Hey all,
I'm pretty new to this hobby and I've made some bad rookie mistakes, and now I'm in need of advice from some of you wise veterans.
I've got a 65 gallon tank (36x24x18 inches) that is stocked at about 90% with platies, mollies, and swordtails, a few fry, 9 cories, 2 plecos, and a female betta.
I've had this tank up and running for almost 2 months. I started adding fish without knowledge of the nitrogen cycle, but with some help from the guys at the local shop, I was able to get some dirty filter media in my tank to jump start the cycle. However, once I had the tank totally cycled and ready to add more fish, I replaced some filter media and some tank decorations and started another mini cycle. I also added more fish. I ALSO had a pH crash, which I haven't found the reason for. (It fell from 7.4-7.6 to 6.6 for about 3 days, and now has returned to 7.4-7.6 -- I am blaming API water conditioner?). Anyway my tank had some brief stability issues.
So my tank came down with ich two weeks ago (I noticed the first white spots on Wednesday, Feb 1st). I did some internet sleuthing, and decided to try heat treatment before adding salt. I slowly increased temperature to 87 degrees. I continued to see spots four days into treatment. Over the course of a full day, I raised the temperature to 92 degrees, and I kept it there for 3 days. As of Saturday Feb 11, I continued seeing spots appear (2 or 3 in total at that time). I then began adding salt, and slowly lowered the temperature back down to 86. I filled a Nalgene with tank water and shook 1 tablespoon of salt every 12 hours (or so) and now have salinity of approximately 1 tablespoon for 5 gallons. As of today, 15 days later, I still have at least 1 ich spot in the tank.
I've done daily water changes of anywhere from 20-50%, including sporadic gravel vacuuming, for two reasons. One, to remove ich trophonts. Two, to remove nitrites, which are still consistently hovering around 5ppm (Ammonia is at 0). Note that I've compensated for any salt removed through water changes.
Now to my questions. I have two of them.
1) What do I need to do at this point to get rid of the ich? From what I've read, this is taking longer than usual. I should be clear of spots at this point, shouldn't I? What have I done wrong? 1a) Do I need to use chemicals?? I'd really like to avoid it, but if it needs to be done, so be it.
2) Should I be vacuuming my gravel right now? I've read some conflicting opinions on this issue. One camp says the beneficial bacteria need to build up in the gravel during this kind of mini-cycle, and the other says that all fish waste needs to be removed. Ideally I'd like to get my water parameters in check as quickly as possible, but is my vacuuming doing more harm than good?
I'm pretty new to this hobby and I've made some bad rookie mistakes, and now I'm in need of advice from some of you wise veterans.
I've got a 65 gallon tank (36x24x18 inches) that is stocked at about 90% with platies, mollies, and swordtails, a few fry, 9 cories, 2 plecos, and a female betta.
I've had this tank up and running for almost 2 months. I started adding fish without knowledge of the nitrogen cycle, but with some help from the guys at the local shop, I was able to get some dirty filter media in my tank to jump start the cycle. However, once I had the tank totally cycled and ready to add more fish, I replaced some filter media and some tank decorations and started another mini cycle. I also added more fish. I ALSO had a pH crash, which I haven't found the reason for. (It fell from 7.4-7.6 to 6.6 for about 3 days, and now has returned to 7.4-7.6 -- I am blaming API water conditioner?). Anyway my tank had some brief stability issues.
So my tank came down with ich two weeks ago (I noticed the first white spots on Wednesday, Feb 1st). I did some internet sleuthing, and decided to try heat treatment before adding salt. I slowly increased temperature to 87 degrees. I continued to see spots four days into treatment. Over the course of a full day, I raised the temperature to 92 degrees, and I kept it there for 3 days. As of Saturday Feb 11, I continued seeing spots appear (2 or 3 in total at that time). I then began adding salt, and slowly lowered the temperature back down to 86. I filled a Nalgene with tank water and shook 1 tablespoon of salt every 12 hours (or so) and now have salinity of approximately 1 tablespoon for 5 gallons. As of today, 15 days later, I still have at least 1 ich spot in the tank.
I've done daily water changes of anywhere from 20-50%, including sporadic gravel vacuuming, for two reasons. One, to remove ich trophonts. Two, to remove nitrites, which are still consistently hovering around 5ppm (Ammonia is at 0). Note that I've compensated for any salt removed through water changes.
Now to my questions. I have two of them.
1) What do I need to do at this point to get rid of the ich? From what I've read, this is taking longer than usual. I should be clear of spots at this point, shouldn't I? What have I done wrong? 1a) Do I need to use chemicals?? I'd really like to avoid it, but if it needs to be done, so be it.
2) Should I be vacuuming my gravel right now? I've read some conflicting opinions on this issue. One camp says the beneficial bacteria need to build up in the gravel during this kind of mini-cycle, and the other says that all fish waste needs to be removed. Ideally I'd like to get my water parameters in check as quickly as possible, but is my vacuuming doing more harm than good?