FredF

I have a 10 gallon where I am quarantining some gold white clouds at the moment. I am curious how people set up their QT tanks and what is best practice. In my 10g I am running a sponge filter and a mini HOB designed for 2-5G tanks. 1. bare bottom? Gravel? 2. plants? i have a major overflow of Christmas moss in my QT. Not sure if this causes any harm or if it should be relatively sterile. Plants can be kind of dirty especially in a bare bottom tank. White clouds are relatively problem free but I bought some angels from local fish stores and they died off in consecutive days. They said I needed to buy live brine to help their survival. I suspect they may not have been healthy to begin with. Any QT tank advice appreciated.

Sounds like ICH X might work. Attaching a couple of pictures of my tank. I’m pretty sure I am not overfeeding, but maybe there is some stressor I am not aware of.

I have several cardinal tetras that seem to have fungal infections. Right now I am treating with medicated kanaplex food to see if that helps. But my question is more general, about why this is coming up. Here are the water parameters. ph 6.8-7.0, Ammonia and Nitrite 0 ppm, Nitrate 10-15 PPM, KH 40-60 PPM, GH above 150PPM, but below 300PPM The above parameters, don't change. I keep the water at 78. I have a fluval 407 cannister filter, and I run an airstone in the tank. I have fluval stratum in the background for plants, and sand in the foreground. The tank has been established for nearly 6 months. It's heavily planted in the background and midground. Current inhabitants are: 12 cardinal tetras 10 rummynose tetras, 9 bronze corys, 1 SAE, 1 Bristlenose Pleco, some amano shrimp and 3 otos. None of the other fish are affected, and all seem to be doing quite well. I have a couple theories that I wanted to banter as to why this might be a problem and get some educated thoughts. 1. The water is simply too hard for the cardinal tetras, even with the low pH, causing long term health problems 2. I'm changing too much water. I change 50% 1x a week, and the pH comes out of the tap in the 7.4 range, but my straturm brings the pH down to 6.8, I am very careful with the temperatures, but perhaps I am causing too much of a temporary swing? 3. Some unknown aggression, but I don't see it. However these are small areas on the fish body with a single white fungal growth. 4. Something with the manzanita wood and blue petrified wood could be causing an issue? Thanks,

Ich works for fungal infections too? I got a 10 gallon after the last ordeal and it’s ready to go. Wondering if I should feed the kanaplex and a precaution for main tank. thanks

Thanks for the replies. The tank has been up since early July so the fish have been in there for a few months. Fish is swimming and eating but the color and the shape is off and the head and fill area are enlarged. Water quality is good. Less than 5ppm Nitrate or ammonia or nitrite ph 6.9

Was wondering if anyone could identify this? No other fish appear to be affected. Aside from the obvious white patch there is a tuft or something protruding from it as well. Thanks

And maybe I found my answer as to why it was so hard to treat with medications (ICH-x and API Super Ick Cure) in my display tank. Was the fluval stratum messing with the medication? I think then the bags with some stratum makes a lot of sense. Keep them in there, but if need to medicate pull them out. Thanks,

That's a great idea. Thanks!

Greetings, I am looking to set up a quarantine tank, after dealing with the consequences of not having one. I know many people tend to use a bare substrate, and perhaps a sponge filter. I plan on seeding a sponge filter for this tank. My issue is the fish are going into a tank that has fluval stratum, and well planted. Fluval stratum definitely alters the water chemistry. It clearly reduces the pH and the kH of the water, it also can be picked up with a magnet so clearly contains a ton of iron as well. The other complicating factor is that my whole 75 gallon tank, is not actually using a ton of stratum it is a 2 inch layer on top of a 5 inch layer of coarse gravel in the back third of the tank, which is held back by a bunch of rock and then a coarse sand foreground. However, it is still enough Stratum to drop the pH from 7.2-7.4 to 6.8, and the kH to 40 from 80. For setting up the quarantine tank, should I set it up with a stratum substrate, maybe a thin layer. I would like to avoid plants in QT, maybe just floating only, otherwise more maintenance. I am worried about shocking the fish too much when adding to the main tank from the QT tank. I would be quarantining Angels, probably quarter size bodies, possibly juvenile discus. I'm not looking for a ton of quarantine tank maintenance either. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks,

Thank you everyone. Everything is now under control. I think the combination of the Kanaplex and using the ICH-X without prime helped, and the fish that passed on were just too far gone. The remaining fish have cleared up. I lost 10 Cardinals, 5 angels, two platies and one rummynose. My 2 SAE's were unaffected and are much larger and fatter, the two otos were fine, all 9 corys survived as well as my bristlenose pleco. I have 12 cardinals and 9 Rummynose remaining overall. Its a 75 gallon tank. I still do not really know what caused it and whenever I tested the water, the quality always seemed spot on. I can't rule out a problem because I did not test daily. My lights which were at 90% are now at 30%. Maybe too much lighting stress the fish out, but that seems unlikely. The Seachem ammonia monitor I have has never read anything other than zero. Current results with API test kits are: 1. ORP Meter - Redox 202 2. PH 7.0 3. Ammonia 0 4. Nitrite 0 5. Nitrate - Virtually 0 on API test kit, definitely lower than 5 6. P04 - at most .5 ppm Maybe I either added to many fish too soon, or the petsmart fish I added brought it in. I did use API Quick Start as well. The tank was also heavy planted, so I think that would mitigate water problems as well. I bought a 10 gallon, and a sponge filter which I have in my small 5 gallon tank simply to get seeded so I can use it in a Quarantine tank. I am never adding any fish directly again after this ordeal. I'm hoping by the time the sponge filter has sufficient beneficial bacteria, I can start adding fish again and try this out slowly. I feel like a tank this size could house some angelfish in addition to what I current have with no huge deal? Any thoughts on what could have gone wrong or if there was any else I can do would be appreciated.

I have not seen anything passed here are the pics. I was going to put the fish down with Clove oil because he is unable to swim, but he seems to have a lot of kick left. Not sure what else I can do. Outwardly the fish does not look too bad

Thanks for this info. I have reviewed this in detail. I have been continuing to treat with Kanaplex (in food) and Ich-X, using Stress Coat instead of Prime as the dechlorinater The results have been mixed. The remaining fish (cardinal tetras) seem to be clearing up and getting better or not getting worse, they eat ravenously, even those with visible symptoms. However, my last angelfish is probably going to pass. It is unable to swim at this point, and has refused to eat even with adding garlic guard to the medicated food. The angel, had no visible symptoms of white spot. A follow up question is how long should I treat with the medicated food? I noticed the Kanaplex directions indicate 3 doses, but I suspect that is for direct medication, but I wanted to confirm.

I am still feeding the kanaplex food per the recipe. Here are the latest pics. Still looks like ICH. If you think it is something else please let me know. I suppose it could be multiple items, hence why I am also using the kanaplex.

Thanks, I tend to add 2 caps when I change 50+ percent the water in the tank 75g. Prime is 1 cap per 50g, so I could be overdosing prime which in the case could be causing a problem. I will get stress coat and use that going forward.

I just came across some information that ICH-X does not recommend Seachem Prime as a water conditioner when treating. Also I found this same information on Seachem's website as well. Could this be the issue? I have always used Prime as a water conditioner.

I have been doing this. Unfortunately things have just gotten worse. All but one angelfish is dead, cardinals are dying like crazy. The medicated food seems to have no effect. I am attaching a pic the worse fish, which has since died in the last hour. I'm pretty much at a loss here. I feel now perhaps to go back to ich treatment (ICH-X or API) crank the heat up to 85-86 and see where that goes? Right now I only have ICH-X, but its effectiveness was limited, but I also wasn't losing any fish. I am going to turn the lights down further shorten the photo period, since I heard light can effect the medication ingredients. The second pic caught my eye. My Rummynose tetras have all been clear of any spots for a while, but this one here in comparison to the other looks like it is wasting away, and seems to be having some problems keeping up with the school. I don't know if this is a sign of anything in particular, but I thought I would point it out if it might be another clue. The water parameters have always been good when I measure them every few days. I'm up for any more suggestions. Thanks,

I followed these instructions and started this treatment. Do you feed this in lieu of normal feedings, or is this a once a day, I usually feed 2x a day. I'm feeding as much as the fish can reasonably eat of the kanaplex food 1x a day. Is that sufficient? Thanks,

Been treating ich for over a month. First lifeguard then with ich-x then with API super ich cure. if it’s truly ich it’s the toughest most resident ich ever

Thanks. I finished my second round of API. Many of the cardinals remain unchanged. I will attach a picture below. I’m thinking the Kanaplex as Colu suggested may be the way to go. Should I lower the temp or keep as is. Thanks again,

Thanks. My lights are fully automatic with a Fluval 3.0 48" from CO OP. I recently cut it down the light to 50% to stress the fish out less and also I read the light could interfere with the ich medication. I'm using a mix of fluval stratum and coarse sand as the substrate. The wood is manzanita, and the rocks are blue petrified wood. The fluval lowers the KH and pH of my water, but my overall hardness is still quite high. The pH lingers around 6.6-6.8 due to the stratum. I was thinking since the GH of my water is more on the hard side, even though the KH is low that the platies might handle it. Was more a nostalgic fish choice, as I had a 10g and bred livebearers like crazy as a kid in the early 80's. Weird thing is I never had any of the problems I am having now, with a 10g tank with a UGF, tiny box filter with floss and carbon, clown puke gravel, and some plants, and eventually way too many fish. My new tank is probably more suited to a planted tetra set up, but I figured most fish now are bred in harder water, so mixing may not be as big of an issue. There are platy fry hiding in the tank in the moss and rocks despite all the nasty disease going on. This was my first attempt to really try to scape a tank rather than just putting some in haphazardly. I'm going to research the temps and such once I get done with battling whatever I got. I'm not even sure I should be keeping the temps high now, but will err on the high side for the time being.

So I want to thank everyone willing to help and advise. The API made a noticable dent in the ICH on many of the fish. However, I still have a bunch of cardinals that still seem to have it. I lost two nickel size angels, who did not have any noticable signs for the disease outwardly, but their behavior did indicate they were not well. They were listless at the surface. Many of the fish especially my larger angelfish and platys show much improved behavior and less of the clamped fins with API Super ICH cure. I am attaching a couple pictures (it's really difficult to get sharp pics), to see what people think. I can see some of the fish that had the ich (or whatever else it might be) look a little worse for the wear. A couple more questions. 1. I plan on doing a water change tonight of 50% or so. I assume this is fine. I followed the API instructions to the letter. 2. Do I continue and restart the API treatment. I have been treating this fish about a month now. I'm concerned about continuing to medicate. I also feel that if this was ICH 100% it would be beaten by now. 3. Could it possibly be something else, like epistylis that has been cited in the thread? My aquarium is 7-8 weeks old at this point. I have maracyn, but it seems some sort of medicated food is the best treatment as Colu said earlier. "It could be epistylis recommend treatment is kanaplex in food you will need seachem focus to act as a binding agent mix with your food". So I guess the bottom line is. Should I continue with the ICH treatment, or go with the kanaplex. I was doing some research online and read this. The Pics are inconclusive to me, but the more I read the more likely this scenario appears to be. "Epistylis occurs very frequently in newly set up aquariums with”dull” water and inadequate filtration, poor water circulation, over-feeding and poor aeration. Very often the best treatment for epistylis is to considerably reduce or even stop feeding for a while, add some very good filtration, add some wavemakers to circulate the water and add a ton of aeration. Proper food levels (the volume of one eyeball once per day MAXIMUM, six fish = six eyeballs), over-filtration, over aeration, good water circulation and crystal clear water should be the goal of all hobbyists in order to have healthy fish." I have a Fluval 407 in my 75G, I figured that would be sufficient for filtration and circulation. I also have angels and I don't think they like to be blown around the tank with a 300gph wavemaker. Maybe add a second can on the other side, or hide a sponge filter? This is getting beyond frustrating, but again appreciate everyone willing to chime in.

Thanks, appreciate the kind words. I raised my temp to about 84 degrees now. I hesitate keeping it that high for the long term because I think the many of the plants may suffer at that higher temperature, they have definitely taken a downturn while treating, and the staghorn algae seems to have increased, but I do not want to treat for that with a Easy Carbon or Excel until I get the Ich under control. I want to keep the chemicals at a minimum and I will deal with the algae when this is done. I was previously keeping the tank at 78. Everything seemed to handle that just fine until the ICH. Maybe I can do 81 or 82 after this, but I feel my platys in the tank aren't super fond are the warmer temps. Everything else Angels, Corys, Rummynose, Cardinals, and Otos seem to be fine. I also think if I'm at a higher temp the airstone might need to become a permanent addition to the aquarium. Not super fond of the aesthetic, but in this tank I am prioritizing fish over plants I'm treating with super ich cure, as Colu recommended. I don't notice too much difference in the spots, but the Cardinals are acting a lot more lively, so I am hoping that is a good sign.

I am uploading a few pics of the some of the infected fish. I believe this is Ich, but I recognize my photography skills are not the greatest. I tried catching the infected fish, but with a fully planted tank with wood, plants, rocks, its virtually impossible without tearing the tank down itself. I do have Ick Guard from tetra which contains Victoria Green and acriflavine. I do want to make sure I am using something that is as safe as ICH-X if possible. If anyone has any suggestions, I am open to them. I have Corys, Oto's and a BNP, so I don't want to add something that will kill fish. Although if it killed Staghorn algae, as you can see that would be a bonus LOL. Thanks,

I had a vacation planned, and I thought my Ich was gone. When I came back, the ich was back on a lot of my cardinal tetras, some rummynose tetras, and some of the other fish appeared more sluggish. I figured I was at square one. This time I did the following: 1. Raised the temp to 83 degrees 2. Added an airstone running 24/7 3. Restarted Ich-X 7/21, and have been changing the 50-70% of the water daily and treating with ich-x daily I lost one juvenile angelfish after restarting the Ich-X, that is when I figured I need to add the airstone for more surface agitation in the warmer water. Its been 10 days, and I still have fish with Ich. From what I have been reading most people are beyond fish showing symptoms treating with Ich-X once the ten day mark is reached. I still have several fish with ICH, although there do seem to be fewer that have it. Also, I am not running any carbon or any type of other chemical media in my Fluval 407. I watched a video from Prime Time Aquatics that mentioned that brighter light could affect the medication in ICH-X, so I reduced my Fluval 3.0 planted to 50%, from 85% just recently. Does anyone have any thoughts why this is taking so long, could it have been the lighting or something else, or is this fairly typical. Thanks,

I have a heavily planted 75 gallon tank, with the exact same algae that is 6 weeks old. I am also using a Fluval 3.0 light with settings comparable to your, The substrate is fluval stratum behind the rocks. I concluded my algae was staghorn algae. It started primarily on my java fern leaves and has spread to some of the Christmas Moss and Alternanthera Reineckii. Its been leaving my anubias and rotala alone. Right now I have been manually removing and pulling plants with it. I started fertilizing more with easy green, because I thought my stems (which have been growing like mad) were outcompeting the slower growing plants, but the algae seems to have gotten a bit worse. I think the main treatment has to be lower the light more and see how that works. Without CO2, light is really the only significant variable that can be played with. I am considering something like easy carbon, but am concerned that will kill my vals. I already lowered the light percentages and added a lid which naturally reduces some of the light. I might go down further to 75% and see where that goes. I think maybe we both started out with too much light in the beginning when starting off while the plants were getting established. Hopefully as the tanks mature the algae will be less of an issue.