Need HELP asap!
- Thread starter yojefro
- Start date
Here's some things you can do to help us help you...
Test you Tap and Tank water with every test you have. Write down what each test shows and for tap or tank, so you can post them here.
With your situation... go ahead and raise the temp slowly over a few hrs, until you get to 84 degrees. This is high enough to kill ick. I seen that you've already been rasing it, or I'd suggest a day and a half.
Sorry, it's been alot of years since I've had to deal with it, and don't recall the specifics atm.
But from what I recall about Ick, is that they have 3 Stages.
They go from being on the fish. To dropping to the bottom. To Free Swimming.
Free Swimming is where we kill them.
Heat, will do this.
Along with the salt and chemicals.
I suggest Just going with the Heat. Because once you are done treating it, the heat can be turnt back down. And the tank, critters, fish, future fish, critters, live plants, invertabrae, etc. Won't know anything ever happened.
Salt and chemicals can leave traces of there existance for a long time. And future inhabitants might not do well with them, even in trace amounts.
Stop, putting pH changing chemicals in the tank.
I've had fish for quite a few years. And my best experiences come from leaving the water's chemistry alone.
Stabilty is your best friend. Frequent 50% or Less water changes does wonders for Stability. Once a week typically works for most tanks. I run my water into a 30g trash can, while getting it with in a degree of the tank temp. Then add Prime(declorinator), then add to tank. I'm probably one of the few that go about it this way.
And right now you are better off with a pH below 7. Ammonia gets worse and worse when above 7. Kind of like an earthquake scale does.
What kind of Filter do you have?
Read this...
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?84598-Freshwater-cycling-(1-Viewing)
... it's alot of reading. But will give you a good idea of what you need to do for the near future. And probably keep you out of future trouble.
Test you Tap and Tank water with every test you have. Write down what each test shows and for tap or tank, so you can post them here.
With your situation... go ahead and raise the temp slowly over a few hrs, until you get to 84 degrees. This is high enough to kill ick. I seen that you've already been rasing it, or I'd suggest a day and a half.
Sorry, it's been alot of years since I've had to deal with it, and don't recall the specifics atm.
But from what I recall about Ick, is that they have 3 Stages.
They go from being on the fish. To dropping to the bottom. To Free Swimming.
Free Swimming is where we kill them.
Heat, will do this.
Along with the salt and chemicals.
I suggest Just going with the Heat. Because once you are done treating it, the heat can be turnt back down. And the tank, critters, fish, future fish, critters, live plants, invertabrae, etc. Won't know anything ever happened.
Salt and chemicals can leave traces of there existance for a long time. And future inhabitants might not do well with them, even in trace amounts.
Stop, putting pH changing chemicals in the tank.
I've had fish for quite a few years. And my best experiences come from leaving the water's chemistry alone.
Stabilty is your best friend. Frequent 50% or Less water changes does wonders for Stability. Once a week typically works for most tanks. I run my water into a 30g trash can, while getting it with in a degree of the tank temp. Then add Prime(declorinator), then add to tank. I'm probably one of the few that go about it this way.
And right now you are better off with a pH below 7. Ammonia gets worse and worse when above 7. Kind of like an earthquake scale does.
What kind of Filter do you have?
Read this...
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?84598-Freshwater-cycling-(1-Viewing)
... it's alot of reading. But will give you a good idea of what you need to do for the near future. And probably keep you out of future trouble.
+1 to pretty much all of the above! I would also add to be sure to perform water changes daily while you treat. Cranking the heat up in your tank accelerates the life cycle of the ich, so you need to be removing as much as you can while those parasites go through their cycle. It will also make your fish a lot happier. I'd go for 50% daily.
While you get the illness under control, you should really start thinking about how you are going to handle tank maintenance after this is all over. After your ich is cleared, get a bottle of Tetra SafeStart (That's the only brand of beneficial bacteria that I know works for sure, personally.) and dump it into your filter as per directions.
Then, you need to cut back on feeding big time! Less is generally more in the case of feeding fish. The more you feed, the more waste produced. Waste produced = ammonia.
With doing a 100% water change once a month, I doubt that your nitrifying bacteria are doing very well at all. Consider doing a 25-50% water change weekly. This is much better for your fish and your bacteria colony. And, frankly, it's not much work at all. Smaller, more frequent water changes are no more inconvenient than a large infrequent water change. I don't recall if you mentioned scrubbing anything in the tank down when you do your water change, but don't do that. The surfaces in your aquarium and your filter house your bacteria colonies. You don't want to disturb them.
While you get the illness under control, you should really start thinking about how you are going to handle tank maintenance after this is all over. After your ich is cleared, get a bottle of Tetra SafeStart (That's the only brand of beneficial bacteria that I know works for sure, personally.) and dump it into your filter as per directions.
Then, you need to cut back on feeding big time! Less is generally more in the case of feeding fish. The more you feed, the more waste produced. Waste produced = ammonia.
With doing a 100% water change once a month, I doubt that your nitrifying bacteria are doing very well at all. Consider doing a 25-50% water change weekly. This is much better for your fish and your bacteria colony. And, frankly, it's not much work at all. Smaller, more frequent water changes are no more inconvenient than a large infrequent water change. I don't recall if you mentioned scrubbing anything in the tank down when you do your water change, but don't do that. The surfaces in your aquarium and your filter house your bacteria colonies. You don't want to disturb them.
