ICH!!!!! Am I doing this right?

[Snoozie]

Hi Everyone,

My tank which was very healthy has suddenly been hit by an Ich infestation. I think the cause of this must have been my pictus cat which got injured and the stress of the injury must have brought out the ich cause up until then everyone was fine.
Since the infestation I've lost a pictus cat, eel tailed cat, bala shark with another bala looking very infested and not too well.

So far I've added 9tsps of salt over a period of 12hours, according to what I read I need to add another 10tsps? (38g tank).

What do you think my chances are of saving my bala and preventing all the other fish from getting it? I do not have a hospital tank so I can't quarantine the sick looking fish :(

Is there anything else I can add to the tank to assist with treatment??? :confused:

Any advice would be most welcome!

Thanks :help:

[naps]

What's the tank's temp?? When treating for Ich you dose with salt and raise the temp to around 84, it help kill the Ich too. Don't raise the temp too fast though.
Check this out too...
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39759

[Snoozie]

Thanks for the link that gave me a great deal of useful information. Currently my tank is sitting at 26c (which i believe is about 78F), so I need to raise my tank up to 28c to get 86F. I'm in Australia so we work on Celcius.

As to the salt I am using rock salt (naturally evaporated sea salt) is this okay? I do have table salt and can switch to this if need be.

[IceH2O]

You need to double your salt. Ich needs 2 tsp/gallon at your planned attack you'll only have half a tsp per gallon of salt.

Temp of 84-86 + 2 tsp salt/ gallon = cure

After a week you won't notice any more ich, wait an extra week to make sure its all gone. The temp speeds up the lifecycle and the salt kills them in the swimming stage.

If you do any water changes replace the salt. If you change out 50% of the water you'll need to replace 19 tsps of salt. The good news is you won't need to do it slowly as the fish are used to the salt. Just dissolve it well and dump it back into the tank.

edit: rock salt is fine as far as I know though I've always used Mortons table salt.

[DirkW]

Temp of 84-86 + 2 tsp salt/ gallon = cure
I can vouch for that formula. I battled ich with my mollies for several weeks, slowly adding salt and raising temp. I got up to 82 degrees and 2 tsp salt/gallon before I got it under control. The cure is not immediate, but increasing the temperature will speed the process.

[cyberbeer65]

Just follow the informative link that was posted above,and all will be well.

[Snoozie]

Thanks Everyone! :clap:

[YuccaPatrol]

I agree that you need to get your salt concentration up to 2tsp/gal and raise temp. I have had GREAT success doing this.