Yep, another ich post! Ugh

[kimmcannally]

So I've been trying heat and salt for ich on three cardinal tetras and one Gourami. I moved all of them into quarantine when I spotted ich on the tetras and one ich on the Gourami. I also treated the main tank to be safe, but everyone in it looks great - no ich showing 9 days after I started treating.

So I'm on day nine of gradually increasing temp - it's been up to 86 for 5 days now. Salt has been gradually increased and has been in there for 5 days.
I'm concerned I'm not using enough salt. The instructions I found online said to do the following:

Day 1
Increase the water temperature to 80F (26.6C)
Perform a 20% WC.
Add 1 Tablespoon of salt per 20 US Gallons of water (76L, 16.6 UKG)
(55 gallon = 2 1/2 Tbsp) (10 gallon = 1/2 Tbsp)

Day 2
Increase the water temperature to 82F (27.7C)
Add 1 Tablespoon of salt per 40 US Gallons of water.
(55 gallon = 1 Tbsp+ 3/4 tsp) (10 gallon = 3/4 tsp)

Day 3
Increase the water temperature to 84F (28.8C)
Add 1 Tablespoon of salt per 40 US Gallons of water.
(55 gallon = 1 Tbsp+ 3/4 tsp) (10 gallon = 3/4 tsp)

Day 4
Increase the water temperature to 85F (29.4C)
Add 1 Tablespoon of salt per 40 US Gallons of water.
(55 gallon = 1 Tbsp+ 3/4 tsp) (10 gallon = 3/4 tsp)

Supposed to do nothing days 5-9, but I'm on day 9 and my Cardinals are covered in ich.

So, I've increased salt to 2 Tbsp per 10 gallons and am starting 50% water changes daily, adding salt back in to keep it at 2 Tbsp per 10 gallon concentration. Keeping temp up at 86-87.

Anything else I should be doing? How long should I keep this up before I give it up and get some meds?

Also, while my cardinals are covered in ich, there isn't a single spot on the Gourami! Any ideas why? I'd love to move him back to the main tank, to get him out of the salt and heat, but am afraid he has ich that just isn't showing and I'd be putting it back into my big tank.

 

[jlk]

Hi! I guess I am bit confused by your post. You had fish in your main tank develop ich and you moved them to qt? So, now you are treating both tanks with heat and salt, correct? And you took 4-5 days to raise the temp to 86-87f, correct? How do your water parameters look right now for both tanks?

Ok, I would say that your ich treatment officially began once the tank was up to temp so you actually have only been treating for about 4 days. You have some salt in the tank but not a high enough amount to treat ich by itself with no heat. You also can expect ich to become worse before it starts to improve when using the heat method. Things sound fairly normal so far and you likely have atleast another week and half or longer of treatment ahead of you. You want to maintain the heat and salt for one week after the last spot is gone. If you do not see any improvement over the course of the next week, you may need to adjust your treatment strategy. Keep us posted!

 

[Autumnsky]

My recent Ich treatment with heat and salt went well as far as the Ich was concerned.

But my salt concentration was at 1 teaspoon per gallon. (88F)

JKL, so which is right for the salt?

If you have mystery snails in there you may want to consider moving them if you increase the salt to 1 tsp p/g.

 

[kimmcannally]

Yes, I'm treating two tanks. I moved the cardinals, hoping that no other fish in the 55 gallon would get ich, but when the Gourami got the one spot it got, I decided to go ahead and treat the 55 gallon too. I have Yoyo loaches in it, so didn't want to use meds unless absolutely necessary. I was hoping nothing else in that tank would get ich, and it looks like nothing has. I'm starting to turn the temp back down in that tank and will start 20% daily water changes tomorrow to get the salinity back down.

As of yesterday morning the QT tank water was
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
pH 7.6

The 55 gallon was
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 30
pH 7.6

I didn't test today - been testing daily since I started and didn't do it this morning. Will test again tomorrow morning.

Only about four MTS in the QT tank and no mystery snails in either tank. (moved them to my 20 long)
I increased the salt to two Tbsp per 10 gallons today. Is that enough to kill the ich?

Thanks for the help!

 

[jlk]

My recent Ich treatment with heat and salt went well as far as the Ich was concerned.

But my salt concentration was at 1 teaspoon per gallon. (88F)

JKL, so which is right for the salt?

If you have mystery snails in there you may want to consider moving them if you increase the salt to 1 tsp p/g.

It depends on how you are treating. Right now, The OP has around .06% salinity in the tank (or 6tsp/2tbsp/10g). 1tsp/g is about .1% which is what I would suggest for combining heat with salt. If it was just salt for treatment (no heat), I would raise the salinity to .3%, possibly as high as .5% but realize quite a few tropicals would not handle this amount of salt. I believe she mentioned some scaleless fish in the main tank (but I also may be confusing this thread with another one) so sticking to present salt should be fine. For the fish in qt, adding one more tbsp/3tsp per 10g to bring the salinity up to @.09% should help. Does this make some sense?

 

[kimmcannally]

It depends on how you are treating. Right now, The OP has around .06% salinity in the tank (or 6tsp/2tbsp/10g). 1tsp/g is about .1% which is what I would suggest for combining heat with salt. If it was just salt for treatment (no heat), I would raise the salinity to .3%, possibly as high as .5% but realize quite a few tropicals would not handle this amount of salt. I believe she mentioned some scaleless fish in the main tank (but I also may be confusing this thread with another one) so sticking to present salt should be fine. For the fish in qt, adding one more tbsp/3tsp per 10g to bring the salinity up to @.09% should help. Does this make some sense?

So, I should add another Tbsp per 10 gallons to the QT tank, right? I plan to do a 50% WC tomorrow and it's at 2 Tbsp per 10 now. So take out 5 gallons and add 2 Tbsp to the 5 gallons I put back in would bring it up to 3 Tbsp per 10 gallons. Yes? I get rather confused with the WC and making sure I keep the salinity correct!

 

[jlk]

Yep, this is correct! Just a suggestion, but I would add back the 1tbsp plus a 1/2 tbsp after the 50% wc. Then add the other 1/2 tbsp about 6hrs later. It will give these guys a bit to adjust to the increasing salinity without overwhelming them. If you run into any problems, please ask!

 

[kimmcannally]

Believe me, I'm all about asking questions! I appreciate the help and will increase the salinity slowly. Oh, here is a question!

Since it's a 10 gallon tank, I put the new water in by running it through an airline, so the increase is already pretty slow. I put the new water in a trash can (never used for anything else) that holds 2 1/2 gallons of water.

Would it hurt to do the full salt treatment at one time instead of waiting six hours since it does take an hour or so to get the new water in? Today I ran the airline "full speed" but I do have it going through a gang valve so I can run it at a drip if needed.

Is it better to do a quicker increase in salinity but less salt at a time, or go ahead and do the full salt treatment, but drip it in over several hours?

 

[jlk]

Just so I am clear, you are dripping the new water into the tank when refilling? Or just refilling all at once? Not sure if I understand what you are doing here!

 

[kimmcannally]

I am dripping the water in. Today, I didn't make it actually drip, it flowed. But it's flowing through an airline (standard size tubing) so it still takes quite a while to refill.

It's how I refill my 10 and 20 gallon tanks after WC because the pH of my tap water is higher (high 7 to low 8) than my tanks (generally high 6 or low 7) and I don't want a sudden pH shift.

 

[jlk]

Thanks! That makes sense now! Yep, your fine to mix both tbsp of salt into solution in your refill water and drip it in. Keep us posted on how everyone is doing!

 

[kimmcannally]

Everyone is still alive but the light hasn't come on yet, so I can't check on spots. 50% water is out and I'm dripping in the new stuff.

Parameters are:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
pH 7.8

 

[kimmcannally]

Another day another water change. parameters look good - same as yesterday. Paraguard came in the mail, May try it this weekend if no improvement.