Quick medication question (ICK Guard)

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stew

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Sep 27, 2003
Messages
73
Location
BC, Canada
I'm using ick guard to clear up a mild case of ick in my tank, the instructions say to do a water change 24 hours after adding the ick guard and repeat as necissary.... does this mean I have to change 20% of the water every 24 hours if I want to add more medication? Or can I just add more every day?

I'm removed the carbon, but is the sponge removing the meds?

I want to add more medication tomorrow so any advice is greatly apreciated!
 
If it says do a water change 24 hours after adding the Ick Guard, I'd think you need to do it every time you add it. Usually they say how long to wait before doing a second treatment. When I was medicating my Gourami I removed all of the first dose with carbon before treating for a second time.

The sponge won't remove the meds.
 
I don't know of Ick Guard, but surely you would need to leave a medication in for more than 24 hours.
It does'nt seem very long to me, but you Americans and Canadians have a lot of products that we don't here in the UK.
Your filter sponge won't remove any medication, but like crow said you could use your carbon to remove it.
 
How long do you guys think it would take for the carbon to remove the meds from a 29 gal tank?

I don't really want to do a water change again as my tank is still cycling and I'm pretty sure that would slow it down quite a bit.
 
I think that depends mostly on how long the carbon has been in your tank how often your filter cycles the water each hour. The higher the capacity of your filter and the newer the carbon, the quicker the meds will come out.
 
Coupla things Stew:

Continue treatment for 3 days after you see the last spot; forget the directions in that area. They are never correct.

You will need to water change; however it shouldn't mess up your cycle too much. By doing water changes you're removing some of the parasites swimming around; if you gravel vac it will also removed the encysted one down there too although it will also remove some nitrifying bacteria. This is tho, the meds most likely will muck up your nitrifying bacterial colony anyway.

I'm guessing your didn't read the article I wrote about it huh *sniff*

Heh, go take a peek: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=32
 
Oh great article allivymar! I should have read that earlier!

I still don't get whether I should be chaging the water every day and adding more meds, or just leaving the inintial dose in the tank for several days and not add any more.

I changed the water again today and added more because I really want a healthy tank and I have a wounded molly and dont want that to get infected.
 
I would not just use the initial dose - Melachite green - I think that is the ingredient in Ick-guard - is degraded by light, and you need to keep the level up for 10 or more days by repeated dosing.
 
So do I keep adding it to the tank or should I do a water chage every day and then add it?

The insyructions are very confusing.
 
What exactly do they say (I've never used meds so I don't know the minor differences in the instructions)? I believe you mentioned it said leave for 24 hrs and then water change. If so, I would do as you mentioned; do a water change then add it. Keep up that regimen until 3 days after the last spot is seen. I'm guessing IckGuard degrades after 24 hours, which is why they have you water change and add more.

And you're forgiven for not reading it *sniff*
 
OK dailey water chages it is... I guess i'll pretty much be starting my cycle over again once the ick is gone?
 
Well, the Ick-guard probably will not mess up your cycle too much. I've used Jungle's Ick Clear (same stuff as Ick Guard), and my tank did not re-cycled (bad choice of word? :) ) It also says in the package that it won't harm "good" bacteria ... but can you trust them when the dosing instructions are so obviously off? You prob should keep an eye on the levels just in case.

I've now treated ich with both the meds & salt method, and I must say I much prefer salt.

I think the confusion surrounding how to dose meds is that no one know how fast the stuff is being degraded. When I first got ich, I searched all over, asked at different forums, & no one can tell me. I guess it depends on your light level, amount of organics, etc. Without knowing the rate of elimination, it is just trial & error, and sometimes you'll fail while others succeeds with a certain method.

With salt, you put it in. It stays. No guessing, and you can even measure the levels if you want.
 
Well the ick visible signs are now gone.. i'm a happy camper :)

Ick guard gets the thumbs up, I did change the water about 20% every day before adding more meds, and I'm going to give them one last dose tomorrow to kill any free swimming ick buggers.

Ick guard also seemed to clear up the cyst or discoloration on my smaller molly and he or she seems to be back to normal (knock on wood).

Thumbs up for ick guard, Not sure if it hurt my bacterical colony though amonias and nitites don't seem to have changed much but i'm keeping an eye on them.

On another note, ick guard (1/2 dosage) hasn;t harmed the brand new moilly fry that have been exposed to it, they seem real happy and healthy!

Thanks for all the advice guys :mrgreen:
 
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