swedishxfish
Aquarium Advice Newbie
I avoided getting new fish for almost 2 years for fear of Ich and *surprise surprise* got it again anyway. 
I've kept fish for like 15 years so I have dealt with Ich before... First time around in my smaller tank I tried salt and some herbal remedy, which sucked and took like 2 months to work. Second time around (same tank) I tried salt and Kordon Rid Ich Plus, worked much better and faster than the herbal crap. And tons of water changes.
But now I have it in my newer bigger tank, so I'm a little confused as to what I should do... It's a 20g planted tank, only converted it to being a planted tank a few months ago. I have 8 black phantom tetra, 1 neon black tetra, 5 cories (4 panda and 1 julii), and 2 nerite snails. Plants are normal common plants like anubias, Java fern, Java moss, moneywort, blah blah.
The black neon tetra (like 5 years old) developed the white spots yesterday, and today I noticed the other tetra (1.5 years old) developing spots too. Don't see any on the cories though...
So seeing as I have live plants and catfish (believe they are scaleless) should I go ahead and use the Kordon Rid Ich Plus? And should I use salt? I know it's bad for the snails but I can move them, but is salt ok for the corydoras? And will the meds kill my plants? The bottle says not for use with live rock but it doesn't say anything about plants...
ALSO I currently have another 2 young black phantom tetra in my qt tank and they seem to be developing the white spots as well... Should I just move them to my main tank and treat them with everybody else...?
Another question: is it possible for my smaller quarantine tank to have transferred the Ich over to my bigger tank? I had Ich in the small tank like 3-4 years ago, and the tank was out of commission (totally dry and stored away) for about a year before I got it back out again to set up as a quarantine... Can the Ich parasite still live in the tank even when it's been dry for a year? Kinda at a loss here as to how I got it :/
Info:
-Tank is a 20g fw, has been established for a couple years but I did recently convert it to a planted tank with the floramax substrate about 3-4 months ago.
-Had my water tested about a week ago at the fish store and everything was normal. Temp is at about 78. I will slowly raise it but my thermometer is the strip so it's not too accurate. I do have slightly hard city water though.
-filter is the top fin 20 power filter with activated carbon
-fish in the tank are: 8 black phantom tetra, 1 black neon tetra (he is like 5 years old and still alive), 4 panda cories, 1 julii Cory (he's older and I switched over to the pandas), 2 nerite snails
-I do about a 20-30% water change and vacuum the gravel every 1-2 weeks
-NEW THINGS: I got new fish from my lfs about 3 weeks ago, 2 small black phantom tetra and the 4 panda cories. I kept them in my separate qt tank for 15 days to watch for signs of sickness. 1 of the black phantoms died in qt. The other black phantom and 4 pandas were fine the whole time so I transferred them over to my 20g about 5-6 days ago. Acclimated them by floating them in bags for the temp and then slowly adding the tank water into the bags a few times.
-I feed them bottom feeder pellets, tropical flakes, and occasionally the New Life Spectrum Thera-A pellets.
-I also occasionally add in the bottled API CO2 Booster and API Leaf Zone fertilizer for the plants. I do not overdose as I always put in a bit less than it says to.
I've kept fish for like 15 years so I have dealt with Ich before... First time around in my smaller tank I tried salt and some herbal remedy, which sucked and took like 2 months to work. Second time around (same tank) I tried salt and Kordon Rid Ich Plus, worked much better and faster than the herbal crap. And tons of water changes.
But now I have it in my newer bigger tank, so I'm a little confused as to what I should do... It's a 20g planted tank, only converted it to being a planted tank a few months ago. I have 8 black phantom tetra, 1 neon black tetra, 5 cories (4 panda and 1 julii), and 2 nerite snails. Plants are normal common plants like anubias, Java fern, Java moss, moneywort, blah blah.
The black neon tetra (like 5 years old) developed the white spots yesterday, and today I noticed the other tetra (1.5 years old) developing spots too. Don't see any on the cories though...
So seeing as I have live plants and catfish (believe they are scaleless) should I go ahead and use the Kordon Rid Ich Plus? And should I use salt? I know it's bad for the snails but I can move them, but is salt ok for the corydoras? And will the meds kill my plants? The bottle says not for use with live rock but it doesn't say anything about plants...
ALSO I currently have another 2 young black phantom tetra in my qt tank and they seem to be developing the white spots as well... Should I just move them to my main tank and treat them with everybody else...?
Another question: is it possible for my smaller quarantine tank to have transferred the Ich over to my bigger tank? I had Ich in the small tank like 3-4 years ago, and the tank was out of commission (totally dry and stored away) for about a year before I got it back out again to set up as a quarantine... Can the Ich parasite still live in the tank even when it's been dry for a year? Kinda at a loss here as to how I got it :/
Info:
-Tank is a 20g fw, has been established for a couple years but I did recently convert it to a planted tank with the floramax substrate about 3-4 months ago.
-Had my water tested about a week ago at the fish store and everything was normal. Temp is at about 78. I will slowly raise it but my thermometer is the strip so it's not too accurate. I do have slightly hard city water though.
-filter is the top fin 20 power filter with activated carbon
-fish in the tank are: 8 black phantom tetra, 1 black neon tetra (he is like 5 years old and still alive), 4 panda cories, 1 julii Cory (he's older and I switched over to the pandas), 2 nerite snails
-I do about a 20-30% water change and vacuum the gravel every 1-2 weeks
-NEW THINGS: I got new fish from my lfs about 3 weeks ago, 2 small black phantom tetra and the 4 panda cories. I kept them in my separate qt tank for 15 days to watch for signs of sickness. 1 of the black phantoms died in qt. The other black phantom and 4 pandas were fine the whole time so I transferred them over to my 20g about 5-6 days ago. Acclimated them by floating them in bags for the temp and then slowly adding the tank water into the bags a few times.
-I feed them bottom feeder pellets, tropical flakes, and occasionally the New Life Spectrum Thera-A pellets.
-I also occasionally add in the bottled API CO2 Booster and API Leaf Zone fertilizer for the plants. I do not overdose as I always put in a bit less than it says to.
