Ich Massacre

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baltimorepablo

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Sep 27, 2006
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About a month ago I purchased a 30g tank and about 6 fish (3 molly's/2 sharks/1 sucker). I noticed white spots on one of the mollys about 2 weeks ago but since I am a n00b I didn't really pay attention to it until a couple days later. I put Ich medication as directed, took out my carbons and tested the water, about 5 days ago. Yesterday the last molly died and I now only have 1 small sucker left and he has no sign of Ich so I'm not quite sure what to do with him.

Anyways, the water test came back with good results so I'm not really sure what to do. The medication for Ich is still in the water and the carbons are still off. What process do I need to go through to fill the tank back? Just clean it out and refill? Leave the medication in for a week and then clean? Is there a way to prevent bacteria like Ich?

Any help for this n00b would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
Hey Hun! ( sorry couldn't help it )

First I need a few more facts...water are the water parameters? Numbers for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. They're OK doesn't work here. What meds did you dose with? What kind of "sucker fish"?
 
I'm not sure about the numbers but I will get the test paper when I get home from work. The medicine that I used was Mardel Maroxy - it says put 1tsp per 4ga of water - so I put 7 teaspoons of meds.

I actually forgot I had 2 suckers - 1 being chinese algae eater and a buttefly Poecostomus. The Butterfly died, the chinese algae eater (he's like 1.5") is a survivor I guess lol.
 
Stop using the chemical treatments. Go with a salt treatment, have a link:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83492&page=1

You can use regular, household salt (even iodized *gasp!*) Its pretty harmless in the dose youll be using.

Ich isnt bacteria, fyi, its a parasite. It can be prvented by quarantining all new arrivals before introducing them to your main tank. Ich can survive if there is a host (a fish), so you need to treat your tank with a method that works.
 
OK, here's what you need to do. Do 2 or 3 very large water changes, 75% or more. Put fresh a carbon pad in the filter. After this you can begin to restock, slowly. Your biofilter maybe compromised from the meds.

And you need to get rid of the chinese algea eater. They become VERY aggressive and they grow to 8-10 inches. In a tank your size, there is no place for a fish that can grow that big
 
Ok, so the testing kit I used is called "Quick Dip" by Jungle. It's a 5-in-1 kit.

Tonight's results are as follows:

Nitrate= 20-40.. so 30ish I guess
Nitrite= Over 10 (it was a little bit more red than the max color it showed on the legend)
Total Hardness= 75
Total Alkalinity= 120
pH= 7.2

When I took the test before the fish started dying the Nitrite level's were not as elevated and all the numbers were pretty much in the middle of the legend. Do you think it's way too hard to even start over with a saltwater tank? I would much prefer it than to a freshwater.
 
WHOA! You need to stat doing massive water changes to get those nitrites down. What is your ammonia reading?

As I stated before, your biofilter has been compromised and your tank is cycling.
 
Your fish likely died from Ammonia/Nitrite poisoning. A reading for Nitrite "in the middle of the chart" is ALREADY an emergency, as a properly running biofilter should have an Ammonia and Nitrite reading of ZERO. If your reading is "off the chart" you are lucky you have any fish still alive.

As budrecki said, you need to start doing MASSIVE water changes right the heck now. You need Ammonia and Nitrite both as low as you can get them.

I wouldn't reccomend a saltwater tank until you have more fishkeeping experience under your belt. Saltwater maint. is generally more "picky", and the consequences for failure can be hundreds of dollars even in a small tank.

SirWired
 
Those 5-1 strips suck, so I think those Readings arte definately wrong.
 
If you throw away those dip strips and get a test kit like the Freshwater Master Test Kit from API (Available at the LFS) you will be a lot better off. I tried the strips once... dipped three at once, and all three read differently. None of the three agreed with a liquid test, which is far more accurate.

Your test strip doesn't test for ammonia? That's a pretty important one, since ammonia is the most toxic of the three in the nitrogen cycle.

Unless you are reading zero ammonia, and zero nitrite, you have a problem. Since you say the tank has been set up for about a month, I am guessing it was never actually cycled. That's the more likely cause of the fish dying.

When you get it all cleaned out, and the ammonia and nitrite are where they belong (zero), don't dump 7 fish in at once. That's just begging for trouble.

Don't listen to what they tell you at the LFS when they say you can add fish right away. I don't care what brand of snake oil they push on you to make this possible, it doesn't work. Well, not for you or your fish, anyway. It works great for them... You follow their suggestions and the next thing you know, you're back to buy more fish.

IMO. there is no reason for you not to take the surviving fish back, or give it to somebody who can house it, dump the water, rinse everything, replace all filter media, and start over from scratch. But do it right this time... read up on cycling a tank. There's a ton of great info here in the archives.

If you cycle the tank, and add appropriate fish slowly, you will have a much better time of it.

Best of luck to you...

{EDIT} Here's a link you should read...

http://aquariumboard.com/forums/articles/26-cycling-tank-fw.html
 
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