HELP I need to get rid of ICK!!! Please.

[jlara0429]

hey whats going on everyone is very nice to meet you guys , is my first time on here and i actually just found the site through google. I need help on a ongoing ick problem Im currently having is been going on for a while I hope you guys can help.:headbang2:
I have started up a 55 gallon tank its been cycling and running for about 12 days now , I currently have only 8 fish in their 5 cherry barbs and 3 harlequin rasboras and all of them have Ick it started with 1 cherry barb and now all of them do. Day 1 i try treating the Ick by raising the temperature to 86 degrees and adding salt did that for about 3 days nothing was happening they still seemed to have ick. Next I moved on to another method I began treating the tank with rid ich for 2 days and i found that not to be working also, so today i have started treatment with quick cure i heard that was very good meds, i have been keeping track of the water parameters i have a API test kit and everything is well, i have been doing partial water changes also after every application of medication. if you need to know what i have now in the tank its 2 marineland filters the penguin 350 and the penguin 200 running without filter cartridges. Also I have a 75 gallon 250 watt marineland heater, i have an airstone also running a rounded one. can anyone please help me determine what more do I have to do or what steps do i need to take to get rid of Ich. :uhoh::cry:

 

[discus3]

use metrozol

 

[jlara0429]

well i started treatment with quick cure today i did a 25% partial water change any more advice besides that metrozol?

 

[discus3]

turn the heat up alittle,add some mor oxygen to water (airstone) and use the metrozal as dirrected its a powder and you use it every other day.also remove the carbon from filter

 

[discus3]

also it would not hurt to add some cycle to your tank

 

[discus3]

try 88 deg on tankbefore useing the metrozal do another water change maybe 25% befor the metrozal

 

[jlara0429]

hey thanks for your advice i turned up the temperature as you implied to 88 degrees and i just recently added some nutrafin bacteria booster but i cant seem to find metrazol or what your talking about around here. do i continue to use the quick cure and just do water changes? now what about the gravel i read you have to vacuum it because thats where they fall off too and can end up spreading from their?

 

[XanAvaloni]

Um, jlara, I got one word for you....

WHOA!


slow down. First you say the tank has been "up and cycling" for 12 days. That's, like, just getting started. You're doing a fish-in, which is fine, but think about what's going on here: your objective is to get a colony of good bacteria build up, in your filter and substrate and water column etc., to process ammonia from pooh into nutrients.

There are products which (it is said) can quick-start this process by adding an injection of said Good Bacteria into the tank but you make no mention of having used such, so we assume this is going on in nature's own way. It can work. It WILL work. But it takes time.

Secondly you started out with fish, and they came down with ich. More accurately said, they came IN with ich. Not uncommon, particularly if you got them from a lfs or big box store, particularly a Walmart. Here's the problem: every med you dump in is killing off your good bacteria. Not to mention if you do a water change after putting in the meds you are just taking out what you just put in. You see the problem?

Stop the meds and stick with what works on ich: salt and heat. Read up some more on the life cycle of ich. You want it gone NOW!! or maybe YESTERDAY!! and I completely understand. But ich doesn't work that way. Yes keep up the wc, or more precisely the gravel vacs; that does help reduce the load of parasites in the tank. But you're not going to get them all that way, so you have to have patience.

The heat will speed up the growth of the ones already on the fish, so for awhile it will look like things are getting worse. But ich is not the Black Death, it's an annoying and unsightly skin (scale) disorder, unlikely to kill the fish outright. Think of it as dandruff: it ain't gonna kill ya, although your social life may suffer for awhile.

Hopefully the fish are young and vigorous and able to bear up under a temporary nuisance. With the heat the parasites now on the fish will rush through their life cycles and fall off. Then you get them with the vacuum. So over time fewer and fewer new ones are available to attach to hosts.

It's almost certainly going to take at least a couple of weeks to break the back of this infestation. It will never go away completely, ich is everywhere. But a healthy cycled tank will keep them to a minimum you will never notice.

Take some deep breaths and get calm and centered. You are going for an instant solution that doesn't exist. With ich you have to be the tortoise rather than the hare. But remember who won the race in the fable. You will win this if you back off and stop trying so hard.

 

[jlara0429]

hey Xan thanks alot for your reply i really appreciated. i am upset because 2 more of my cherry barbs died last night. i will stop medication treatment.i will do water changes and continue curing it by water changes, heat, and salt.i will also use a bacteria booster.I did not mention I was using bacteria booster for the first 3 days of cycle but then i stopped. then i added the 6 cherry barbs.
Can you help me in changing the treatment by using only salt and heat. how often do i add salt and change water? and how often do i vacuum the gravel?
Thank you so much i really appropriate all the help i can receive.

I am calm and focused. )

 

[Ballyhoo]

Um, jlara, I got one word for you....

WHOA!


slow down. First you say the tank has been "up and cycling" for 12 days. That's, like, just getting started. You're doing a fish-in, which is fine, but think about what's going on here: your objective is to get a colony of good bacteria build up, in your filter and substrate and water column etc., to process ammonia from pooh into nutrients.

There are products which (it is said) can quick-start this process by adding an injection of said Good Bacteria into the tank but you make no mention of having used such, so we assume this is going on in nature's own way. It can work. It WILL work. But it takes time.

Secondly you started out with fish, and they came down with ich. More accurately said, they came IN with ich. Not uncommon, particularly if you got them from a lfs or big box store, particularly a Walmart. Here's the problem: every med you dump in is killing off your good bacteria. Not to mention if you do a water change after putting in the meds you are just taking out what you just put in. You see the problem?

Stop the meds and stick with what works on ich: salt and heat. Read up some more on the life cycle of ich. You want it gone NOW!! or maybe YESTERDAY!! and I completely understand. But ich doesn't work that way. Yes keep up the wc, or more precisely the gravel vacs; that does help reduce the load of parasites in the tank. But you're not going to get them all that way, so you have to have patience.

The heat will speed up the growth of the ones already on the fish, so for awhile it will look like things are getting worse. But ich is not the Black Death, it's an annoying and unsightly skin (scale) disorder, unlikely to kill the fish outright. Think of it as dandruff: it ain't gonna kill ya, although your social life may suffer for awhile.

Hopefully the fish are young and vigorous and able to bear up under a temporary nuisance. With the heat the parasites now on the fish will rush through their life cycles and fall off. Then you get them with the vacuum. So over time fewer and fewer new ones are available to attach to hosts.

It's almost certainly going to take at least a couple of weeks to break the back of this infestation. It will never go away completely, ich is everywhere. But a healthy cycled tank will keep them to a minimum you will never notice.

Take some deep breaths and get calm and centered. You are going for an instant solution that doesn't exist. With ich you have to be the tortoise rather than the hare. But remember who won the race in the fable. You will win this if you back off and stop trying so hard.

:iagree:

great post Xan