Temporarily Raise Temp

[Louise02]

Any great ideas on raising aquarium temperature?  We're dealing with ich, and my heater is not cooperating with raising the temperature.  It just shuts off when I add another heat source...so the temperature is not going up.  Ideas?  (Other than buying a new heater?  It won't be here for about a week.)  TIA!!!

[Flumpweesel]

Is there a lid on the tank? If so keep it closed. Add more blankets to insulate top and sides.

Warm up the room.

[knee]

Raise ambient temp to help the heater and put a lid on the tank

[Sleepy]

If you are using ICH-X (which is great btw) I actually recommend not raising the temperature as this makes stress on the fish and possible bacterial infections more likely a long with what they are already dealing with. I stopped using heat and just dosing what is recommended and had much better results.

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/8/2023 at 12:20 PM, Louise02 said:

Any great ideas on raising aquarium temperature?  We're dealing with ich, and my heater is not cooperating with raising the temperature.  It just shuts off when I add another heat source...so the temperature is not going up.  Ideas?  (Other than buying a new heater?  It won't be here for about a week.)  TIA!!!

You need a second heater or to raise the temp in the room / house.

As @knee mentioned you can also wrap the tank to insulate it and good lids to keep the heat in.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

As @Sleepy says if you're medicating all heat does is speed up the lifecycle of the Ich to make treatment faster. It's not absolutely necessary in treating it. I've treated it both with and without heat using meds and while doing it (totally) without at heater may take a little longer I prefer the method due to less stress on the fish and less chance of other illnesses popping up. Also in the case of a misdiagnosis - if it ends up being epistylus this would only make the illness worse.