FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Hi. I have gotten different advice from different people on whether or not to remove carbon while treating for ich. Do you think this is neccesary? I did not remove it because i have a dwarf gourami, and i hear these guys like "pristine" water. But, now (day 7 of treatment) the ich is prevailing. Also, is quick cure effective at killing ich. of course, it says so on the bottle. Maybe it has nothing to do with leaving the carbon in and i just used the wrong meds? Let me know what you think,please.
littletank

10 gallon
1 dwarf gourami
2 platies
3 zebra danios
2 neon tetras who will be dead any day now
(their buddies died last night)

nitrite .25
nitrAte 5
ammonia .25

also have some type of cilia problem going on

It is my understanding that you need to take out the carbon so that it does not absorb the medications out of the water. So yes, please take it out until you are done with treatment of your tank.

How long has your tank been up and running? If you have nitrites and amonia you either are still going through a cycle or you may have had too many fish for your size tank.


Last edited by ~jamie~ at 04-Feb-2005 18:22

Yes. Remove the Carbon as this will suck up your Meds and it would all be a waste of time.

Your Nitrite states .25 is that right? as it way too high.
It should not be over .3
Also your ammonia is .25, Again this should be 0.

Your fish are more likely dying of ammonia posioning and the ick is breaking out because they are stressed
http://tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/disease_profiles.php.

What is your temperture of the water? (Ick just loves stressed out cold fish)

Firstly: Do a water change of 70%
Secondly: Remove carbon.
Next: Add meds as per directions (1/2 dose for scaleless fish)
Then: Slowly rise the temperature. Ick will die in higher temps. But do this slowly. A big rise will hurt/kill your fish.

The meds will probably destroy any bio that your tank had cycled and it will probably go through another cycle.

After you are sure that the ick has been destroyed, then add the carbon to take out the meds.

My ammonia and nitrite are both at .25, which i know are supposed to be at 0. I think i might have too many fish, so i will be switching some into another tank after treatment. Won't all of the fish die if the tank has to go through another cycle. The first cycle was just awful. It killed three of my platys. The zebra danios made it through. I added Biospira a month into it. Otherwise i probably would have lost the zebra danios and my last platy as well. I really don't want to go through another cycle. Are there any meds that won't kill the good biobugs?
littletank

I am not sure if there is a med that doesn't harm the bio.
But your tank is not cycled now anyway. Not with the Ammonia .25 and the Nitrite .25 it has to be converted into Nitrate. And your Nitrate is only 5. It should be at least 10-15+ with those high levels of Ammonia and Nitrite.
Your tank is not converting.
But before I'd worry about your bio your fish might be dieing of Ammonia poisoning.
This is the first thing to get to. Get that Ammonia/Nitrite under control. Get the meds into them to get rid of the ick/parasites.
Its going to be tough as with meds in the water, you might get a faust reading when doing your water testing.
But unfortunately you have two problems.
1) Tank not cycling
2) Outbreak of Ick. (result probably from stressed weaken fish.) HTH Tiger