MissKaylakay93
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I have a 36 gallon with livebearers and other community fish, and ich that we just can't kick. Here's the run down:
We have 2 Swordtails, 3 Guppies, 4 Platies, 1 Dwarf Platy, 1 Molly, 4 Australian Rainbows, 1 Algea Eater, and 7 Neon Tetras. The tank has been up and running for four months with no fishy deaths. I don't have any current water test results, but I do know that everything has always looked pretty good expect for our Ph which is a low 8 (our cities water is notoriously high.) The tank has only been up and running since December.
We have been treating for ich since early January, and have recently seen it get much worse - most of the fish don't have any signs of it, it is only visible on one platy and a rainbow (who has also lost a lot of his color within the last few weeks.)
We have treated the ich as so: we bumped the temperature up to 80 degrees, and began adding salt. We began with one tablespoon per five gallons, but as the ich has gotten worse, we've added more and more salt, and its at about 2.5 tablespoons per five gallons right now. We do one or two 30% water changes weekly, always with a gravel vacuum.
What can I do to kick this stuff? Are there any medications which will be safe for all of the fish in the tank? I've heard that increasing the temperature to above 86 will get rid of it, but our current heater tops out at 84 and we don't have the cash for a new one right now.
We have 2 Swordtails, 3 Guppies, 4 Platies, 1 Dwarf Platy, 1 Molly, 4 Australian Rainbows, 1 Algea Eater, and 7 Neon Tetras. The tank has been up and running for four months with no fishy deaths. I don't have any current water test results, but I do know that everything has always looked pretty good expect for our Ph which is a low 8 (our cities water is notoriously high.) The tank has only been up and running since December.
We have been treating for ich since early January, and have recently seen it get much worse - most of the fish don't have any signs of it, it is only visible on one platy and a rainbow (who has also lost a lot of his color within the last few weeks.)
We have treated the ich as so: we bumped the temperature up to 80 degrees, and began adding salt. We began with one tablespoon per five gallons, but as the ich has gotten worse, we've added more and more salt, and its at about 2.5 tablespoons per five gallons right now. We do one or two 30% water changes weekly, always with a gravel vacuum.
What can I do to kick this stuff? Are there any medications which will be safe for all of the fish in the tank? I've heard that increasing the temperature to above 86 will get rid of it, but our current heater tops out at 84 and we don't have the cash for a new one right now.