Curing Ich

[buffmaxwell]

hey guys i picked up some quick cure yesterday, however i have some questions about it? it says your supossed to dump all your carbon out of your filter when using it because the carbon will absorb it all before it has time to work? so do i really need to do that?

also my tank has been cycling now for about 4 weeks, and within the last couple of days im starting to algae grow all over the fake coral. is this a sign of anything?

also i finally got one of the seachem free and total ammonia test kits. and it said my free amonia levels were very low but my bound levels were still pretty high? my question is, is this a sign of anything and it is still farely safe for my fish with the free levels being so low. i also dont have specific ppm because my dad did the test but hes smart when it comes to testing so i trust his results.

thanks guys

 

[the_lock_man]

OK, first, the lesson about carbon. Carbon is used to remove certain nasty things, particularly heavy metals, from your aquarium water. After a relatively short period, it is stops being able to do this, and this is why the manufacturers tell you to replace it every 4-6 weeks. One of the things about aquatic medications is that they include heavy metals, and so if you have a new carbon filter, the filter will remove the medication before it has a chance to do any good.

I personally only use a carbon filter to remove a medication from the water after it has run its course. Once it's been in there a week or so, I remove it and don't replace it. I know many other people do similar.

Algae growth is a symptom of something. It depends on what algae you have.

Are you using Prime, or another dechlorinator, which binds ammonia to make it less toxic? If so, you still need to worry about the bound ammonia level, because the binding only lasts a few days, before it converts back to the nasty ammonia. In my opinion, if you have high ammonia, in whatever form, you need to do water changes to get the level back down to something the fish can tolerate.

 

[buffmaxwell]

Are you using Prime, or another dechlorinator, which binds ammonia to make it less toxic? If so, you still need to worry about the bound ammonia level, because the binding only lasts a few days, before it converts back to the nasty ammonia. In my opinion, if you have high ammonia, in whatever form, you need to do water changes to get the level back down to something the fish can tolerate.
[/quote]

yes i have been using prime along with a lot of water changes. i did a big 90% change about a week ago. and then i did another 15 gallon change about 3 days ago. im trying to stay away from massive water changes no matter how good they are because even with preseting the temperature of the new water to exactly what my tank water is i still had 2 fish up and roll over.

the algae from what i can tell is brownish colored. atleast it appears that way on the white coral. i also have leds too, i was told that they can cause algae growth but i havent had any noticable algae until about the last week, and ive had them almost a month. ive also noticed alot of my bottom dwellers are much more active, loach, jaguar cat, and red tail shark have been going around all the coral and eating the algae off of it.

also i saw somewhere on youtube. that normally algae growth starts to occur near the end of your tank cycling? but im not really sure.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

If you are cycling your tank with those type of fish i really would continue with your regular water changes as and when your water tests tell you to.

Terry.

 

[the_lock_man]

I think it's more likely the fish died from ammonia poisoning than temperature shock from the water changes. Daily water changes are the best way to successfully complete a fish-in cycle. If you could get your dad to tell you the actual parts per million levels, and you post them on here, it'll help us to help you.

If you have a look in the Planted Section of the forum, there's a whole interweb full of stuff about algae.

 

[colleen0309]

You said the algea is brown. That sounds like diatom algea to me and is completely harmless. Some fish will eat it like it's a feast! It happens in most new setups and should go away on its own. Or you can wipe it off, but on coral, that might be hard.