The most effective way to rid your tank of ick... no meds required! - MyFishTank.Net Freshwater Saltwater Aquarium Fish Forum

druxcyck · 07-27-2003, 08:55 PM

First let me say that, my tank contracted a case of ICK, most likely from a Rainbow Shark we bought from PetsMart. Being a newbie at this I had nbo idea what ICK looked like or how to treat it, my sharks started dying one by one I had 8 total 5 rainbow 3 albino rainbow.

we took the dead fish along with a water sample back to PetsMart and trhey replaced the fish..several times, eventually it started spreading to my Silver Mollies...then my Sunset Platty's... we had bought an Elephant Nose from Petco and he died the very next day along with a fish from Petsmart... When we took the fish back to PetsMart and got our money back (At this point we were so frustrated that we were considering giving up the hobby, we had several fish die over the course of a week and a half)

We took the Elephant nose back to Petco and the lady there said he was infected with ICK... so we started treating the tank with Quick Cure... Kept treating and treating as directed until half of the bottle was gone...

at that point did a 90% water change carefully vacuumed all of the gravel Changed the filter cartidges, soaked ALL of our Tank decor in the bathtub in bleach water, threw away ALL of our live plants out everything back in and treated the tank again...and again...and again and the ICK remained... we tried Copper Safe the ICK remained we tried the Jungle Ick tank mate tablets used al of them still the ick lived.

Our fish had ICK so bad that one of our Sharks developed Pop-Eye from it0

FINALLY we talked to a person who doesn't use any chemicals in his tank. He said the best way to kill it was to raise the the temperature to 84 Degrees, Add some salt and lower the PH to a slightly acidic state I used 6.6.
Apparently Parasites can not live in water in this condition.

within 1 day the Shark no longer had Pop - Eye, the next day our fish were started scraping up against obects... up from just lying on the bottom. Now 2 1/2 days later our fish are acting normal again.

I think we have finally beaten the ICK. My Chinease Algea-eaters are kind of lethargic... but I'm expecting them to return to normal when I lower the temperature of the water below 79 which is more to their liking.

anyway I just thought I would share this experience and hopeflly save someone else a lot of headaches..dead fish and wasted money.

revfred · 07-27-2003, 09:08 PM

That's pretty interesting in this day of all of these "quick cures". That was the recommendation years ago when I first began with aquariums. It can't be beat as far as I am concerned. Yes, the fish will bounce back once you lower the temp. When I was sure the ich was gone, I did a water change.

credulus · 07-28-2003, 01:49 AM

Great advice going to give it a try. My tank is currently under attack from a massive ich outbreak. Going to raise the temp. I was also wondering what PH and Salinity should be for a SW tank? Thanks!
Credulus

catfishmike · 07-28-2003, 05:59 AM

well i hate to tell you some stuff but heres some things you may have not known.salt actualy raises the ph not lowers it.and yes a low ph will kill a great many things including your fish.ph fluctuations during a treatment are just as likely to kill as ick.ick has a very long cycle about 3 weeks for full treatment.i am wondering how long your tank has been running for?you have a pretty well stocked tank.yes high temps and salt do help to kill ick,and more often than not high temps and salt are just as effective as meds.

SoulFish · 07-28-2003, 07:42 AM

raising the temp and adding salt will cure almost all freshwater diseases, but i agree with mike on the things he pointed out

ArkyLady · 07-28-2003, 11:33 AM

There are some fish that aren't very tolerant to salt as well, so you have to be careful with it.

druxcyck · 07-28-2003, 09:58 PM

most of the fish that I have, actually like some salt in the water... I didn't have to lower the PH much anyway becuase I keep my tank at Neutral or pretty darn close 7.0 - 7.2 I lowered it to 6.6-6.8 over the course of 3 days.

So far it seems to have worked really well, my fish seem to be doing much much better. CatfishMike are you saying that using Meds you need 3 weeks for a full treatment? or the way I'm doing it now?

Well I had a pretty well stocked tank until tehe ick came through...
I do have a millenim 3000 on the tank which does 295 GPH and a Penguin 330 on the tank as wellso I think I have plenty of filtration.

My water levels have all been perfect for several weeks now, and the water is crystal clear. Another key thing for me will be the addition of more plants... I just upgraded my lighting to 150 watts up from 40, so my plants should have an easier time surviving now than before..

thanks for the opinions guys, I appreciate it. The guy I talked to has been doing aquariums for well over 20 years... seems to have a lot of knowledge

druxcyck · 07-28-2003, 10:02 PM

Also CatfishMike you are quite correct Salt WILL raise the PH, I re-read my post and I didn't make it clear that I used PH down to reduce the PH after adding the salt.

again thanks everyone!

catfishmike · 07-29-2003, 05:15 AM

no sweat,i do that a lot too,post stuff that i should be more clear on hehe

fishface · 08-04-2003, 02:59 PM

elephat nose fish are not for newbies.