Ich and the planted tank

Well it seem the ich is back and with a vengence seems like most the fish have atleast one or two spots. I'm armed with a battery powered filter etc but the fish got stressed and the ich is back rearing its ugly head. I no there have been many discussions on this but I don't seem to find what I'm looking for. Ok I have an established planted tank I don't have a quarintene tank something I need to get sorted but don't have at the moment. I have corries and tetras which are the only sensitive fish in the tank. I need a treatment for the tank that's not expensive and that won't harm the corries or the plants I want to get rid of the ick once and for all my heater will only reach 26deg max. I have read somewhere online that with patience an established tank will sort itself out but I to have heard a lot to the contrary. So pls any help would be gladly appreciated. Thanks

 

tetra general tonic will work its not harsh .

I had it to treat a mollies that was very badly diseased it was looking much beter the next day .
corys are hardy but my ghost knife is not , he wasnt fased at all by the treatment !

 

Brads that sounds like a good idea did u treat a planted tank and if u did how did the plants do. What about filters etc would I have to stop the sump would the treatment kill the bacteria?

 

ive always found raising the temp to 29 30 and adding salt and good water changes do the trick .if your heater only reaches 26 you could try covering the tankovernight with blankets. ?
if you gonna go with tonics remember to remove the activated carbon

 

as stormbringer said remove any activated carbon from the sump.
my plants where not affected I doubt it will affect yours unless they are very sensitive and specialised plants.

only thing your tank does turn green due to the tonics colour but it will become crystal clear within 3 days.
if you have white substrate that might change colour to as mine did but only slightly .

feed your fish as normal during treatment .

read the bottle carefully .

cheers

 

Brads I have vallis and amazon sword I think they're quite tough do u think they would be fine ur tetra gen tonic sounds like a good idea. I also just want to know I read that salt can b used but I heard that plants and corries are sensitive to this how much salt can u safetly use. Thanks for all the replies they have really been helpful

 

Salt is a very good medication as a salt bath. I do not like the idea of putting salt into your main display tank.

(Salt bath- mix salt solution in seperate container, dip each fish for a few minutes, put back into tank).

But because the Ich is in the tank... the salt bath will prove fruitless, and the stress on the fish would be more detrimental than anything else. The salt bath is usually when you see something wrong IN THE EARLY STAGES whilst the fish still has survival strength.

I would get a commercially available any Ich product, take the charcoal our your filter, and medicate as per instructions. If in doubt, phone the customer care helpline on the product to check if it'll be safe for your cories. As far as I know, cories are not sensitive, but fairly hardy!

 

I have a amazon it was not fased .

skip salt like zoom said, I have never tried it so I can't advise that method .

get what I told you it works .
let me know how it goes !

cheers

 

I use half a dose of Daro Anti ich and never had problems with plants ot getting rid of the ich

 

Just remember that the meds only kill the parasites after it drops off your fish (learnt that the hard way )

 

Thanks for all the help its much appreciated ill go either the tetra gen tonic or daro anti ich path I think I no I can readily get hold of the daro and at abt 16 its dirt cheap. Just a question what do u do with the filters won't the meds kill the bacteria or not. I won't have carbon in so that's not a prob jst need to no abt the bacteria in the biomedia

 

Well I went to the lfs yesterday and was abt to but daro anti ich wen I saw bio elites anti ich I read the bottle and it says its plant and invertebrate safe and is apperantly made from plant extracts I thought maybe I should give this a shot. Has anyone else used it. I'm very unsure abt what to do with my filtering system wen I add this I run a corner filter an above tank sump should I disconnect the sump and run in in a separate body of water whilst treating and leave the corner filter running. Or will this med not harm any bacteria. Pls help as I'd like to start treatmen pretty much as soon as I get help on this thanks

 

Snyper,

I've never used the Bio-Elites anti Ich... but I have used their fertz, anti chlor, and heal all. They have all worked for me in the past... (Although the fertz proved disasterous long term). The heal all might have cured my fungus when I had, or it was possibly the large water change I did before adding it.

Bio-Elite is all "natural" products, and I believe that it shouldn't effect the plants or the filter. I would however advise removing the activated Carbon.

The general rule with medication is FOLLOW THE BOTTLE INSTRUCTIONS to the last dot. Remove A/C. I would also recommend doing a 75% water change prior to dosing. This will also increase the water quality tremendously, and provide the fish a better environment to fight diseases.

I doubt this anti-ich will do any damage to the filter bacteria. From the googling I did, it would appear that Ich is a parasite, and not necessarily bachterial. (Bacterial infections on fish are generally internal, and only outward visible signs later.) Because I beleive the Ich is a parasite, the Anti-Ich will be an anit parasite and not an anti bacterial, so your bacteria in your filter should be ok. (This is from my googling and not from proven studies)

If you are in doubt however, run the course of the anti Ich, and thereafter do further water change, add A/C again to filter, and start using Seachem's Stability, or Nutrifin Cycle to reintroduce bacteria to the filter.

Remember that Ich has a life cycle... parasite-> eggs -> larvae etc... and the Anti Ich will only work on one stage of the lifecycle... usually the parasite stage. So the eggs will stil be in the tank. Raising the Temp of the water helps speed up the life cycle, but usually a 7 or 10 day course, (whatever the bottle recommends) will kill it all. During the medicating process, I would also recommend doing a gravel vacuum every second day (10% volume of tank). This will also suck out a lot of the eggs.

 

Thanks a lot zoom will follow ur instructions thanks for the help. I just gave bio elite a call and they say u can treat the whole tank it won't harm the bacteria at all. Ill keep u all posted on the results hope this is the last I see of ich forever hopefully

 

I never know about the egg part . learnt something new today!

good luck with the treatment hope you come right!

 

So here it is... the feed back on the BIO Elite Anti Ich. The tank is now officially ich free yay the last spot was gone on sat and I'm still treating the next 5 days. I would def recommend the meds the plants are all looking good and healthy and all the fish are looking good to and there is no damage done to the biofilter just treat as specified exactly on the bottle. It works so ill def recommend it

 

Good to hear Snyper. I know the stuff if good... but I beleive the earlier you catch it the better. If you land up with a serious outbreak and catch it too late, I think the BioElite stuff would need to be either dosed heavier, or for longer.

 

I used Bio elite many sumers ago. did not work and lost most of my fish.

Maybe they have improved on the formulae

 

That's possible I haven't lost any fish and the ich cleared within 3 days of use and the last fish the hillstream loach dropped the last spot on sat so they're all good now

 

This was many years back when they just started