andywg said:
Leaving them with a higher temperature will just speed up the infestation.
I am not sure if you are trying to say higher temps is good or bad exactly, so I apologize if I am misinterpreting something.
Anyways, while I don't think 'speed up the infestation' is really the best description, but yes it does speed up the life cycle of the protozoa which means it can multiply in a shorter period of time. HOWEVER, this is actually a great thing for us to exploit because, when in its white-spot stage, it is hard, if not very hard to treat because it is ironically well protected by the fish. On the other hand though, while in other stages of its life, ich is vulnerable to treatment. In fact, this is also the only time in which most, if not all, common meds are effective (meaning, the meds aren't responsible for the white spots disappearing, but only from reappearing...hopefully)
That being said, the warmer water creates a more ideal environment for Ich so it falls off the fish sooner rather than later, and hence, it becomes more easily treated. Make sense?
Personally, I like the 'heat and salt' method for treating ich....even if it might take a bit longer than meds....for a few reasons:
#1. Meds can be just as harsh on fish as they are on Ich if used improperly or a mistake is made.
#2. Salt is a more 'natural' type remedy which provides a greater amount of 'wiggle room' for mistakes and such
#3. The use of some meds may require the removal of invertebrates....and can result in your not being able to keep inverts in your tank for a while
#4. Salt is cheap
#5. Not all fish respond well to medication - not in the sense of ich itself, but can cause secondary issues
However, #5 also applies to the salt and heat treatment because many believe that scaleless fish (including some tetras) can be overly irritated by salt...hence, it is often suggested to use a half dose of salt and/or introduce the salt very slowly as if you were acclimating a new fish. In any case, my suggestion is, if you are going to use salt, to dissolve it in a cup of water taken from the tank before adding it somewhat slowly.
In case it hasn't already been said, be sure to understand that the 'salt in question' here is NaCl or sodium chloride such as table salt. Oh yea, based upon what I have read/heard in the past from a few different sources, the relatively tiny amount of iodine in some table salts is not going to cause many, if not any problems for your fish when used over a short period of time (which is longer than an ich treatment by some accounts). In short, items such as marine salt mixes are generally not a good choice here because they contain many trace elements which FW fish may not deal with well.
how much salt wold you recommend to use say per 5 gallons.
There are a ton of variations within responses to this question so I am sure someone will disagree, but I would suggest using one tablespoon (three teaspoons) per five gallons of actual water in the tank or half that if scaleless fish are present (or at least adding it slowly when scaleless fish are present. A couple tidbits of useful info:
A. When water evaporates, it leaves the salt behind....hence, unless you are taking the water out during a water change, continually adding salt on a daily basis without compensating for evaporation can become problematic over time. (it is a long term treatment)
B. Conversely, after a water change, you may want to add more salt since you took some out with that water
C. Again, based upon what I have read/heard, and IMHO, you may be better off by continuing treatment (any treatment) for, by some accounts, as long as two months or more because, as I eluded to earlier, the only time which we can treat ich effectively is when it is in it's free-swimming stage....at which point you cannot see it with the naked eye. So, a longer lasting treatment may be beneficial since you cannot see the progress. Stopping too early can and does lead to reinfection even when nothing new is being introduced to the tank (meaning, no new sources of ich are being added to the existing situation)
