Ich Going on 3 weeks ?!?!

MelKurtonic

The tank is at 75 treating with QuICK cure thinking about adding aquarium salt at this point parameters amonia is spiking at 1ppm nitrates and nitrites at zero ppm hardness is at 30 biological filter showing signs of bacterial damage from the meds.... doing water changes 1 -2 times daily... monitoring tank extremely closely woke up this morning found a new white spot on one of my Goldfish... I don't know what happened the tank is still being treated and I thought the problem was under control (the white spots were leaving and haven't seen any new ones for days) now BOOM white spot appears out of NOWHERE!!! am I doing something wrong? I don't want the water any warmer because they're Goldfish.

Pufferfish22

I'd go ahead and add the aquarium salt. I queried whether my brackish puffers could get Ich and was told no because of the salt in the water. I keep my guppies in salted water for this very reason. Looking at the packet of aquarium salt infront of me it says for a PH Buffer and a tonic add 1 teaspoon per gallon (0.1% concentration) and as a supportive/treatment level, add 3 tablespoons per gallon (0.9%) but do this gradually over 3-7 days to avoid shocking the fish. If you decide to add the salt, do a water change and add the salt to the new conditioned water in the bucket because if you add it directly to the tank you'll burn the fish inside and out when it dissolves. Good luck and hope you get it sorted x

MelKurtonic

I went ahead and added 1 1/2 teaspoons and I'm going to gradually add more throughout the day to get up to 2 tsp per gallon and see how well it works... I don't want to shock them and I figured 2 tsp/gallon is enough with meds? or should I go ahead with the 5 tsp/gallon?

Pufferfish22

TBH I'm not sure. I do know however that if I have to treat my puffers for anything I don't have to reduce the salt concentration in their water so I'm presuming it's the same for aquarium salt too and that it won't affect the meds.

MelKurtonic

the tank is up to 3 1/2 tsp of aquarium salt now I'm not going to do a water change tonight and just add the meds and see if that will help a little....

Lupin

WAIT! Did you add salt and Quick Cure together??? You should NOT! QC is formalin-based and formalin and salt are a LETHAL combo. Get your carbon in the tank and get rid of the QC first with plenty of water changes before you proceed to salt!

As with all Goldfish, I prefer to keep the temperature max at 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Please do so to heighten the life cycle rate of ich. And dose a teaspoon per gallon of salt. In the next 12 hours, add the second set. In another 12 hours, add the third and last set. That should total three teaspoons per gallon. Goldfish will tolerate only 0.4 or four teaspoons per gallon max. Do NOT exceed the dosage anymore before you find yourself in trouble. Goldfish tend to get irritated with too much salt. You can see that when they start flicking madly and suffering lock jaw.

Be sure your water is well aerated as both salt and high temp can reduce the oxygen levels. Do NOT forget to dissolve the salt before you add it to the tank as a precaution.

When you do your water changes daily while vacuuming the bottom to remove the ich cysts, be sure to redose the salt per water volume changed. Aquarium salt, table salt, rock salt and pickling salt work. The only additive to watch out for is yellow prussiate of soda. Avoid salts containing that. Make sure your salt is also sodium chloride.

MelKurtonic

well... after I read this I did a 75% water change and just left it without medicating for the night because I don't want to traumatize them anymore what I thought was a white spot was actually a scale falling off and the reflection it gave off from the light made it look white so the ich is still under control... fish are slightly traumatized so I gave them a few flakes (very very tiny amount) to help perk them up and it worked I'm going to wait a day or two and do a 100% water change after they've calmed down and clean out the tank, put the carbon in let it run for 24 hours then start a salt treatment for the remaining few spots on the one's tail...

MelKurtonic

luckily it didn't come to the twitching or the lock jaw but I didn't put that much salt in because I was reluctant to and it was before I added any quick cure so I think I dodged a bullet so far... I hope