Ick in new tank?

[herefishy]

Not off to a great start :(

I noticed a few white dots on my serpae tetra last night. My tank is a week and a half old. I did a 10% water change this morning before leaving the house. I'm thinking about doing another 10% change when I get home (would that be ok?). I'm also trying to the get temp up around 80F.

Should I continue with water changes or treat the tank for ick? I bought a bottle of QuICK Cure.

Also, if I use the quick cure, I have to remove the cartridge from my filter correct? It's one of those "bio-bags" for a whisper filter.


:help:

[marek313]

I think the easiest way to get rid off ich is to raise tem to 84 for 2 weeks. I bought couple Ottos from Pet Smart about a month ago and a week later all my fish had ich. I wouldnt add any medications just yet since your tank is so young and still cycling I'm sure. Just raise temp and do it slowely otherwise you might stress some fish really bad. About 1 degree an hour until you get to 84 and hold it there. You should see it coming off within first 3 days and should be all gone from fish the first week. Make sure you keep this temp for another week because ich will be in a different stage in your gravel and you need another week for it to completely die off. If you dont have any plants you can add some salt as well.

[Lady Hobbs]

Quick Cure is great and stated to work in two days. If you have it, use it.

Ick is not uncommon for a new tank and new fish. I hope you are monitoring your ammonia and nitrites or your fish will have more than ick but will be dead.

[xoolooxunny]

I think the easiest way to get rid off ich is to raise tem to 84 for 2 weeks. I bought couple Ottos from Pet Smart about a month ago and a week later all my fish had ich. I wouldnt add any medications just yet since your tank is so young and still cycling I'm sure. Just raise temp and do it slowely otherwise you might stress some fish really bad. About 1 degree an hour until you get to 84 and hold it there. You should see it coming off within first 3 days and should be all gone from fish the first week. Make sure you keep this temp for another week because ich will be in a different stage in your gravel and you need another week for it to completely die off. If you dont have any plants you can add some salt as well.

I used to have salt in my planted tanks until i started getting more tetras, and then i stopped adding it with water changes. the plants did fine.

[Chrona]

You need to do larger water changes, approx 50% or so every other day to remove the numbers of ich cysts in your tank. All raising the temperature does it speed up the life cycle of ich, so if your fish are already weakened to start off with (cycling) then they will keep getting reinfected. The water change will bring down the number of free floating ones, but you still need to look into some kind of ich meds, like Rid-Ich+ or something.

Don't remove the filter cartridge. Dump out the carbon and leave the biobag as it is.

[herefishy]

Here are my test results:

Ammonia - 0
Ph - between 7.0 and 7.2
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0

How is that?

Back to the ick.. I only see two or three spots max on the tetra. Temp is sitting at 82F. Still not sure if I should treat or not..

[cocoa_pleco]

GREAT test results!

[herefishy]

GREAT test results!


yes, i was expecting worse! :19:

[cocoa_pleco]

even a neutral PH! a goldfish would love that tank

[Chrona]

Here are my test results:

Ammonia - 0
Ph - between 7.0 and 7.2
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0

How is that?

Back to the ick.. I only see two or three spots max on the tetra. Temp is sitting at 82F. Still not sure if I should treat or not..

Take a water sample to a LFS when you can. I do not think your tank is cycled yet, unless you seeded it with anything (bacteria). Even if your tank did fish cycle in a week and a half, you would see at least some nitrates. Nitrate readings of zero indicate user error, a faulty test kit, or something in the water screwing with test results unless you have a heavily planted tank.

[herefishy]

Take a water sample to a LFS when you can. I do not think your tank is cycled yet, unless you seeded it with anything (bacteria). Even if your tank did fish cycle in a week and a half, you would see at least some nitrates. Nitrate readings of zero indicate user error, a faulty test kit, or something in the water screwing with test results unless you have a heavily planted tank.


I put a capful of "Top Fin Bacteria Supplement" a few days ago.. that's about it.

I'll check the Nitrate again tomorrow then. I'm confident I did it correctly though.

[herefishy]

I don't know what's going on but the spots are gone now :confused:

I didn't even use quick cure either.

[Chrona]

The cysts fell off and released their contents of parasites. Do a 75% water change asap, since now is when they are free floating in the water, looking for a host. If any fish get reinfected, the whole process starts again.

[cocoa_pleco]

if it restarts, you have to drain the whole tank and clean it with a 10:1 water to bleach solution to K.O the cysts

[herefishy]

Take a water sample to a LFS when you can. I do not think your tank is cycled yet, unless you seeded it with anything (bacteria). Even if your tank did fish cycle in a week and a half, you would see at least some nitrates. Nitrate readings of zero indicate user error, a faulty test kit, or something in the water screwing with test results unless you have a heavily planted tank.

this morning:

ammonia- between 0.25 and 0.50ppm
nitrite- 0
nitrate- 0

is the ammonia jump related to me removing the carbon from the biobag and adding quick cure?

[marek313]

I'm reading all the replies and it seems like something so easy to get rid off is faced with some extreme measures. I had around 7 fish infected with ich so I did some research. Here is one article explaining everything :
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

If you read anywhere about ich you'll find out that increasing temp will speed up the cycle and it will prevent ich reproduction. Ich is a cool water parasite that will not reproduce in water warmer then 84 degrees (86 according to the article but I read 84 and 85 in others). In this temperature it will fall off the fish within 3 days and completely die in the next few day and since in this temperature it wont reproduce you can see how withing 10-14 days it will be completely exterminated. My theory always is to start with the simple solution first. As you noted it was already off the infected fish even at 82. I would turn it up to 84 and hold it there for 10 more days to make sure its all gone. The only reason people see it come back using this method is because they dont keep the temp up long enough. Considering its a new tank still cycling I dont recommend using any meds. Even if it was cycled I dont recommend using any meds unless its completely necessary. Water changes go without saying and yes they will reduce number of free floating cyst. But wow you guys make it sound like its the end of the world talking about tearing it down and cleaning it with bleach. Thats some drastic measures for getting rid of ich. I think the next step will be burning down your fishtank along with all equipment and starting from nothing again.

[roulfi004]

Yea i got ich in my new aquarium at first. Cured it using Costapur from SERA.
Was fast.

It is advised to keep medicating the tank for about 7 days, and raise the water temperature to around 80-84. You sould remove any Activated Carbon from the tank, because it will remove the medicine from the water

Doses should be reduced for scaleless fish, especially if you have small ones. My pleco and cory survived a full dose tho... but reduce it in case...

Ich will come back eventually to a tank, keep that bottle ready...

[Chrona]

this morning:

ammonia- between 0.25 and 0.50ppm
nitrite- 0
nitrate- 0

is the ammonia jump related to me removing the carbon from the biobag and adding quick cure?

No it most likely means your tank is just really starting to cycle. Carbon and quick cure have no bearing on ammonia.

Marek - great link! That information is good to know. I don't know what cocoa was thinking when he said to bleach the tank :rolleyes:

[herefishy]

No it most likely means your tank is just really starting to cycle. Carbon and quick cure have no bearing on ammonia.

Marek - great link! That information is good to know. I don't know what cocoa was thinking when he said to bleach the tank :rolleyes:

thanks everyone for their help so far!

so chrona.. is this ammonia level ok for now? should I make sure it doesn't get any higher? should it come down on it's own? do I ask a lot of questions?

:)

[Chrona]

thanks everyone for their help so far!

so chrona.. is this ammonia level ok for now? should I make sure it doesn't get any higher? should it come down on it's own? do I ask a lot of questions?

:)

If it goes over 1 ppm, do a 50% water change, but otherwise, just leave it alone to cycle. It will come down by itself after bacteria builds up in a few days to a week.

[kimmers318]

Never worry that you ask too many questions.....it is a way to learn!
As for the ICH, I personally have never used any type of ICH medicine in my tanks. I have treated twice, once due to my mistake the fish were in too small of a tank and succumbed, the other, I bought the fish knowing it had ICH. Both times I treated with increased temps (as you read up on), frequent water changes and stresscoat to help their own natural defenses. I personally would stay away from adding meds to a new tank. Your fish are stressed which IMO is why they succumbed to the ICH. Seeing only a few spots is a good sign that it is not a huge infestation.
Follow your cycling, doing water changes as needed and keep a close eye on the fish themselves. You are just beginning your cycle, things may get worse before they get better, which is why fishless cycling is the recommended way to do things. Cycling with fish will take much longer, but with care and patience you can get there.
Good Luck!

[herefishy]

Thanks Kimmers.

I used quick cure twice already (this morning was the second day adding 5 drops). I'm thinking about stopping to see if it comes back. I only saw about 4 white dots on the one fish and they were gone in less than 24 hours. So maybe I jumped the gun a little bit thinking it was ich. The fish seem to be fine at the moment. I already have the temp at 80-82F and will keep it there for several more days.