ICK & THE HEAVILY PLANTED TANK

[deocder]

Something I am unclear on....am I supposed to do water changes during this treatment?

 

[scottracy]

Water changes that meticulously remove detritus do lower the level of organics in the aquarium, and heat does speed up the metabolism of the organism, thus forcing it more rapidly through its one vulnerable stage.

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml

 

[deocder]

Here's my most important advice: Continue the salt bath or medication three days after you can find no Ich encysted on any fish, not even the least bit of maybe a possible one. You want to eliminate every encysted tomont and especially that last stray swarmer. It only takes one successfully lodged in a gill to start the whole Ich cycle again and convince you that Ich is always "lurking" in the water. Afterwards do several good big water changes, and then put fresh carbon in the filter to adsorb any residual drugs.

So thats a no on water changes until the spots are gone for over 3 days....

Did I read that right or ..... I'm a confused by the last post....the lower the organics and the higher the heat, the faster the thing hatches? And then its kilt? :thud:

 

[daveedka]

I personally reccomend water changes to continue during treatment. vaccuming will remove many of the ich tomites from the gravel, and reduce the number to be killed when they hatch. Just add in additional salt (or meds if you go that route) to compensate for changed water. The fish are under some stress at all times during treatment so excellent water will make things a little easier on them. The 3 day reccomendation IMO is risky, I would go a full week minimum after there is no ich visible on any fish. 3 days may be enough, but As that excerpt said, it only takes one survivor to re-populate the tank. The large water changes at the end are an effective way to rapidly reduce meds and/or salt. With salt, I stick to my normal weekly routine and just let it slowly get removed. with meds I would probably do a big water change and then add carbon for a week or so as well.
dave

 

[beavertayl1]

otos do ok in high temps as far as i know. they are recommended as the #1 algae eater for discus tanks. crank it up

 

[Bounette]

How long do I qt the plants if I take them out during ich treatment with salt/temp?

How long do I need to quarantine the plants that have been in an aquarium with ich to be sure that the ich is dead before I put the plants back in? 2 weeks? 1 month? I have no idea.

Also, do the plants need higher temps to be healthy, or will they do fine at room temp during the qt period?

Thank you very much for your help...

 

[rrkss]

If you QT your plants, the ich will be 100% dead after 5 full days in the QT tank. This is shorter than the reccommended salt treatment duration so just take them out and treat the fish with salt for the full 14 days. Then remove the salt via waterchanges and add the plants back with almost no chance of getting a recurrence of ich unless you don't QT anything living.

 

[EcoPit]

I recently treated my planted tank for ich. I added 2 tsp salt per gallon and increased the temp to 86. I had 9 otos, and the only one to die was the one heavily infested by ich, so I don't think the heat or the salt hurt them. The plants were fine, too. The ich, on the other hand, was nicely eradicated by the treatment.

 

[Mysteria]

Are there other meds you can use with plants to treat ick?

 

[scampyfan]

this thread answered everything for me but...

i've heard so much good stuff about the heat/salt treatment for ick but i've never tried it myself. i usually am able to get everyone into a Qtank in time and treat with meds (read usually as twice over a loooong time) and it works fine. now, however, i'm in a similar situation - heavily planted tank that i can't remove all the fish from. at this point, i have like 30 guppy fry all about a week old and several rogue ghost shrimp that are proving impossible to net. i'd like to do my best to keep them amongst the living.

yesterday i noticed a spot on one of my female guppies that looked slightly like the ick i'm used to but was really really tiny. now i'm seeing tiny spots on another one, but it looks more like a powder grain, not even as big as salt or sand, which was the size of ick on the goldies i previously had. could this be ick too? is there anything else that can cause such a slight spot of discoloration? and if i treat the tank with the salt and heat method, will my guppy fry (and the ghost shrimp as well) survive?