ich in a 100 gal. planted tank

[mom2reds]

i woke up this morning and went to feed my fish and my clown laoch has ich really bad I have started to turn up the heat i just don't want to lose all of my plants or my other fish, is there anything else I need to do to get this over with.
Any suggestions or comments are appreciated.

 

[An t-iasg]

Sorry to hear that. With a large tank like that, having two or maybe three heaters would help get the temperature through the 84-86 degree zone faster and keep the temps stable at where they need to be to kill the ich, at 87 or 88 degrees.

 

[mom2reds]

Sorry to hear that. With a large tank like that, having two or maybe three heaters would help get the temperature through the 84-86 degree zone faster and keep the temps stable at where they need to be to kill the ich, at 87 or 88 degrees.

I have a 400 watt hydor theo heater that works really well My temp is already 86 degrees and i just turned it up again but will this hurt my plants and should I add any salt. I also was wondering if I should use Ich away?

 

[An t-iasg]

I have never had to deal with ich in a large tank like that, or ich that high temps didn't treat. I would be careful of adding medicine in a tank that is already at a high temperature (but you have to get past 86 degrees for the heat treatment to work). The combined high temp and meds may lower the oxygen levels in the water too much. Plants don't usually like salt, and at the dose of one tablespoon per 5 gallons, you'd be adding a lot of salt. I would concentrate on getting the heat up and doing daily water changes to pull out the free-swimming ich. Gravel-vac gently too, to try to remove the cysts in the substrate.

 

[mom2reds]

Thanks An t-iasg I will do. I have a large bubbler at the back of the tank and my filter out puts pointed up for more water agitation. how long does the cycle usualy take and should i pull my clown laoch out so far he is the only one i see spots on.
thanks again Tess

 

[kamo87]

Thanks An t-iasg I will do. I have a large bubbler at the back of the tank and my filter out puts pointed up for more water agitation. how long does the cycle usualy take and should i pull my clown laoch out so far he is the only one i see spots on.
thanks again Tess

Hi, sorry to hear about your problem. If you are using the temperature method make sure to keep the temp. at 86 degrees for two weeks after the last spot is gone. Your fish can tolerate this for 3 to 4 weeks. Adding salt helps but it will harm your plants and any scaleless fish that you have. I had the same situation and the heat method worked perfectly. Good luck!

 

[An t-iasg]

More water agitation, like you're already doing, is good since you're helping to get more oxygen into the water. Warmer water holds less oxygen.

At 84-86 degrees the ich will multiply rapidly and you'll see more spots. At 87-88 degrees the ich dies off and probably within 2-3 days you'll see the spots visible on the fish decrease noticeably. But the ich spots on the fish are only one stage of the ich parasite - they are also free-swimming in the water and they fall to the substrate and encase themelves to reproduce. You can't see the free-swimming stage or the reproductive stage. So to make sure all the ich are killed in all the stages of their life cycle, you need to keep the temperatures up at 87 or 88 degrees for two weeks after the last spot goes away. So the temperature may be at 87 or 88 degrees for a total time of up to three weeks. Adding an extra week, like kamo87 suggests, probably won't hurt and may be a good idea to make sure all the ich is gone in a large tank. When you do decrease the temperature, do it gradually - 1 degree every 12 hours - to avoid stressing the fish.

Don't pull the clown loach out of the big tank - he needs to be in the warmer water to kill the ich on him. If you put him in another tank, you'll have to increase the temp. in that tank too to combat the ich in all three stages. Often it is best to take a sick fish out of the community tank and treat in a QT tank but since ich has three stages and heat kills all three, it's best to leave all fish with ich in the same tank.

 

[mom2reds]

Thanks I will do that, I am sure I will be back for more support, I have not been on here a lot but I do try to check in alot i just don't post alot. Things have been going well with my tank untill now. I just wish i knew what caused this, i have not added any new fish in a while and I do 50% pwc every week and gravel vac everyother week.

 

[mom2reds]

Well my tank is maintaining well at 88 to 89 degrees, I have lost two more fish this AM my clown loach and my big emerald green cory cat. The rest of my fish don't seem to be bothered by the heat I am really impress with my heater it has done a really good job.

 

[mom2reds]

I have not seen any more signs of ICH do i continue to keep the temps up, and if so for how long?
TIA

 

[An t-iasg]

I'm sorry to hear about the loach and the emerald cory. Did they have ich the worst? When did you last see the ich spots? Whenever you see the last spot go away, determine the date for 2 weeks from that day and leave the temps up until that date. Leaving the temperature elevated will make sure that the cysts in the gravel are done hatching and going through their lifecycles. The fish are probably not affected by the heat itself for the short amount of treatment time but the fact that warmer water holds less oxygen, so make sure the water is aerated sufficiently over the two-week period. Making your filter output splash a bit will probably help more than the airstone. Do you have another small water pump that you could add - it may help in a larger tank.

 

[mom2reds]

Thanks and the only fish I saw with spots and was actually covered in them was the clown loach, i am not sure if it was the ICh or the warm temps that got my cory cat. I will keep the temps up for a couple more weeks.
How long due you think i should wait if i wanted to change the substrate in my tank?

 

[An t-iasg]

Be watchful of the loaches - I've read about them being prone to ich. They sometimes seem to be the first fish to show it and the last fish to lose the spots. But from all I've read about them, the heat treatment works very well for them.

I would wait to do a substrate change until after the ich treatment is completed. The reproductive phase of the ich lives in the substrate. The ich encase themselves in a "cyst" structure in the substrate. When you stir up the substrate to remove it, I'm afraid you would stir up the cysts, so it's best to kill them off first. Although this cyst phase is not the free-swimming stage, and stirring them up may do no harm as long as the heat is still raised, I would not want to take that chance.

 

[mom2reds]

I will wait thanks.

 

[WhiskeyD]

You need to keep the temperatures up at 87 or 88 degrees for two weeks after the last spot goes away

 

[thatmagicguy]

Can anyone refer me to a reference that explains how 87-89 degrees "kills" ich? I don't think the ich organism has any problem with warm water. What is more likely going on is that it spends less time on the fish, thereby causing less damage and stress and the fish is able to produce an ample slime coat to prevent massive reinfestation. And the ich of course, with a lack of suitable host, die off significantly. But if someone wants to point me to a reference that can explain high temps killing it I have an open mind. Bill

 

[thatmagicguy]

Also, one needs to be careful when raising temperatures in regard to low oxygen levels. Which I believe is what killed the cory. Low oxygen levels, especilly at night in a planted tank are far more lethal than ich. Remember, plants produce carbon dioxide at night. Bill

 

[mom2reds]

Also, one needs to be careful when raising temperatures in regard to low oxygen levels. Which I believe is what killed the cory. Low oxygen levels, especilly at night in a planted tank are far more lethal than ich. Remember, plants produce carbon dioxide at night. Bill

I don't think oxygen levels are a problem in my tank, I have two canitster filters running that a pointing up a causing a lot of movement and I also have a large bubbler at the back on the tank. All of my other corys lived just fine. Luckily for me there has been no more deaths in my tank, and i have not seen any more ich since my loach died. Yea...

 

[mom2reds]

So should I start lowering my temps now? i have not seen any of the ICH since 4/25.

 

[An t-iasg]

I would start tomorrow to lower the temperatures. Lower the temp. by one degree every 12 hours. I know it's hard to turn the dial just one degree but do your best. Congrats on beating the ich!