Dealing with hot tap water in the summer

[jersysman]

I believe FawnN is right, that Ich is found in all fish. It's like any parasite that we have as humans. Something triggers it to become active. When we treat our tanks for the ich, it kills the parasites that have become active. However, if the parasite is still dormant among other fishes, then it could come back again if they are triggered.

 

[greenmaji]

That's not possible, because the parasite needs to find a host within 48 hours to survive.

I said showing any signs of the parasite.. not that they dont have it..
As I said before I have never had this happened to me.. I would start another tread about this issue If I were you.. its a bit off topic.. you would more likely get people with more experience with this.. I never had bad problems with ich.. I QT and heat treated all fish coming into my tanks from LFS.. I didnt get ich in my main tanks.. If I got a temperature fluctuation by some chance like a broken heater, I fixed the problem and saw no ill effects from it.. Call me lucky, I dont know.. maybe just paranoid!!

 

[Milan]

In my mind, for the time being you don't have a temperature, but Ich problem. Tony is right. They are parasites which can not be miraculously spawned from nowhere, but externally introduced to tank. Actually higher temperature works in your favor if you decide to treat it (malachite green, methylene blue, ..), and I think you should, since an outbreak can be nasty. Medication kills only free swimming, already incubated bugs that left the host (fish) and higher temperature speeds up the incubation, and thus exposes them sooner to the capital punishment of medication.

 

[Guest]

Listen to Milan and Greenmagi, they are right on.

 

[FawnN]

I'm sorry, but I have done extensive research on this subject and not to get into a debate about this, but....

They are parasites which can not be miraculously spawned from nowhere, but externally introduced to tank.

They are not spawned from nowhere. They are parasites that are within each fish, which lays dormant until your fish are stressed out.

Ok advisors, please clarify this.

 

[Guest]

Please, advisors, do. In real life I have simply not seen it to be the case Fawn. I have had stressed-out fish in an established aquarium and no outbreak of ich, while a perfect aquarium can get over-run by ich with the addition of one infected fish. If your point is true it basically makes a QT tank a useless piece of equipment, since all your fish are contantly infected with ich in a dormant state anyway.

 

[Toirtis]

I'm sorry, but I have done extensive research on this subject and not to get into a debate about this, but....

They are parasites which can not be miraculously spawned from nowhere, but externally introduced to tank.

They are not spawned from nowhere. They are parasites that are within each fish, which lays dormant until your fish are stressed out.

Ok advisors, please clarify this.

OK...Ichthyophthirius multifilis parasites must be introduced somehow....they do not just lay dormant for months at a time waiting for opportunity.

 

[FawnN]

I've only had ich once. The tank I had it in, had no chances what so ever. No new additions and no changes in food. The only thing I can think of at the time was the drastic change in temp that stressed them out when my heater died and I hadn't realized it until 3 days later.

So how do we explain that?

 

[Guest]

I've only had ich once. The tank I had it in, had no chances what so ever. No new additions and no changes in food. The only thing I can think of at the time was the drastic change in temp that stressed them out when my heater died and I hadn't realized it until 3 days later.

So how do we explain that?

Look Fawn, if you are going to ask for the moderators to solve a debate, at least respect their knowledge. You are basing all of your arguements on your one isolated event that you are not even really sure what happened. Everyone else's experiences have been quite different than yours, and in fact all of the literature I have read on ich supports a different viewpoint than your's as well. Perhaps you should just chalk this one up to learning something new about fish keeping?

 

[greenmaji]

I've only had ich once. The tank I had it in, had no chances what so ever. No new additions and no changes in food. The only thing I can think of at the time was the drastic change in temp that stressed them out when my heater died and I hadn't realized it until 3 days later.

So how do we explain that?

Did you ever heat treat this tank for ich before it became established.. the fish not showing visible signs of ich is not were the proof is..
If you heat treated the tank, 86+ degrees for 14+days, and killed all ich then it became established then I would say you have a argument to stand on.. otherwise your tank was just too healthy to show the signs of ich..
By the way did you have more than one tank and used the same equipment for pwc's.. did you cross contaminate the tank? Your experiance is just that your experiance.. Toirtis has kept fish for 30+ years.. Ive kept fish for 16+ years.. I can honestly say that it is a matter of chemistry one small change in the situation can throw your, your as in everyones, therories out the window.. in other words us hobbiest dont keep our aquariums in a clean room for doing biological chemistry experiments.. long term care of a tank can get contaminated from MANY places..

 

[wabyrd]

Here in Texas we have the same problems in the summertime. The first suggustion I have to offer is to wait until nightfall to do your water changes. That will help some. For my 2 smaller tanks, I limit the water changes to <25% and as long as I don't pump the water in at full blast, it cools a bit as it traverses the Python hose (Regular hose plus 10ft. extension). The tank temperature changes minimally. For the big tank, first let me say that I NEVER drain it below the level that the filters stop pumping water and for a good reason. I also want to note that I keep the tank temp at 80F. Since it would take FOREVER to change the water out running it slowly as I do with the smaller tanks, I run it at a moderate speed. I monitor the temperature with my digital thermometer the whole time. Its probe lives in the reservoir of the HOB filter. If the water temp starts to rise (I'm talking about increasing 1F) then we add ice to the other filter's reservoir. If it starts to drop too quickly, then we hold on the ice. Our system keeps the temperature usually within 1-1.5 degrees of where it should be. The reason I add it to the filter reservoir is because the running water helps melt the ice faster than just floating it on top. We've been using this method for some time and the fish don't even seem to notice!

Bill
http://www.billandheather.net/the_fish.htm

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Fawn- Maybe we had the same issue because I had my 29 gal tank setup for about 8 months. Then all of a sudden, ich. No new additions, no cross contaminations, nothing. No changing of anything except for a partial water change. I don't want to get into this debate, it's just that I had a thread about a month or two ago about this same thing.

 

[greenmaji]

Fawn- Maybe we had the same issue because I had my 29 gal tank setup for about 8 months. Then all of a sudden, ich. No new additions, no cross contaminations, nothing. No changing of anything except for a partial water change. I don't want to get into this debate, it's just that I had a thread about a month or two ago about this same thing.

Did you heat treat the tank for ich at the begining of the 8 month period?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

No I didn't. We transfered fish from the 55 gal tank to the 29 gal tank. The fish didn't have ich before being transferred. Then all of a sudden they got ich. It was really weird. I can't find the thread that I started a while back about it.

 

[greenmaji]

No I didn't. We transfered fish from the 55 gal tank to the 29 gal tank. The fish didn't have ich before being transferred. Then all of a sudden they got ich. It was really weird. I can't find the thread that I started a while back about it.

It is my belief that heathy fish can carry ich without showing any signs of it.. Once stressed then the ich will be visible.. thats why I asked if the ich had been killed off.. I really think this is were the confusion about ich comes from.. JMHO though..

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Ich is an odd disease it seems. Lots of controversy over it. There was a difference of about 6 degrees between the water that was being added and the temp of the tank during the water change. And that was by sheer accident. The washer was running while I filled the 29 gal tank. When the hot water stopped running into the washer, the water faucet water got warmer. I normally don't run laundry while filling tanks, but that particular day it was late in the evening and had tons of laundry to do. Plus, if you flush a toilet across town, you'll get scalded in our shower. Thankfully we're moving though.

 

[wishbone]

hah.. sorry didn't mean to start the old chicken before the egg argument about ich. It just really boggles me sometimes.

wabyrd: Another good method. Thanks for the advice!