Ich - salt treatment - MyFishTank.Net Freshwater Saltwater Aquarium Fish Forum

Eli2Shockey · 09-29-2006, 10:30 PM

I've been reading on a few sites that you should add salt to treat ich. Would it be ok to use iodized salt or would that be harmful ?

(Ive been gone for a week and I came home to see they had white spots all over their tails (cichlids) )

Mahamotorworks · 09-29-2006, 10:33 PM

Check this thread out it has a lot of the info you are looking for.
Fish help... I think they have ich/ick.

MAHA

SANND · 10-04-2006, 08:28 PM

There are a couple of people here who swear by using salt (including reg table salt) for treating ich but I have to tell you I recently treated 3 seperate tanks, 5 gal and 2 30 gals. The 5 gal was a work friends and we used salt and heat...all inhabitants died including the plants.

Both of my 30 gals got ich (long story there...) and I was afraid to use salt or meds because of my catfish and snails so I decided to try heat only first to see if might work. I'm happy to report that it's been 2 weeks since the last spot disappeared and I didn't have a single loss.

Eli2Shockey · 10-04-2006, 08:34 PM

sandd, how long did it take for the spots to go away? Im glad it worked for you.

confusion · 10-08-2006, 09:11 PM

There's a few keys to using salt.

First, you need to use freshwater aquarium salt. I don't know it to be fact, but I'm guessing that the ancillarly chemicals like iodine in table salt in the high amounts needed can cause an unsafe condition.

Second, you have to build up the salt levels. I've had a lot of luck with 25% of the total concentration every 12 hours. It takes 2 days to get up to strength, and it can probably be done quicker, but I've never done wrong with going slowly.

Finally, the end concentration that I've had luck with is 2TBSP per 10G.

I do believe that high temps will kill most strains of ich. I had one a few months ago that was resistant up to 90F, and man, fish are on fast forward at that temp.

I have ich in my hospital tank now, and I'm trying to treat with only salt. We'll see if it works.

l_lds2006 · 10-10-2006, 10:14 PM

i have had lots of luck with treatment of salt i only use sea salt though as table salt ect have the additives in it that can be most harmful to your fish for ick i have done the whole concentration ( and yes my fish survived and i was praying that i didnt kill them by adding the full dose of 0.03% concentrate at once but i'm not saying that everyone should do it i was only willing to take that risk to save my fish) @ once and it has wiped out the ick completely but that was only because a whole break out of ick suddenly appeared in less then 24 hrs then i slowly started to raise the tank temp for best results to keep the salt in your tank for 2 wks until you see no more ick and also if you have gravel to vaccum it with the gravel vac as ick can live in the gravel and any water changes that you do to replace the salt you removed and i know all to much about ick reg meds for ick are harmful and so fourth but i find salt the best treatment for ick also make sure that you dilute the salt with tank water before adding it to the tank! I hope that this helps you with your ick prob

Eli2Shockey · 10-14-2006, 03:56 PM

well its been almost two weeks since I first posted this, and my fish still have the spots. However, none of them have lost or gained any more spots and act like they are healthy. I also noticed that one that was repeatdly brushing on the rocks has stopped. How long should I expect the spots to be there?

wilsonriverfish · 10-15-2006, 05:37 PM

I too just got rid of ich only using the heat treatment. I had another outbreak and was contemplating using salt but decided against it. I got the temperature up to 90 and left in there its been that way for 2 weeks and after only 2 days of higher temperatures the spots started to go away. I also went and bought a new air pump cause i heard its good to aerate the water with the higher temperatures.

CrayZeeSpit · 06-29-2009, 01:02 AM

We recently got the ick in our tank... i read up on in and decided that the salt treatment i found would be the cheapest and easiest. We have a 40 gal tank. We took 80 percent of the water out of the tank, then only filled the tank to 30 galons so the water falling from the filters would cause more surface agitation to add more oxygen to the water instead of soley relying on the air pump to provide oxygen. Then over the course of two days raised the temp to 92 degrees and added 1 tbsp of aquarium salt per galon. Reduction of the ick was apparent before we finished adding salt and raiseing the temp. On the third day we turned off the light on the tank for 2 days. When we turned it back on the ick was not visible. We kept the risen temp and salt state of the water for an additional three days then did almost a complete water change and cleaned the rocks with a syphon. Over the 3 days after the water change we reduced the heat gradually back down to 80 and we have been ick free ever since.

PS.
we cleaned the filters thuroughly everday and two of our apple snails out of 5 didnt survive. We have Multiple cichlilds, an oscar, two upsidedown catfish, a blue dragon gobi and two plecos

Monoxide · 06-29-2009, 01:35 PM

IMO some my fish couldn't handle the salt in the tank so I didn't do it. But Id suggest using heat to get rid of em. You turn up the heat a little at time.. So you dont go from 68 -90 something in few hours.. and scared your fish and kill em. So do it over some more time.

09-29-2006, 10:30 PM	#1 (permalink)
Eli2Shockey Teenie Weenie Fish Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 57	Ich - salt treatment I've been reading on a few sites that you should add salt to treat ich. Would it be ok to use iodized salt or would that be harmful ? (Ive been gone for a week and I came home to see they had white spots all over their tails (cichlids) ) __________________ 55g cichlid tank 10g community I don't have much to contribute, I'm here to learn.

09-29-2006, 10:33 PM	#2 (permalink)
Mahamotorworks Super Fish Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Florida Posts: 1,721	Check this thread out it has a lot of the info you are looking for. Fish help... I think they have ich/ick. MAHA __________________ 75G Freshwater: 5 Angel Fish, 6 Black Neon Tetra's. Moved to my brothers house. www.myspace.com/mahamotorworks

10-04-2006, 08:28 PM	#3 (permalink)
SANND Large Fish Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Washington, DC Posts: 624	There are a couple of people here who swear by using salt (including reg table salt) for treating ich but I have to tell you I recently treated 3 seperate tanks, 5 gal and 2 30 gals. The 5 gal was a work friends and we used salt and heat...all inhabitants died including the plants. Both of my 30 gals got ich (long story there...) and I was afraid to use salt or meds because of my catfish and snails so I decided to try heat only first to see if might work. I'm happy to report that it's been 2 weeks since the last spot disappeared and I didn't have a single loss. __________________ with photoshop you really don't need to actually paint your cat...

10-04-2006, 08:34 PM	#4 (permalink)
Eli2Shockey Teenie Weenie Fish Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 57	sandd, how long did it take for the spots to go away? Im glad it worked for you. __________________ 55g cichlid tank 10g community I don't have much to contribute, I'm here to learn.

10-08-2006, 09:11 PM	#5 (permalink)
confusion Teenie Weenie Fish Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 58	There's a few keys to using salt. First, you need to use freshwater aquarium salt. I don't know it to be fact, but I'm guessing that the ancillarly chemicals like iodine in table salt in the high amounts needed can cause an unsafe condition. Second, you have to build up the salt levels. I've had a lot of luck with 25% of the total concentration every 12 hours. It takes 2 days to get up to strength, and it can probably be done quicker, but I've never done wrong with going slowly. Finally, the end concentration that I've had luck with is 2TBSP per 10G. I do believe that high temps will kill most strains of ich. I had one a few months ago that was resistant up to 90F, and man, fish are on fast forward at that temp. I have ich in my hospital tank now, and I'm trying to treat with only salt. We'll see if it works. __________________ My Tropical Fish Store Map My aquarium and pond pictures

10-10-2006, 10:14 PM	#6 (permalink)
l_lds2006 Teenie Weenie Fish Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 1	i have had lots of luck with treatment of salt i only use sea salt though as table salt ect have the additives in it that can be most harmful to your fish for ick i have done the whole concentration ( and yes my fish survived and i was praying that i didnt kill them by adding the full dose of 0.03% concentrate at once but i'm not saying that everyone should do it i was only willing to take that risk to save my fish) @ once and it has wiped out the ick completely but that was only because a whole break out of ick suddenly appeared in less then 24 hrs then i slowly started to raise the tank temp for best results to keep the salt in your tank for 2 wks until you see no more ick and also if you have gravel to vaccum it with the gravel vac as ick can live in the gravel and any water changes that you do to replace the salt you removed and i know all to much about ick reg meds for ick are harmful and so fourth but i find salt the best treatment for ick also make sure that you dilute the salt with tank water before adding it to the tank! I hope that this helps you with your ick prob

10-14-2006, 03:56 PM	#7 (permalink)
Eli2Shockey Teenie Weenie Fish Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 57	well its been almost two weeks since I first posted this, and my fish still have the spots. However, none of them have lost or gained any more spots and act like they are healthy. I also noticed that one that was repeatdly brushing on the rocks has stopped. How long should I expect the spots to be there? __________________ 55g cichlid tank 10g community I don't have much to contribute, I'm here to learn.

10-15-2006, 05:37 PM	#8 (permalink)
wilsonriverfish Little Fish Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: The Great Northwest Portland Oregon Posts: 270	I too just got rid of ich only using the heat treatment. I had another outbreak and was contemplating using salt but decided against it. I got the temperature up to 90 and left in there its been that way for 2 weeks and after only 2 days of higher temperatures the spots started to go away. I also went and bought a new air pump cause i heard its good to aerate the water with the higher temperatures.

06-29-2009, 01:02 AM	#9 (permalink)
CrayZeeSpit Teenie Weenie Fish Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 2	We recently got the ick in our tank... i read up on in and decided that the salt treatment i found would be the cheapest and easiest. We have a 40 gal tank. We took 80 percent of the water out of the tank, then only filled the tank to 30 galons so the water falling from the filters would cause more surface agitation to add more oxygen to the water instead of soley relying on the air pump to provide oxygen. Then over the course of two days raised the temp to 92 degrees and added 1 tbsp of aquarium salt per galon. Reduction of the ick was apparent before we finished adding salt and raiseing the temp. On the third day we turned off the light on the tank for 2 days. When we turned it back on the ick was not visible. We kept the risen temp and salt state of the water for an additional three days then did almost a complete water change and cleaned the rocks with a syphon. Over the 3 days after the water change we reduced the heat gradually back down to 80 and we have been ick free ever since. PS. we cleaned the filters thuroughly everday and two of our apple snails out of 5 didnt survive. We have Multiple cichlilds, an oscar, two upsidedown catfish, a blue dragon gobi and two plecos

06-29-2009, 01:35 PM	#10 (permalink)
Monoxide Little Fish Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 177	IMO some my fish couldn't handle the salt in the tank so I didn't do it. But Id suggest using heat to get rid of em. You turn up the heat a little at time.. So you dont go from 68 -90 something in few hours.. and scared your fish and kill em. So do it over some more time.