Loaches Online Forum

Hello everyone, hope this finds each of you and your fishy friends doing well. I have a couple of questions. First of all I have been dealing with ick in one of my tanks and have been using ick guard II in full strength for close to 3 weeks. Thanks to Emma I caught the ick really early and it has never gotten bad but they are still flashing a little, what would you guys suggest to switch to?

Also, out of I had to medicate another tank and whiped out my biofilter so I am going to have to re-cycle. I was wondering if anyone had used prime to aid in amonia removal and if so what dose per gallon is appropriate.

Thanks,
Kris

LUVaLOACH wrote:Hello everyone, hope this finds each of you and your fishy friends doing well. I have a couple of questions. First of all I have been dealing with ick in one of my tanks and have been using ick guard II in full strength for close to 3 weeks. Thanks to Emma I caught the ick really early and it has never gotten bad but they are still flashing a little, what would you guys suggest to switch to?

As previously said, you should have been using the full-strength Ich Guard at half dose, or other med. IG II is very weak.

Check the components of Ich Guard II. With a 3-week exposure to a drug, ich organisms may have developed higher tolerance to it.
Choose a med that has different components. I do not know what is in IGII, it may be quite different from IG. You may need to dose higher than 1/2-dose now, since most Ich drugs share Mal.Green.

If you can afford it and if this tank has a solid cycle, install a UV now, this will help a lot (you still need to medicate, even with UV).

Also, out of I had to medicate another tank and whiped out my biofilter so I am going to have to re-cycle. I was wondering if anyone had used prime to aid in amonia removal and if so what dose per gallon is appropriate.

Thanks,
Kris

I did, it works but a little complicated.

Prime does not remove ammonia (toxic), it converts it to ammonium (safe). Ditto for most other products. The dosing is specified on the prime label, here:
http://www.seachem.com/products/product ... Prime.html
as well as on the bottle.
However, the precise amount required depends on the pH.
Your ammonia kit will likely give false readings (API, the most common kit, does), you may want to get one that tests for "toxic ammonia" and experiment.

For best results, bring the pH down (slowly!), and feed very little until the cycle rebuilds.

This can be done without fish losses, even with very sensitive fish.

do they still use malachite green?

I hear it's pretty nasty stuff and can cause cancer.

Check the components of Ich Guard II. With a 3-week exposure to a drug, ich organisms may have developed higher tolerance to it.
Choose a med that has different components. I do not know what is in IGII, it may be quite different from IG. You may need to dose higher than 1/2-dose now, since most Ich drugs share Mal.Green.

If you can afford it and if this tank has a solid cycle, install a UV now, this will help a lot (you still need to medicate, even with UV).

Also, out of I had to medicate another tank and whiped out my biofilter so I am going to have to re-cycle. I was wondering if anyone had used prime to aid in amonia removal and if so what dose per gallon is appropriate.

Thanks,
Kris

I did, it works but a little complicated.

Prime does not remove ammonia (toxic), it converts it to ammonium (safe). Ditto for most other products. The dosing is specified on the prime label, here:
http://www.seachem.com/products/product ... Prime.html
as well as on the bottle.
However, the precise amount required depends on the pH.
Your ammonia kit will likely give false readings (API, the most common kit, does), you may want to get one that tests for "toxic ammonia" and experiment.

For best results, bring the pH down (slowly!), and feed very little until the cycle rebuilds.

This can be done without fish losses, even with very sensitive fish.

May I ask what UV is?

May I ask what UV is?

i think he means a UV sterilizer (ultra-violet).
It kills single cell organisms... and algae.

it's around $50 - $100.

I don't think it's worth it. But it might be handy once in a while if you can afford it.

Hi Kris,

Yep, UV is an ultraviolet sterilizer. Some people swear by them, others use them now and then, others don't like them at all. Depends on who you talk to, I guess.

If the Ick Guard II isn't working, you do need to consider an alternate medication at this point. There have been numerous cases of medication resistant strains of ich around the 'net.

Here's a page with some other options.

...oh, and I fixed your quote...

I used super ich cure. It worked the first time I tried it in two days. The second time it took 4 days but it worked well. Hopefully you have this brand in your area. I did half doses.

I have used coppersafe with great results.
And it is so easy!

Yes, UV is ultra-violet.

Regardless of the issue of UV's being generally useful, UV's do some things rather well, this includes the reduction in the amount of Ich parasite.

Coppersafe may not be a bad idea. I'd normally stay away from Copper, but you want a different med, and Copper is different. By the same reasons, Salt and Temperature methods should be considered when dealing with possibly resistant pathogens.