cowgirluntamed
Fish Herder
tank size: 20 gallon
pH: 8.2 (stable)
Am: 0.25 (stable, also use the marineland carbon/ammonia blend stuff to change it to ammonium, but always have this reading)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 40
I have 1 bristlenose pleco, 6 glowlight tetras, and now 9 black neon tetras. I didn't want that many black neons but when I bought the first six I ended up with 1 female to 5 males and they were tearing each other to pieces. I thought at first I had a columnaris outbreak but none every died and the glowlights were completely fine. I used melafix and pimafix(seperate and together) and then finally decided to try salt. That seemed to get rid of the fungus/bacteria that were growing on them. I used 1 tbsp per 10 gallons. I knew this would only solve part of my problem so I opted to get a few more black neons to see if I could get females. I know they are hard to sex. I waited for over a month due to the reason the black neons at petsmart had ich. I finally saw they were without ich, not that I noticed anyway, and I at least ended up with one more female. (She's as big as my current female and they were all trying to breed both of them so at least I have 2 females. Not sure on the smallest one yet, too soon to tell. Other one I have could be male). Anyway, the ich came in on these three fish. I had put them in a small 5 gallon quarantine tank but after a few days they hadn't eaten due to placing the tank in a bad spot with too much traffic. I did not SEE anything on these fish so I went ahead and put them in my main tank because I didn't want them to be stressed more. Well, the day after I put the fish in, I noticed ONE spot on one of the fish. I was skeptical so waited and within a couple more days I noticed more spots. *sigh*
So, here is where the ich question comes in. I have slowly, over the last couple of days, raised the temperature from 77 to 86 degrees F. I have been keeping the 1 tbsp per 10 gallons of aquarium salt in there already, which they seem to do ok with. Should I go ahead and try to add more to make it be the 1 tbsp per 5 gallons I've been reading? I plan on doing a 50% water change with good gravel vac today and at least trying to change and gravel vac every other day at least 25% until ich is gone. I just wasn't sure if it was safe for the tetras and the bristlenose to add more? They've been ok with the salt levels I've been keeping for a few months now but I figured I'd ask just in case! Also, I did turn up my air supply in there as well and the water has dropped a big so my HOB filter is also providing good arreation. They seem ok for now. Thanks for the help!
Kristen
pH: 8.2 (stable)
Am: 0.25 (stable, also use the marineland carbon/ammonia blend stuff to change it to ammonium, but always have this reading)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 40
I have 1 bristlenose pleco, 6 glowlight tetras, and now 9 black neon tetras. I didn't want that many black neons but when I bought the first six I ended up with 1 female to 5 males and they were tearing each other to pieces. I thought at first I had a columnaris outbreak but none every died and the glowlights were completely fine. I used melafix and pimafix(seperate and together) and then finally decided to try salt. That seemed to get rid of the fungus/bacteria that were growing on them. I used 1 tbsp per 10 gallons. I knew this would only solve part of my problem so I opted to get a few more black neons to see if I could get females. I know they are hard to sex. I waited for over a month due to the reason the black neons at petsmart had ich. I finally saw they were without ich, not that I noticed anyway, and I at least ended up with one more female. (She's as big as my current female and they were all trying to breed both of them so at least I have 2 females. Not sure on the smallest one yet, too soon to tell. Other one I have could be male). Anyway, the ich came in on these three fish. I had put them in a small 5 gallon quarantine tank but after a few days they hadn't eaten due to placing the tank in a bad spot with too much traffic. I did not SEE anything on these fish so I went ahead and put them in my main tank because I didn't want them to be stressed more. Well, the day after I put the fish in, I noticed ONE spot on one of the fish. I was skeptical so waited and within a couple more days I noticed more spots. *sigh*
So, here is where the ich question comes in. I have slowly, over the last couple of days, raised the temperature from 77 to 86 degrees F. I have been keeping the 1 tbsp per 10 gallons of aquarium salt in there already, which they seem to do ok with. Should I go ahead and try to add more to make it be the 1 tbsp per 5 gallons I've been reading? I plan on doing a 50% water change with good gravel vac today and at least trying to change and gravel vac every other day at least 25% until ich is gone. I just wasn't sure if it was safe for the tetras and the bristlenose to add more? They've been ok with the salt levels I've been keeping for a few months now but I figured I'd ask just in case! Also, I did turn up my air supply in there as well and the water has dropped a big so my HOB filter is also providing good arreation. They seem ok for now. Thanks for the help!
Kristen
Anyway, thanks for any help you guys can give me.
