Ich in My Tank

[Malique]

Hey, guys I just discovered ich in my tank and I am planning to buy either aquarium salt tomorrow or a medicine along with an air pump. My house is normally at high temperatures during the day which is why I don't use a heater. Can someone please tell me if this is a good idea or if there is a better way. The ick is presently on two serpae tetras.
(i just got this tank two days ago please help)

 

[V227]

Without a heater, probably better just to use a commercial Ick medication.

 

[Malique]

Medicine

I have gotten tetra brand ick guard today but was unsuccessful in the air pump/stone. The serpae tetra has died however when I got back from school which would be about 24hrs after I first spotted it
I did go back to the fish stoor and saw some serpae tetras from the same tank with ick: eek:.
I bought some new fish today and one of them have already died. I am honestly feeling sad. This was a glofish.

 

[Potluck]

You should have a heater in a Tropical tank weather its hot in the house or not as when night fall comes the tank cools back down possibly dropping a big number of degrees throughout the night and reheating during the day, the heater should be set a couple degrees lower than that of your homes ambient temperature so there's not a huge drop at night time) heater won't come in during the day) , In the cold months you just slowly lower the heater back down around the ambient temp of the house you have the home set at, but right now I would get kordon Rid ich plus, DO NOT ADD SALT with it, dose the tank per instructions, if you have scale less fish it's a whole different thing with treatment so if you have scaless fish don't add meds that are unsafe for them (rid ich plus is not scaless fish safe).


Also the tank isn't cycled I'm assuming as you got it 2 days ago so that's most likely how you got ich a combination of an unestablished tank and new fish = issues, you will have to do water changes daily with the rid ich but if you have a filter with a cartridge you have to remove the carbon from the cartridge or the med won't work) to do this cut a slit in the bottom Of the cartridge material and empty out the black Rock (that's carbon) , after you see no more fish with spots you treat for an additional 3-5 days (i do anyways), also with the tank not being established after you clear up the ich you need to do daily water changes with new water treated with seachem prime (if you can get it) so your tank doesn't get out off control with the water parameters and so that they stay healthy while you do a fish in cycle, there's posts on this forum of how to do them.

 

[Malique]

You should have a heater in a Tropical tank weather its hot in the house or not as when night fall comes the tank cools back down possibly dropping a big number of degrees throughout the night and reheating during the day, the heater should be set a couple degrees lower than that of your homes ambient temperature so there's not a huge drop at night time) heater won't come in during the day) , In the cold months you just slowly lower the heater back down around the ambient temp of the house you have the home set at, but right now I would get kordon Rid ich plus, DO NOT ADD SALT with it, dose the tank per instructions, if you have scale less fish it's a whole different thing with treatment so if you have scaless fish don't add meds that are unsafe for them (rid ich plus is not scaless fish safe).


Also the tank isn't cycled I'm assuming as you got it 2 days ago so that's most likely how you got ich a combination of an unestablished tank and new fish = issues, you will have to do water changes daily with the rid ich but if you have a filter with a cartridge you have to remove the carbon from the cartridge or the med won't work) to do this cut a slit in the bottom Of the cartridge material and empty out the black Rock (that's carbon) , after you see no more fish with spots you treat for an additional 3-5 days (i do anyways), also with the tank not being established after you clear up the ich you need to do daily water changes with new water treated with seachem prime (if you can get it) so your tank doesn't get out off control with the water parameters and so that they stay healthy while you do a fish in cycle, there's posts on this forum of how to do them.

The thing is I live in the tropics(Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean) and I don't think I will be able to get my parents (i am 13) to carry me back to the fish store so most likely no heater.

I will remove the carbon. Does leaving the carbon hinder the medicine from working? I only learned about the nitrogen cycle after I already got the fish however so I just left them in the tank. Do you believe there is anything else I can do?

 

[Potluck]

The thing is I live in the tropics(Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean) and I don't think I will be able to get my parents (i am 13) to carry me back to the fish store so most likely no heater.

I will remove the carbon. Does leaving the carbon hinder the medicine from working? I only learned about the nitrogen cycle after I already got the fish however so I just left them in the tank. Do you believe there is anything else I can do?

If the temp doesn't drop drastically over night, say going from 90-70 it should be fine (that's just an example) but a Heater would be good because you don't want drastic temperature swings, also when you do your pwc's daily the water your putting back into the tank should match the temperature of the tank and conditioned with seachem Prime or another good water conditioner, I'm not sure if you can get Prime there but it's made by seachem, what it does is declorinates the new water your putting back in, locks ammonia and nitrite and removes heavy metals from the tap water so it's safe for the fish when you add it to the tank, I would do rid ich plus if you just have a few tetras as you don't need to use heat with rid ich plus.

With rid ich plus the first night you do a 25% pwc with a gravel vac, refill with temp matched and conditioned water dose the tank, the next night the same thing 25% refill dose you do this till you see no more spots and you dose for 3-5 days after the spots are gone to kill the remaining cacoons that might still be in the tank, and since the tank isn't cycled you will need to (after the ich is gone) do water changes everyday or every other day (25-35% never 100%)to keep ammonia, nitrite at 0 because that will kill the fish, I would also recommend getting a liquid test kit, I use an api master freshwater test kit (again not sure if you can get it where you are and they can be expensive) but it's vital to know what your water parameters are.


as far as your question on the carbon yes it renders the med ineffective if it's a cartridge filter take it out cut a slit in the material at the bottom of the cartridge and empty carbon out and put the cartridge back into the filter.