I think I have ich, what do I do?

[Shaunna]

10-15% is ok every 3 days? I thought you were supposed to do 25% every week that is why I started doing it every other since I was taking out less, but I see your piont. I will do about every 4 how does that sound.

No, my red-tail was the first to die from the disaster. I never noticed anything differently anout him at all. Me and my sister-in-law were looking at him earlier that day and he was just as busy as ever going around sucking on things. Then about 3 hours later, give or take, I glanced over at my tank and he was wrapped around my filter intake. That really sucjed, too. He was a real neat little guy. If I ever figure out what my direction is with this tank I might get another one. That is the one fish that I can say wasn't a bad one from Wal-Mart. He was in a real nice tank that was planted and decorated and had a background and gravel and everything! Of course he was in there with red-belly Pacus and clown loaches but none of them were all that large at the moment. It was a real nice tank actually. NEWay, no we don't have him.

 

[Seleya]

By filter media I mean any sponges, floss, anything like that. Leave your wheel alone. If you have a carbon sack, you can certainly slosh that around in the old tank water.

 

[FroggyFox]

10-15% is ok every 3 days? I thought you were supposed to do 25% every week that is why I started doing it every other since I was taking out less, but I see your piont. I will do about every 4 how does that sound.

Because your main tank is still cycling you're going to want to be doing more changes than an established tank. An established tank I hear #'s anywhere between 25-45% a week should be changed...personally I think most people do what they can fit into their schedules...or what a specific tank needs. For instance I do 2 gallons a week from my saltwater tank because if I dont things could go bad pretty quick. My other tanks are usually 45% or so every week or two, depending on my schedule.

At any rate, allowing the bacteria to grow doesn't have much to do with how much water you change since the bacteria isn't free floating in the water, its attached to the things in your tank. Rinsing your filter/sponge/wheel etc or anything else in your tank could be holding back bacteria growth. The only way that changing water while your tank is cycling would hold any bacteria growth down is because that bacteria needs the ammonia and nitrites in the water to consume...and when you do a water change your taking some of those out. Of course the reason youre taking it out is to make sure those levels dont get to a lethal dosage for your fish, and you're not taking it all out...so its a moot point.

Right now if I were you I'd stick with your current water change schedule...and then when the tank is cycled (no ammonia, no nitrites) then you can revert your schedule to the weekly changes.

You're doin great...just imagine how nice it'll be once you get over this first hump and have a nice peaceful tank.

 

[TitanWarrior]

Yea, true there not free floating. But wouldnt doing that many W/C be taking food out of the water? For the bacteria

 

[FroggyFox]

Right.... Like I said "The only way that changing water while your tank is cycling would hold any bacteria growth down is because that bacteria needs the ammonia and nitrites in the water to consume...and when you do a water change your taking some of those out. Of course the reason youre taking it out is to make sure those levels dont get to a lethal dosage for your fish, and you're not taking it all out...so its a moot point."

This is why fish-in cycles take so much longer than a fishless cycle. During a fishless cycle you could allow those levels of ammonia and nitrite to peak naturallyl as high as they wanted to, but when you have fish in there you have to worry about ammonia and nitrite poisoning.