Treating Ich in a 55 gallon planted. Help.

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Plague

O.o
Aug 4, 2010
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Miami, Fl
Stock:
10 praecox rainbows
10 black phantom tetras
1 opaline gourami
1 bamboo shrimp (Atyopsis moluccensis)
3 peppered cories

Plants:
Water wisteria
java fern
dwarf sag.
amazonian swords

Current Temp: 78 degrees, already began raising the temp slowly to 86-88 degrees

So from the sound of it I need to add 1-3 teaspoons a gallon for a whopping 50 teaspoon to 165 teaspoon of salt to my tank. I would quarantine the infected fish but it has already spread to other fish. I woke up today and found some of my fish looked like they did cocaine overnight.

Basically going to keep this thread as a way to keep tabs on myself and hope others help me if I mess up. I also need to know if these guys can handle the salt? Can I use normal salt too? Thanks.

I forgot to ask if I am suppose to stop adding ferts through this treatment? I have no place to put the plants so they are going to have to stay in. Should I also buy ich medication? Do I do an immediate water change? I read you should/need to siphon the substrate. This will be interesting since I have eco complete.
 

bradlgt21

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May 9, 2009
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Since it's harder to take in oxygen in high heat you shouldn't be running any CO2 for your plants (not sure if you have it or not). I don't know if you want to add ferts, while you are treating them. It might just complicate things. As for gravel vac not sure how to do that in a eco substrate. I would just treat extra long just to be sure you got it all. Sucks that you didn't catch it before it spread, your going to be buying a lot of salt.

I would add more but you sound like you know what your doing, so good luck.
 

Plague

O.o
Aug 4, 2010
718
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0
Miami, Fl
Well I went out to buy salt. It contains calcium silicate, which I hope is fine. It was that or iodized salt so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. The nice part is that salt was on sale so I bought 6 pounds for $2. I will consider today day 1 of treatment and will do a water change on day 2. Tank is currently 80 degrees though the heater has been set to 86. I will add approximately 55 teaspoons of salt to the tank for a 0.1% solution. Time to see if these guys can take the salt. I also added an air stone and will attempt to take a picture of one of the fish. I hope this thread can become a thread of reference for noobies who come in here asking how to treat ich. =P
 

Plague

O.o
Aug 4, 2010
718
0
0
Miami, Fl
So I'm reading on what I should do for day 2 on treating ich. I'm hoping you guys can help here. These are the steps given in the FAQ:

For basic procedures, here are the steps.
1. Dose one teaspoon per gallon of salt or equivalent to 0.1%.
2. After 12 hours and assuming the fish has tolerated it very wellso far, repeat step 1.
3. After another 12 hours, repeat step 1 again.

Doesn't salt accumulate in the tank? Adding salt every day at 0.1% would mean that by day three without water changes, my tank would have 0.3% salt. I've read that you are suppose to do water changes every day and replace the amount of salt removed. Is this the missing step? Am I suppose to keep the water at 0.2-0.3% salinity while doing water changes every day?
 

Plague

O.o
Aug 4, 2010
718
0
0
Miami, Fl
So it is day 2 of the treatment. I am forced to extend the duration of the salt bath as my heater is unable to heat the tank to 88 degrees. The tank is currently 82 degrees and stable. I dosed today approx. 58 teaspoons of salt, for what I assume is 0.2% salt concentration. I am unable to do a water change because of other duties. The ich has not spread or gotten worst, but it hasn't gotten better either. My fish are all acting fine as if nothing is wrong with them. I've also stopped fertilizing the tank and no longer supplementing excel. I've also decreased the photo period from 8 hours to 5 to compensate for the lack of nutrients.
 

Plague

O.o
Aug 4, 2010
718
0
0
Miami, Fl
So I haven't updated this thread in a while. I essentially did water changes every 2 days, kept the tank aerated, and left the lights off. The reason I left the lights off was because the plants were getting brown so I decided it would be better with the lights off. I am happy to announce that my fish are Ich free and I had no casualties. This Sunday will be day 10 of treatment and I will begin the process of removing salt from my aquarium and getting back into the habit of maintaining my plants and whatnot. I will still not buy more fish for another two weeks, partly because of the money but also because I want to be 100% sure Ich is gone. I'm pretty happy that the treatment so far has worked and I will have a final update next week when it is guaranteed Ich is gone. Before I forget, I kept the tank at a constant 86 degrees so that's that.
 

Ratlova30

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Apr 2, 2010
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I just wanted to say thank you for making this thread, I ran into this problem recently with some very special fish and I'm still working on it but thanks to your thread I was able to to have a set plan for them from the start and this thread also made me confident in the decisions that I made as far as treatments go.
 

Plague

O.o
Aug 4, 2010
718
0
0
Miami, Fl
You're welcome :D I was worried no one took this thread seriously but having one person is good enough for me ^^

Would just like to add that all my fish made it, my plants made it (only some browning), my mystery snails made it, and that is about it. Treatment is over and my tank is 100% fresh again after doing 2 50% water changes over two days. Some of the fish were stressing about the salt so there appears to be a point where they no longer can take the salt at these levels.
 

Ratlova30

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Apr 2, 2010
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It really did help me very much. I don't know what I would have done if I had lost my comet Dennis. One of my moore's had a very hard time once the salinity was .3 and then rose above 84 degrees but she bounced back after I added my fourth air pump. There's so much bubbles on one end of the tank it's hard to see the fish but yeah I'm very happy with the progress and I'm more confident if a second wave hits the goldies that I can kill every last one of those life robbing parasites. I'm on the 6th day of treatment and things aren't looking so dark anymore. So I plan to keep the treatment going to the tenth day but should I do it longer if my fish can handle it? Maybe drop the salinity down to .2 after the 10th day.

When I read your post I was so shocked at the amount of salt that was going into the tank and I thought for sure that it was way too salty but I think how you raised it to .3 gradually, really helped the fish ease into it and lessened the shock and stress. Thank you so much again for taking the time to post your steps and the end result of everything and I hope anyone dealing with ick takes the time to read this post. Although ick is simple to treat it's still scary and life threatening for the fish and it's important to get it right the first time and I recommend this thread be used as guidance to help heal your fish. Thanks.
 
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