Confused With Instructions On Treating Ick.

[Guest rmatalas]

As I was inspecting one of my goldies today, I noticed some white sports all over her fins. I researched it right away and found out she has Ick. I went through some posts here about Ick but I am very confused with the directions given. I have already taken the diseased goldie out and away from my other goldie which is perfectly fine and has no signs of Ick.

So far all I know is that I am suppose to add 25 teaspoons of salt to my 10 gallon tank. Do I do this while my fish are both in there, and all at once? Am I suppose to use pickling salt for this?

You all have been wonderful to me and helping me with my fish, so I know someone will help me out again! Thank you guys!

[kortniee]

Salt! I can do salt! (I'm kind new to this fish thing... so I get excited when there's something I know.)

You need to use a salt that doesn't have any additives. There's aquarium salt, and rock salt, and kosher salt... not sure about the pickling salt but you should be able to read the ingredients, I think.

If you have a salt with big grains, like aquarium salt (has grains kinda like fish gravel), you need 1 teaspoon per gallon of water for each .1% salt level. Ich is normally treated with .3% salt.

You need to add the salt slowly, though, so you don't shock the poor swimmers. So I would dissolve 10 teaspoons in a bit (well, enough so it all dissolves) of tank water, and pour that in. Then do the same two more times, in intervals of at least 12 hours.

When you take water out, you need to figure out how much salt you took out, so you can replace it. However, don't replace salt in water if you're just refilling from evaporation, because salt doesn't evaporate with the water.

Keep the salt in for at least 3 weeks. Then you can start taking it out using water changes.

Just ask if I'm confusing you.

[Guest rmatalas]

Thank you that was helpful! So I should put my diseased fish back in with my other fish?? I checked the pickling salt and it says "Plain salt- nothing added" So I'm assuming no additives?

[kortniee]

I think the pickling salt would be fine. Ich is one of those things that can infect the whole tank, and salt is a really safe thing to add, as far as tank additives go, so personally I'd just go ahead and treat the whole tank, to make sure none of the other kids have it. Good luck!

Edit: The following statement is actually responding to the post below, but I didn't want to use a whole post for it.

You're welcome!

[Guest rmatalas]

Thank you so much for your help!

[Guest rmatalas]

One last silly question, am I suppose to not do water changes to the tank for the 3 weeks the salt is it in? and if i have to, how am I to know how much salt to put back in the .3%?

[fondoo]

this is what i do..

keep this in mind.. 1 TABLEspoon per gallon. so if you have a 20gal tank, you need 20

TABLEspoons of salt. break those 20 TABLEspoons into 3 parts.

i have a 5gal bucket for water change. i pour 5 TABLEspoon into the bucket.

[Fire_Wolf]

Fondoo, the reason the dosage is broken down into three treatments to bring it to the 0.3% is so it does not shock the fish or the filters.

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rmatalas,

If possible with ich, you should raise the heat to 79* to help speed the little critters in there cycle. Vaccum the tank bottom daily to syphon off any cysts that have fallen before they can divide and become free swimming tomites, which is the only stage they are vulnerable in.

Any salt is fine as long as it has no additive/binders or YPS, should read as 99.5% pure or better.

[kortniee]

Just watch how much water you take out. If you take out, say, 3 gallons, then you put back 9 teaspoons--3 teaspoons for every gallon.