Betta and Super Ick Cure

[supercarrot3]

Hi,

I'm a little new to this. I recently cycled a ten gallon Betta tank, (0ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrites, 10-15 ppm Nitrates) after a water change, I added some Neon Tetras to it.

Well, all the tetras got stressed and developed Ich. After I noticed it, I immediately bought some Super Ick Cure by API, added per the instructions, and gradually raised the temp to about 84 over the course of two or three days. I even added an airstone to oxygenate the water.
All the tetras died two days later. I'm left with the Betta who now has Ich as well.

I did a couple water changes, continued the medication, and raised the temp to about 86F. I am now 5 days in with no improvement to the Betta.

Am I ok to keep on doing what I am? (Meds, water changes, 86F) or should I switch to another method? Am I being crazy and/or too impatient?

I am hesitant to add aquarium salt to the tank as I have plants.

Any or all help would be appreciated.

 

[mark4785]

Normally after cycling an aquarium you would test the water for 5 consecutive days after your first negative ammonia and nitrite reading just to ensure you have a consistent negative reading. It sounds like the whitespot and an elevated ammonia/nitrite reading probably killed them. Can you repeat the ammonia and nitrite test and post the results?

I would recommend you treat the tank with Waterlife Protozin which contains formaldehyde, malachite green and copper sulfate to kill the white spot. The API product you are using just contains malachite green which is probably not enough to deal with the issue.

If you think there might be ammonia or nitrite present, or can verify this, you should deal with that with a 100% water change before treating.

 

[ThatFishGirl6231]

Do the filter cartridges you have, have little black balls in them? If so, cute then cartridge and take out those little beads. They make the ich treatment not work. That might be your problem. Other than that, you seem to be taking care of it well for a beginner lol. Welcome to the forum and good luck with your betta. I too had a school of neons die a while back from ich. It sucks.

 

[Colin_T]

If you post pictures of the fish we can confirm that it's white spot.

The neons didn't get white spot from stress. They had it at the shop and it was introduced into your tank on the fish or in the water they came in.

You don't use heat and chemicals to treat white spot because the combination of hot water and toxic chemicals usually kills the fish. If you overdose with medication you also kill the fish.

The safest way to treat white spot is with heat. You raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks, or at least 1 week after all the white spots have gone from the fish.

Before you raise the temperature, do a 80-90% water change, gravel clean the substrate, and clean the filter. This gets rid of most of the parasites and buys you some time for the heat to work.

When you clean the filter, wash the filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media.

If you have carbon in the filter, that needs to be removed if you use chemical medications otherwise the carbon will remove the chemicals from the water.

The following link has information about white spot. Post #1 and post #16 are worth a read.

What is ICH?

This is a common question that is often asked, what is ich and how is it recognisable and what causes it? The real term is ICHTHYOPHTHIRIASIS. OR commonly known as white spot. It is an extremely comon parasite that affects aquarium fish. It is highly infectious and potentially lethal and...

www.fishforums.net

 

[supercarrot3]

Normally after cycling an aquarium you would test the water for 5 consecutive days after your first negative ammonia and nitrite reading just to ensure you have a consistent negative reading. It sounds like the whitespot and an elevated ammonia/nitrite reading probably killed them. Can you repeat the ammonia and nitrite test and post the results?

I would recommend you treat the tank with Waterlife Protozin which contains formaldehyde, malachite green and copper sulfate to kill the white spot. The API product you are using just contains malachite green which is probably not enough to deal with the issue.

If you think there might be ammonia or nitrite present, or can verify this, you should deal with that with a 100% water change before treating.

I just did a water test with the API Test Kit and found .00PPm Ammonia, .5 PPM of Nitrite and .5 PPM of Nitrate.
I'm thinking that taking out the carbon filter crashed the cycle. I just dosed the tank with some prime in an attempt to detoxify the Nitrites a little.

I have a spare 5 gallon I can put the Betta in if needed.

 

[supercarrot3]

If you post pictures of the fish we can confirm that it's white spot.

The neons didn't get white spot from stress. They had it at the shop and it was introduced into your tank on the fish or in the water they came in.

You don't use heat and chemicals to treat white spot because the combination of hot water and toxic chemicals usually kills the fish. If you overdose with medication you also kill the fish.

The safest way to treat white spot is with heat. You raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks, or at least 1 week after all the white spots have gone from the fish.

Before you raise the temperature, do a 80-90% water change, gravel clean the substrate, and clean the filter. This gets rid of most of the parasites and buys you some time for the heat to work.

When you clean the filter, wash the filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media.

If you have carbon in the filter, that needs to be removed if you use chemical medications otherwise the carbon will remove the chemicals from the water.

The following link has information about white spot. Post #1 and post #16 are worth a read.

What is ICH?

This is a common question that is often asked, what is ich and how is it recognisable and what causes it? The real term is ICHTHYOPHTHIRIASIS. OR commonly known as white spot. It is an extremely comon parasite that affects aquarium fish. It is highly infectious and potentially lethal and...

www.fishforums.net

He's looking a little rough.

Sounds like the best course of action is do a large water change, and keep the temp up for two weeks?

Thanks guys, I really appreciate y'all taking the time out to help.

 

[Colin_T]

Yeah he has white spot. Just do a huge water change and gravel clean. That will dilute the nitrite and any white spot parasites in the tank. Then crank the temperature up to 30C.

If you ever get an ammonia or nitrite reading, just do a big water change and gravel clean the substrate to dilute it.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[mark4785]

I just did a water test with the API Test Kit and found .00PPm Ammonia, .5 PPM of Nitrite and .5 PPM of Nitrate.
I'm thinking that taking out the carbon filter crashed the cycle. I just dosed the tank with some prime in an attempt to detoxify the Nitrites a little.

I have a spare 5 gallon I can put the Betta in if needed.

I would not rely on carbon filters because they just create an headache for when you need to treat the tank due to them absorbing the chemicals. You can get crystal clear water with dense planting and frequent water changes without carbon filtration.

If you dosed some Prime in there then that will disrupt the ammonia and nitrite tests you do. It is better to use a bog standard dechlorinator in conjunction with large water changes as this WILL, rather than attempt to, remove the nitrites you discovered immediately.

Increase the aquarium temp to 30C as Colin said or dose with Protozin at a slightly elevated temperature than to what it is normally.