treating ick with heat

[lossam8199]

hey guys,

I have an ick outbreak in my tank. I have treated it with seachem paraguard for 3 weeks, but there was always one white spot pop on my fish every now and then. Seems like I cannot get rid of the ick parasite with just paraguard, so I decided to turn up the heat to 86F. I have denison barb, rummy nose tetra, SAE, and corycat in there. If I turn my temp to 86 F and use paraguard, will that be okay with these fish? because I know the denison barb prefer colder temp, and I don't want to cook them.

Another question, I have a planted tank, so I turned off the CO2 during heat treatment, is fine for me to use flourish excel during this time? or should stop use that too?

Thank you for help

 

[BBradbury]

Hello loss...

Most aquarium fish and plants can tolerate warmer water temperatures for a couple of weeks. Which should be enough to remove the infection. You do need to add more oxygen to the tank. Warmer water doesn't hold the oxygen as well, so add a filter that will hang on the back of the tank. The extra water movement on the surface will mix more oxygen into the tank water.

If your tank has the Ich parasite, you'll need to do a good job of vacuuming the substrate. Most of the parasites will be living there. Keep the food to a minimum. Sick fish generally aren't hungry and you don't want uneaten food to foul the tank water more than it is.

B

 

[Kushgodrex]

I'd go 82-84, 86 in my opinion is when there is minimal air in the water for the fish. If you're using sand, sometimes it gets stuck to fish. It freaks me out sometimes

 

[Mebbid]

82 - 84 is useless for treating ich. The minimum is 86 degrees. You also never want to combine heat treatments and medicines at the same time as the combination can cause problems.

Imho your best bet is to turn the tank up to 86 and leave it there for a week after the last spot disappears.

 

[GouramiLover]

I had success in a tank with platies (cooler water fish) at 86 for two weeks with frequent water changes. No chemicals. I kept the heat up for a week after the last spot in addition to the two weeks. The platies were just fine. Just be sure to add equally warm water back into the tank with water changes or this method won't work.

Good luck!

 

[Kushgodrex]

I always treat at 82 and with medicine