I just set up my tank and added a bottle of fritzyme 7 (bacteria) on Saturday the fish are doing great and are very active the only problem is my high nitrate level 40ppm which is coming from my tap but this is about ick not about my nitrates so anyway my ammonia just started to register on Monday .25 my first mistake was to do A water change not realizing I would be removing ammonia that the bacteria needed to feed on besides I can't really go by the nitrates as it is coming from my tap.so back to my ick tested my water tonight still no nitrites my nitrate Is about 40 PPM which I expected my ammonia .25 my fish are very active as usual but tonight I notice OH NO what appears to be ick but I can't be sure a couple of small dots on a couple of dorsal fins it almost looks like tiny little mini air bubbles but I know they were not there before. So this is what I plan on doing please let me know if I am going about this the right way being my tank is only 5 days into A cycle I keep my tank at 76 within the next few hours I am going to try to get the tank up to 80 raise it 2 degrees before I go to bed then another 4 before I go to work yo get it to 86. When I first added my bacteria I have A uv light built into my cannister which I the bottle stated to turn off any uv lights for 4 days well it's been 4 days and maybe this light will help a little when I got all my supplies before adding fish I picked up aquarium salt but never added it(now that ick has struck maybe I should have)when I did add the fish though I added something called the fish keeper which was supposed to be stress reliever/disease remedy/immuninizing treatment.I did raise the spraybar above the water line.I don't want to add any meds and kill the little bacteria I have established nor do I want to do any water changes unless my ammonia or nitrites spike.should 86 be all right and for how long I know black rubys like the water cooler so I don't know if they could tolerate much higher and for how long I was thinking between7-10 days do I or don't I use salt how about the fish keeper don't know if any of you has used it though it seems like a natural remedy additive.lastly should I turn the built in uv light back on it shouldn't hurt its been 5 days since I added the bacteria.should I start dosing the water with prime every 48 hours just to neutralize the nitrates while my fish fight through this as they are going to be stressed enough they don't need the nitrates stressing them more.if it wasn't for the small spots I would never suspect that ick has entered the tank they are very active full of appetite and no scratching or rubbing up against anything.am I going about things the right way or maybe someone can correct me if I am doing something wrong I think I caught this thing early enough where there will not be too much stress endured by my ruby's thank-you for any advice you can give.
Treating Possible Ick For In-Cycle Tank?
- Thread starter Magic8
- Start date
being this is A new tank wouldn't the bacteria need some ammonia to grow not alot but enough to continue to grow.I could be totally wrong I know ammonia is bad for the fish again I just thought with the minimal bacteria in the tank it needed the ammonia to grow.Am I going about treating the ick the right way in your opinion?
Your tank will still cycle with a level of ammonia that's too small to register on your tests. Allowing it to rise over 0.25ppm can cause suffering to your fish, and is probably the reason they have ich; in healthy fish the slime coat is thick enough to keep the parasites out. You should be able to find an ich med that doesn't affect your filter bacteria. I wouldn't try using the heat method with your barbs; they don't tolerate high temperatures well. Ideally you would return these fish, and do a proper fishless cycle, but I doubt anyone will take sick fish off youMagic8 said:
You will need to do water changes to keep ammonia and nitrite as near to zero as possible. Don't worry about the nitrate level at the moment; although 40ppm might be a problem, in the long term for some fish, it's not an urgent concern right now.
Do you know anyone else with a tank that could donate you some mature media? You could also ask at your LFS, some shops will give/sell you some.
Right now my nitrite is at 0 the ammonia is .25ppm would adding salt and turning the uv light on help?Should I dose with prime to neutralize the nitrate and any remaining Ammonia as my fish work through this?So heat is not recommended for the barbs I already starting raising the temps on my tank should I start lowering it again and look for An ich med that wont harm the bacteria?
I wouldn't add salt; these barbs are soft water fish, and likely won't tolerate it. UVs doesn't do much in freshwater tanks, so don't bother with that. Yes, start turning heat back down.
Your best bet is a combination of water changes and ich medication, but you should prepare yourself to lose at least some of these fish, I'm afraid. And please don't do fish-in cycles in the future; I hope you can see now why they're not recommended
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Your best bet is a combination of water changes and ich medication, but you should prepare yourself to lose at least some of these fish, I'm afraid. And please don't do fish-in cycles in the future; I hope you can see now why they're not recommended
Well My tank surprisingly has not hit 86 yet it's around 83 but I removed my carbon from my cannister and did a15% water change doing a 1/2 dose of prime which was suggested to me to do a 1/2 dose everyday as A full dose most likely will pull too much oxygen from the water with the increased temps I also worked in 12 tsp of salt I will work in another 12 tomorrow again with another 15% water change and continue with the prime and WC'S on a daily basis replacing salt that was removed on A daily basis for ten days.
Seachem Paraguard was told to me as an alternative or to work in conjunction with salt but it cannot be added together with prime it would have to be added a 1/2 hour at least after prime.this was an alternative if my barbs were not comfortable with the heat but they seem to be handling it fine so far.
Hopefully I caught this thing early enough which I think I did.
Seachem Paraguard was told to me as an alternative or to work in conjunction with salt but it cannot be added together with prime it would have to be added a 1/2 hour at least after prime.this was an alternative if my barbs were not comfortable with the heat but they seem to be handling it fine so far.
Hopefully I caught this thing early enough which I think I did.
Just in case you missed this bit in fluttermouth's reply
fluttermoth said:
I wouldn't try using the heat method with your barbs; they don't tolerate high temperatures well. Ideally you would return these fish, and do a proper fishless cycle, but I doubt anyone will take sick fish off you
I did see fluttermoth's reply and was not sure if I wanted to go the heat route but after speaking with other people on other forums who have treated barbs with the heat/salt method with no ill effects I decided to go this route everyone one has different experiences and different opinions no one is 100% right or wrong so far they are handling the increased heat fine they don't seem to be stressed and from what I can tell are acting as usual I am going to keep A close eye on them and watch their actions if they show any signs of undue stress because of the heat my back-up plan is to dose with the Paraguard and bring the temps back down.
Each circumstance brings its own set of positives and negatives if I did not have people telling me they have treated ich with black rubys at these temps then I would not even try it but I have had others tell me they have done it just as others like fluttermoth have said it is not recommended.In this hobby and especially on forums there are a lot of opinions and ideas thrown around some right some wrong and others somewhere in between.
I appreciate any advice I receive and after suspecting yesterday and confirming today that my ruby's have come down with ich I must have read at least a hundred posts,suggestions,guidelines etc on this parasite and the various ways of fighting it,in the end I had to make A decision right or wrong I do have A back-up plan in case my fish cannot tolerate the higher temps but so far so good I will be keeping A close eye on them.I have taken the proper steps to ensure they should have enough oxygen by raising my spraybar and only doing A 1/2 dose of prime as suggested so for now I need to stick with the plan ride this thing through and keep A careful eye out to ensure they are handling the heat ok.
Each circumstance brings its own set of positives and negatives if I did not have people telling me they have treated ich with black rubys at these temps then I would not even try it but I have had others tell me they have done it just as others like fluttermoth have said it is not recommended.In this hobby and especially on forums there are a lot of opinions and ideas thrown around some right some wrong and others somewhere in between.
I appreciate any advice I receive and after suspecting yesterday and confirming today that my ruby's have come down with ich I must have read at least a hundred posts,suggestions,guidelines etc on this parasite and the various ways of fighting it,in the end I had to make A decision right or wrong I do have A back-up plan in case my fish cannot tolerate the higher temps but so far so good I will be keeping A close eye on them.I have taken the proper steps to ensure they should have enough oxygen by raising my spraybar and only doing A 1/2 dose of prime as suggested so for now I need to stick with the plan ride this thing through and keep A careful eye out to ensure they are handling the heat ok.
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