# Ich help, going on 4+ weeks ...



## Dezimir (Nov 2, 2014)

Hey all,

Firstly, my water parameters are ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate <20ppm. My ph is 8.4. 0 chlorine.
I normally keep my water temperature at 78 degrees.

125 gallons mixture of hap and peacocks. 
bi-weekly water changes of about 50%
Custom-made wet dry filter/sump and fluval fx-6

story time,

so about 4 weeks ago I noticed 2 white spots on my taiwan reef hap and immediately i did a 25% water and started to turn up the temperature to 84 degrees.
I also ended up adding about 5 cups of aquarium salt into the tank over the span of that week. Spots fell off, kept heat at 84 and salt in the aquarium though I did do a 25% water change to lessen the salt amount.
Fish all seemed fin no stress or gasping, handled it all like champs.
Few days later, venustus has a big fat white ich cyst on his pectoral fin.. i'm like cool.. more ich
So I jacked up the temperature to 89 degrees and put in more salt...
waited 5 days with temperatures at 89 degrees, the spot falls off the venustus so I then lowered it to 86 degrees for about 5 more days. I did a 2x water changes over 5 days to lower the salt content back down.

2 days later there is another spot on the venustus again..

I go to the LFS and pick up some Quick cure (malachite green/formalin) and i started to dose that.
I did the instructions on the container 3 days daily doses of 1 1/2 teaspoons and then 25% water change. Repeat as needed.

I'm now on my 4th round of dosing day 1. The spot on the venustus fell off the day prior so I was going to just treat another 3 days and be done. Then today i see 2 spots on my taiwan reef's caudal fin again...
During the med treatment I've had the temperature at 86 degrees and have been putting in 1 cup of salt every 3 days with the 25% water changes in between doses.

Honestly, i'm feeling like I can't beat this disease. I've read about it a lot and its life cycle. In between the dosing of quick cure doing the water changes i'm vaccuming the sand and keeping the temp jacked up to 86 degrees this whole time...

I have read people saying that salt cures ich, I feel like that isn't the case in this instance or It would have been irradicated a while ago.
I have read people saying that heat cures ich, I had my tank temperature at 89 degrees for 5 days at least and above 86 degrees for a at least 4 weeks straight.
I have been treating Quick cure and I feel like it should be renamed "doesn't cure at all"

I just ordered seachem's Paraguard and am going to try that after this round of Quick Cure is over.

My fish seem healthy, they eat, they haven't been scratching/flashing/yawning, the only thing is these little spots. I've seen ich a few times before and only once that I had it was it really bad on a gourami in a tank I had my brother tanking care of while i was on vacation and he didn't think to mention it while i was gone that the fish was covered in white spots.

I've beaten this disease in the past with medication but this tank I just can't seem to cure PLEASE HELP ME!!!!


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## smitty814 (Sep 27, 2012)

I have beaten ick by turning up the heat (89*) only, for 10-14 days. I have been told that you treat with heat or meds. Never both at once. Good luck


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## Dezimir (Nov 2, 2014)

I guess my question for the heat or meds not both is what is the thought process behind that? If lets say for example that my fish can handle 89 degree water with no visible signs of stress and medication at the same time is there another reason I shouldn't turn up the heat? Does the heat denature the medication or reduce its effectiveness.

My thoughts were that ich's life cycle is sped up by increasing the heat. That way any cysts fall off faster and are able to be treated by the medication. I've also heard that ich is unable to reproduce at temps greater than 86 degrees and 89 degrees out right kills ich.

Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.


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## smitty814 (Sep 27, 2012)

Most "ich" meds reduce oxygen in the water column. Higher heat also reduces oxygen. This is why you shouldn't do both treatments at once. Rather one or the other. Yes, heat speeds up the life cycle and I have read articles on the use of MODERATE heat, but not at the temps needed to kill the swimming parasite.


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## qvtran0102 (Nov 29, 2014)

my is worst than you right now too, all my fish be dying , couldn't beat this desease, need some help from Exp people


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## wortel87 (Apr 15, 2014)

Are you sure its ich? And are you sure you temperature meter is really acurate?

Ich shouldnt be that hard to cure. Maybe you have a really resistand strain

You could also look into potassium permanganate or chloramid-t. These are disinfectants. So no resistance is possible. But do your research or you have a verry real chance of losing fish.


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## Dezimir (Nov 2, 2014)

I have two separate temp gauges indicating 86 degrees right now. The LFS that I bought the fish from use quick cure willy nilly for every fish that comes into that place. I bought these portioned out quick cures that the made because i guess they were saying it has been discontinued. So, in hindsight I don't think this batch of quick cure is very fresh and is probably not working like it should on top of the fact that they use it so much there that who knows what mutant strain of Ich they created. I'm switching to Paraguard now and will report back. Thanks for the info on disinfectants. I will definitely be looking into those if this doesn't work. I'm gonna just continue treating with paraguard for a month or so and hopefully the ich will be wiped out.


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## wortel87 (Apr 15, 2014)

i wouldnt treat my fish for a full month. i would switch to permanganate or chloramid-t allout quicker.

they are perfectly safe as long as you follow the directions perfectly.


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## Dezimir (Nov 2, 2014)

I tried to research it a little bit but to short cut this process where can I find these disinfectants?


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## wortel87 (Apr 15, 2014)

I dont know where to get them in your country. But you can look into koi fish treatments.

Make sure you find directions for aquarium use.


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## Dezimir (Nov 2, 2014)

thanks for the info, appreciate all the help. Gonna look into the permanganate at my LFS. Thanks again.


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