its been a long night, help me out

[medge00]

So after I took a huge test today (finals time), I woke up from a small nap to find a dead threadfin and 3 gold rams with ich. swell.

I've started to raise the temp of the tank... I thought I'd get it up to 82 deg. does that sound about right? How high can I go without hurting plants/fish?

I've also started ich medicine. I did my first dose with what I had on hand (Rid Ich). Will this be bad for the plants? It says for "stubborn" cases I can dose every 12 hours, as long as I do water changes. How would the plants handle this? The rams are my babies, i love 'em, but after all that work, I dont want to loose my plants either. Any other suggestions than what I'm already doing? Should I add salt too, or is that just too much for plants?

To top all that off, my heater exploded in my larger tank because I forgot to unplug it when I lowered the water to replant stuff. Such a stupid thing to do. More hard earned money down the drain. At least the tank looks good with new plants

 

[Electrobes]

well treating ick a lot of people follow this method: Turning up the heat causes the life cycle of ICH to increase and actually go free swimming faster.. but when you do that you need to put in some salt into the tank.. THATs what kills the little critters. This method doesn't use medicine, but you can do that as well.

If you are worried about your plants you could get a rubbermaid container or something and put about 50% of the tank water in there and the other 50% could be new treated water. Same goes for the fishies, a water change for them. But like I said when you increase the temperature add salt to the tank to kill the free swimming ICH running around in your tank.

 

[Tigerlily]

Hi Medge00!

You sure are having a Monday aren't you... sorry to hear it!

About the ich, if you are using heat to treat, you'll need to get the temps above 86. I treated some tiger barbs at 88 for 2 weeks with no fatalities. The high temps didn't hurt the plants at all. The ich was totally gone within the first week.

If you're using meds, the ich life cycle speeds up at temps in the 80s, up to 86 degrees. Raising the temp to 82 would speed up the ich cycle and make it vulnerable to medication sooner. I just used Rid Ich+ to treat ich on some white clouds in my cool water tank (didn't raise the temp and the Rid Ich seemed to work fine - we'll see if it comes back!) The only plant in there is some hornwort - which is kind of indestructible - but the medication didn't seem to bother it at all. I don't know about adding salt with the plants. Some plants don't like salt at all. You should research your plants first to see if they can handle it. Java ferns are OK with a little salt, but I don't know what else. If you're using medication you shouldn't need salt too.

Hope the ich problems work themselves out quickly! Let us know what you end up doing and how it goes. And, show us pics of that newly planted tank!

 

[medge00]

i think the plant i'm most concerned about are the crypts. i've heard they can melt, especially with the addition of salt. I've cranked up the heat, but either my room is just too cold, or my other heater is broken. It doesn't seem to be getting above 77 deg. So I guess I get to go buy TWO heaters. If I didn't have another final tomorrow, I think I would just go to bed right now.

 

[betowess]

I would back down the heat for your cryps sake and let the rid ich do its thing. It worked fine for me once with no harm to any of my plants, though the green color is kind of weird looking. But I didn't have any cryps in mine. If you have any snails or shrimps you care about I would remove them too. I bet the ichs gone in no time. Good luck.

 

[madasafish]

General agreement.

I recommend the heat treatment for ich, as it is encourages the fishes' immune systems to work. Though I still use meds occasionally, I'm generally against them, as they complicate matters and often weaken your fish to secondary infections (recent personal experience).

If you do the heat treatment, you must get the water temp up to 86 degrees. Tigerlily is correct on that. If you're worried about the Crypts, take them out! Do you have another container that could serve as temp. accomodation? As long as you keep them in a relatively (thermally) protected place in the house with lots of light, you can prob. afford to keep them in an unfiltered space for the week.

P.S. Tigerlily, happy early birthday!

 

[medge00]

i'll let you guys know how it goes in the morning.... communication final, buy eaters, water change, update. sound good?

 

[Tigerlily]

Thanks Madasafish!

Medge - good luck on your final, and keep us posted!

 

[medge00]

hey all, just an update.

finished my final (its not going to be my best grade, but I think I'm over it). Finally was able to get my new heaters. No deaths in the 10 gal. where the ich is. I'm boosting that heat up to about 83/83 and I'll do another partial water change tonight. Everyone in that tank seems pretty happy.

Lost a rainbow in my big tank during my final.... tested the water. Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, ph 7.4 (where it always is) The water was kinda cold though, since the heater broke last night. I just put in the new heater. That's also the tank I did some replanting in, so maybe all that stress of being in a bucket while I worked, plus stirring all the dirt up and the cold water was just too much for the rainbow. May he rest in piece. Everyone else in there seems to be ok.

Now I'm off to buy another Hagen CO2 thingy. The one I have has turned my ten gal into a jungle, so I'm going to put them both on the 30 gal and see what happens. Then I'm going to work extra hours this week to pay for it all. I"m not starving cuz I'm in college, I'm starving cuz I'm addicted to my fish tanks.

 

[Electrobes]

the hagens are typically made for a 20 gallon tank.. so I am ot sure to will be what you hope for..

 

[medge00]

I'm putting both Hagen's on the 30 gal. I don't need super growth on the 10 gal anymore, and I can still dose with excel to get the carbon the plants need. thanks though!

 

[medge00]

Sooo, just to let y'all know, every one has thus far survived the ich, no melting crips, no more spots on the rams, though I'm keeping the temp up for now. I figure 2 solid weeks of higher temp, then I'll gradually move it down a bit. I've had no other deaths in the newly planted tank either.

thanks!

 

[millipede]

ich...

just a novice but it might help someone else if someone would clarify if I'm right or wrong. It sounds like medge wouldn't need this info at this point but several people suggested taking the plants out... I've heard that bringing plants in can introduce stuff, even ich, so it's always a good idea to treat your plants, especially if your lfs does not, which they usually don't... soooo, I would think that if you have ich already in the tank and you want to remove the plants, you would still have to treat the plants somehow so as not to re-introduce the ich back into the tank...
right or wrong???
just my thoughts...

 

[Smonkey15]

i dont think ich can hang on to plants.
steve

 

[medge00]

I don't think ich usually hangs out on plants either.... however, I've read that one is supposed to vacuum the gravel a couple times while treating for ich, so as to be sure to get any infected what not that falls to the bottom. Of course, that could be complete nonsense, or it could be kinda true. I dunno. At any rate, I don't think the ich would have anything to live on in a container of plants.

 

[Scott1980]

[/quote] I"m not starving cuz I'm in college, I'm starving cuz I'm addicted to my fish tanks.[/quote]

lol, since I moved out of my parents of house, I live off rice and Ramen noodles religously. Especially since I've tried to start a new 20 gallon.

 

[Scott1980]

ok, how to I quote other people?, because that just doesn't look right

 

[medge00]

hehe exactly. I have two tanks now... i'd really love either a huge cichlid tank or a nano marine tank.... maybe i should graduate from college first and get a *real* job. just a thought....

 

[Guest]

Remove the / in the first quote box.

 

[Fruitbat]

medge00....

Dunno about you but I seem to recall that when I went to college it WAS a 'real' job!! Of course...that was in the dim and distant past.