Ich & Planted Tank

hurricanejedi

hurricanejedi

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Apr 4, 2005
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Raleigh, NC
www.flowerspride.com
I posted in the newbie forum but just in case you guys don't go in there I need advice.

I think I have ich in my tank and I have 4 plants in there. I would rather keep them in there as that has adaquate light, ferts, etc.

Is it safe to do a salt treatment with plants? I also have bamboo, cherry shrimp, and frogs, any experience with this?
 
Plenty of people have used salt treatment in planted tanks. It's the high heat that may do in some of the more sensitive plants.
I doubt the salt would hurt the shrimp and likely the frogs would be fine as well. You'll be adding salt gradually so keep an eye on them and back off or move them (that's probably not possible!) if they stress too much.

Leopardess may know more about salt and frogs...she may know more about everything!

I'm happy to say that I do not have any experience with the treatment and plants/frogs/shrimp, but have salted the plants pre-frog/shrimp days :)
 
Leopardess thinks I probably should move the frogs as it will stress them out a bit.

Ok so no high heat with the plants and they should be fine left in the tank. If I can keep everything in the tank that will be easiest. I just finished a fishless cycle so adding all my fish at once...I guess increased the chance I would get something right away. They were all from 3 different pet stores too.
 
I can't speak for the shrimp and frogs, but I did a salt treatment for ich and my plants were fine. I increased my temp to 82. You don't have to go that high, but do crank it up to at least 78 or so. That won't be fatal to the ich, but it will speed up their life cycle, which will get them to the stage killed by the ssalt faster.
 
Thanks! Can I continue co2 injection? I think that 82* sounds pretty good to me. I'm going to buy a little 3 gallon or something to put the shrimp and frogs in temporarily.
 
I think I have read before that CO2 and O2 concentrations in water are independent of each other. So, adding CO2 does not reduce the amount of O2 available in the water. If you fertilize I would be afraid that by stopping the CO2 you could develop algae problems during the treatment.
 
I think I might do Flourish Excel during the treatment and just do a low tech tank. I haven't started the co2 yet as I was going to do that today but I only have 4 plants right now and I might want to raise the spray bar above water level to increase o2 in the water at the higher temps which would dissipate co2 anyway.

So does Flourish Excel sound ok? Then once I bring the temp back down I can start the co2 and stop the Excel.
 
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CO2 and O2 are independant of each other. You can turn up the heat, but higher heat 83+ MAY stress some plants.

According to Introduction To Fish Health Management U.S. Dept. of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service 2nd Edition 1995 page 41..."Ichthyophthirius multifilis or 'Ich' is a large ciliated protozoan that is exclusively a parasite of fish and frogs."
That doesn't bode well for treating the tank after removing the frogs only to later reintroduce them. Frog species are not listed in the aforementioned book so maybe ADF's are not affected...which doesn't seem likely to me.
 
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