks
Some of you may be familiar with the story already, but for everyone else I'll fill you in; I had a new 21 gallon aquarium that I ran for two weeks, adding Cycle and Waste Control (I was naive) and then added 6 small fish, 3 platys and 3 mollies, I did a water change waited another week and then added some neon tetras. ( I realize now this was too much too fast)All was fine for about a week until I noticed some of the fish had ich. I looked it up in the internet, bought a treatment "Nox-Ich" and began treating (the bottle said three days but I had read to treat for two weeks) and I also raised the temperature. Unfourtunately, the medication killed my beautiful little neons, and even worse, I had to leave 5 days after the outbreak on a two week "family vacation" out of the country. My fishsitter fed the fish (too much) added the medicine, and even removed dead fish, and by the time I got back home and rushed upstairs, only 1 was left, covered in spots :sad (incidentally, my fam and i were in florida when hurricane charley hit, Friday the 13th (weird)we were evacuated! Didnt have great luck this August!) The next day the fish died and I asked the forum what on earth I was going to do-i though I would have to completely clean the tank and start over-but I was told that if I raised the temp to 86F, added 1-3 teaspoons of salt per gallon, and left it for two weeks, the ich would die out. I was told to add doses of ammonia or a few fish flakes (theyre were already MANY uneaten flakes at the bottom) to keep the beneficial bacteria alive. After the two weeks I would have to do a major water change (or several) to get rid of the salt and lower ammonia levels and lower the temp of course to make it suitable for fish. Well the two weeks are up and I was wondering if there is anything else I should do. Im not sure if the whole process could be considered a wierd, half fish half fishless cycle-but im pretty sure theyre is lots of beneficial bacteria in there because b4 I left the water became cloudy and then cleared up, and because the ammonia levels are probably very high.
Thanks
My test kit doesnt test ammonia!!! :huh: