I need to treat my 55g for Ick but I am scared the meds will mess up the bio filter?

[xsamrlx17]

I've heard that medication can kill the good bacteria and cause the aquarium to have to go through a cycle all over again . I have "SENTRY Mardel Coppersafe" I know that I need to treat the whole tank even though only one fish has the Ick but I am very hesitant and nervous to do so. I really don't want to risk messing up the filtering in my tank when the cycle took SO long to get it right .

My questions are; will "SENTRY Mardel Coppersafe" mess anything up or will it just medicate the Ick? Should I try to find a different medication or will this be fine?

Has anybody used this treatment and can claim whether it DOES or DOESN'T work?

Any suggestions are truly appreciated. You all are so very helpful.

 

[Billbug68]

From my little experience, slowly raising the temp to about 86 degrees over a few days, and leaving it there for about a week after the last white spots are gone from your fish, is the best remedy. No salt, no medicine. Considering your stock can handle high heat. Just my opinion and experience, I don't like to add anything unnecessary to my tanks anymore.

Edit: also, with the heat treatment, you should do extra water changes/gravel vacs to keep it clean.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

 

[jcolon]

Don't bother with meds... Experienced members will tell you to treat ich with heat. Slowly ... Over the next 12hrs Raise the water temp to 88F and add an airstone for increases aeration. Daily gravel vacs and PWC's are a must when treating ich. Very important.... Leave the temp at 88F for a week AFTER the last sign of ich.

Meds should be used as a last resort ... Due to your concerns ... if BOTH heat and salt(don't bother for now) fail.

Edit... This is how i treated ich in my son's 10gal at the time.

 

[xsamrlx17]

Okay thank you, I will raise the temp. The aquarium is mostly Small/Medium African Cichlids with one South American earth eater Cichlid (which is the one showing the ick) Do you think 86-88F is safe for them?

 

[Billbug68]

I know nothing about cichlids, sorry! I'm sure someone else will chime in though!

 

[Convict2161]

jcolon pretty much nailed it. Here's a good read.


http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

 

[jcolon]

Okay thank you, I will raise the temp. The aquarium is mostly Small/Medium African Cichlids with one South American earth eater Cichlid (which is the one showing the ick) Do you think 86-88F is safe for them?

Yep ... 86F -88F should be fine ... Convict2161 been keeping cichlids for a while so ... That link he provided's a good start.

 

[xsamrlx17]

Okay, thank you all. Will be gradually raising the temp and just added about 7 tablespoons of salt, which I am now regretting as I just saw I should have done that gradually over 24-48 hours as well. Should I take any action of trying to remove some of the salt? I use to let it dissolve first but then I was told by someone at the LFS I don't need to do that, yet I just read that I should of let it dissolve first.

 

[jcolon]

Personally, I wouldn't bother with salt ... YET ... Unless you get a stubborn case of ick. Then heat + salt and finally .... MEDs .. When all else fails.
At that point confer with us on the best ick meds to use.

As for the salt you added? ... That may be a bit too much. Do a PWC to remove some of it. Again, the cichlid experts will chime in if I'm wrong.

 

[Convict2161]

Taken from an article:



The salt and heat treatment is one method to treat ich. There are several meds on the market which are also effective against that parasite.

Slowly increase temperature to 86-88F (1-2 degrees per day) and keep it there for 2 weeks. Temps in the low 80s increase the reproduction cycle of ich which will increase the quantity of free swimming ich organisms in the water columnn (which are vulnerable to meds) but at 86F+ the temperature will interfere with ich reproduction cycle and also kill the organism.

If your go the salt route which I've never done for ich but have done for columnaris you will add salt like this (slowly increase the salt concentration to 1 tablespoon per 5gal of tank volume (1 tablespoon=3 teaspoons). So say you have a 125gal you need to add approximately 25 tablespoons, which amounts to about 3 cups. Dissolve 5 tablespoons of salt in a small cup or container of tank water and add that to the tank every 5hrs until a total of 25 tablespoons has been added. Never add dry salt directly to the tank the use 'aquarium' salt is not needed you can use Kosher salt do not use table salt.

This treatment will the lower oxygen content level in the tank water, so bring out the extra aeration or water surface agitation if you can (though if your fish are small it might not make much a difference, but definately do so if you've got 5" or larger fish). Maintain the salt and heat until 10 days after the ich was last seen on the fish, to ensure all the organisms have been killed. If you do a water change during this period, you'll have to replace the salt. So, for example, on day 8 you do a 25% water change, you'll have to add 6 tablespoons of salt along with the replacement water (keep track of how much salt has been added at all times).


I will add that MOST times the HEAT ONLY treatment will do the trick. If it were me, I'd start by raising you temp first and see how that goes after about 5 days. If nothing else salt can be added later.

Let me further add that the use of salt has been debated widely. Salt will harm other fish like loaches and catfish so if you have those fish or other fish that may less tolerable to salt the I'd forget the salt method all together.


I'd try and stay away from meds if possible. I had to heavily dose my tank with meds for 10 days with my bout with columnaris it's not fun.

I'm not an expert by any means. This what I've researched and what I've seen others do.


Good luck