FishProfiles.com Message Forums

a day or so i noticed that my tiger barbs have gotten a bit of ich, only on their tails. it's not too bad at this point, between 1 and 3 spots per fish. this is the catch; my tank hasnt cycled yet so im not sure how that's going to affect the medication process. the directions on the medicine said to remove the carbon from my filter, but i have no where to put it, first of all, and second of all, wouldnt that kill the small amount of good bacteria that have started to grow on the filter cartridge?

im sorry if this is a redundant topic, but im still kinda confused as to what i should do. im still working on getting my tank to start cycling (ammonia hasnt spiked yet) and this is the last thing i need... any help would be appreciated - thanks!

---

Back in the saddle!

..."the medicine said to remove the carbon from my filter, but i have no where to put it,"...

You lost me on that one.

No where to put the carbon??

The ich parasite is a common visitor while cycling a tank usually because the fish are under stress from the procedure and susceptible to attack.

If you'll purchase the "New Improved Cycle", a bacteria starter, and dose accordingly while medicating, your problems should be resolved.

--garyroland.

[span class="edited"][Edited by garyroland 2004-07-10 16:48][/span]

my apologies

it says to remove the carbon from the filter. if im reading it correctly, i took it to mean the pieces inside the filter cartridge, which i dont know how to remove short of ripping off the piece of filter covering that houses them.(i have an emperor 330, to clarify) and by "nowhere to put it" i didnt mean literally, i meant a place to put it to keep the filter "alive." im sorry if my understanding is still limited, i am a newbie afterall

and as for adding "Cycle" to the tank: adding that would allow the proper amount of bacteria to grow to consume the available ammonia, correct? what's to prevent a mini-cycle once i begin to add other fish and the ammonia level increases again?

thanks once again

---

Back in the saddle!

As far as I'm concerned, removing the filter cartridge that has its carbon sandwiched in is a non issue.

Forget it. I don't care what the med says.

There's not enough carbon in that filter cartridge to completely render the med useless.

Dose the New Improved Cycle, which is activated almost immediately to produce nitrifying bacteria that will gobble up ammonia like there's no tomorrow.

This relatively new product allows hobbyists to add new fish immediately at startup of a new tank.

Stick around. It's always nice to have new hobbyists on this Site.

--garyroland.

Yeah, a Marineland idea to put the carbon in their rite-size filter cartridge for their bio-wheels. The problem is you can't find a cartridge in the store without the carbon in it. Great idea! Must be an idea to get people to buy a new cartridge more often since the carbon needs to be changes about once a month.

I slice the top of the filter and dump as much of it as I can out.

ok, let me add this then:

this is sort of off topic fromt he ich question, but when i first bought the barbs, i added a dose of "Cycle" to the tank, but i didnt add any more after the first week (it was quite a small bottle and it only had enough for one dose in a 46 gallon tank.) does it stand to reason, then, that that's why i havent hit an ammonia spike, and that i wont have that large of a spike? what about the other N's, how will they be affected?

im sorry to ask so many q's, gary, thanks.

---

Back in the saddle!

Also, raise your water temperature to about 80-82 deg F. (27-28 C.) --- this in itself tends to kill the orgranism. And, from my own experience, I'd use Rid-Ich; that medicine has never let me down. Nor would I worry about it killing your beneficial bacteria, which it doesn't seem to do.

You'll have to show us your test results...

--garyroland.