Help With Ich In A Heavily Planted Tank

[karlp]

The first fish I added to my heavily planted tank had ich it turns out. In the past when I've kept fish in community tanks with a few plants, it's always been easy to get rid of. Bit of Malachite green or whatever alternate days and it goes.

This time I can't get rid of it. I've been using White Spot Plus (interpet) to try to get rid of it and have dosed a number of times now and still seem to end up with a couple of white spots left. It also seems to stop the plants pearlnig for a few days so not convinced it's harmless to plants. Following advice from others, I've also tried raising the temperature. It's been at 28C for a couple of weeks and I turned it up to 30C yesterday which I can't maintain for long because it's stressing the fish (I've had to take 3 out to a small quarantine tank who couldn't cope with the heat). Similarly I've still got 1 white spot on a fish left. Tomorrow it will probably have disappeared and there will be 1 white spot on a different fish.

I've added an 8W UV sterilizer which only runs when the medication is not being used and that doesn't seem to get rid of it.

I'm beginning to wonder if the White Spot Plus actually works or whether the plants are absorbing the meds from the water quickly, so making it ineffective.

My last ditch idea is to temporarily move all the fish into the quarantine tank and hospital tank (no small feat without disrupting the planting and decor) treating them in there and leaving them there for 2 weeks, in the hope that the white spot will naturally die in the main tank. But... I found a snail in the main tank the other day, so there may be others and now I wonder if they'll be able to transmit the white spot....

I can't take the plants out because I have a thick E Tenellus carpet.

Does anyone have any ideas how to get rid of this pest without killing fish or plants ?

the fish include catfish and whiptails (although I've moved the whiptails to a hospital tank):

10 common hatchets
9 Pentazona Barbs
4 Guppies (1 now in hospital tank)
2 Australe killis
4 Syn. Petricola
1 Bristlenose catfish
2 Whiptail catfish (now removed to hospital tank)


Thanks

Karl.

 

[pseud]

How often are you doing water changes during treatment?

 

[karlp]

Hmm.. difficult to say. When I was initially using White Spot Plus I would do a water change and add the medicing in the last bucket of water. I haven't done a water change for a week or so now though to leave the meds in. There's obviously no carbon in any of the filters.

 

[George Farmer]

When I started out I experienced whitespot in my 33G.

I used Interpet's product exactly as per the instructions, raised the temp to 30C and provided additional aeration with an airstone to compensate for the drop in O2 levels. It cleared up within 5 days I seem to remember. I performed loads of water changes soon after in an attempt to rid any leftover parasites. The plants weren't great soon after but they soon perked up.

I doubt the plants will be soaking up the active ingredient (formaldehyde based).

Personally I'd do a few large water changes over a 24 hour period so in effect you have a tank full of new water. Then raise temp to 30C, add an airstone then dose the treatment again as per instructions. It worked for me and I know of others who have had success with this method. You plants should recover if they're healthy enough to start with.

What size tank do you have?

 

[karlp]

Hi gf225

Thanks for the advice.

I can see that changing all the water would get rid of the stuff with the high temperature, but aren't the meds are supposed to kill the free swimming ich anyway ? I've never had to change all the water before when treating it.

It's a 200 litre tank and I'm using 50% RO to soften the water to 14 degrees (yep it's hard round here).

 

[George Farmer]

aren't the meds are supposed to kill the free swimming ich anyway ? I've never had to change all the water before when treating it.

My suggestion was so that you could start "a fresh", rather than possibly ODing on meds.