Can ich-x crash a cycle?

[knee]

Last week I noticed that 3 or 4 of my rummy nose tetras had white fungus on their dorsal fin. They still remained the same, active and didnt isolate themselves. I started feeding the whole tank medicated fish food from rons cichlids and all of the fish including the ones with fungus ate them voraciosuly (idk why but they go crazy for this medicated food more than their staple pellets). I also remembered that ich-x can treat fungus so i dosed the tank and followed the instructions on the bottle. I opted for ich-x over salt because I have kuhli loaches, glass cats and cory habrosus. 
 

I dosed 30ml (5ml per 10g) the first night and the next day my tank was still fine. I noticed that the fungus wasn’t as prominent the following day but it was still there. I did another treatment of ich-x while still feeding them medicated food. Btw when i feed the medicated food I do crush the pellets up just a bit because I mostly have nano fish and it does make the water a bit cloudy but disappears after a few minutes.

When I woke up the next day after the 2nd dose i noticed that the water remained cloudy and some fish were at the surface. I tested my water and it showed little ammonia and nitrite. I’d say about 0.25-0.5ppm. I did a 60% water change then added some quick start. By this time the fungus is gone so i stopped ich-x but still fed the medicated fish food. 

I didn’t have any casualties but wanted to see if it was the ich-x that crashed my cycle. I might have overdosed the 30ml. I know i don’t have 60 gallons of water in the tank. If i gad to guess I’d say i have 45-50 gallons in there due to rocks and driftwood displacing the water. 

 

TL;DR - i might have crashed my cycle because I think I overdosed on ich-x 

Edited April 8 by knee

[lefty o]

your water should probably be blue after dosing, so cloudy wouldnt surprise me. anything you can do to a tank can kill off bacteria, and you may have knocked down the level some. i highly doubt you killed 'em all off, so give it a few days while monitoring the tank. id almost guarantee in a few days it will come back around. 

[knee]

On 4/8/2024 at 4:12 PM, lefty o said:

your water should probably be blue after dosing, so cloudy wouldnt surprise me. anything you can do to a tank can kill off bacteria, and you may have knocked down the level some. i highly doubt you killed 'em all off, so give it a few days while monitoring the tank. id almost guarantee in a few days it will come back around. 

Thank you. I’ll test again later and do a water change. I’ll probably skip the ich-x but keep them on the medicated food for a few more days. 

[T. Payne]

Never had a problem with ich x causing water issues. I used it for years and if needed is a go to in my fishroom.

[knee]

On 4/8/2024 at 4:34 PM, T. Payne said:

Never had a problem with ich x causing water issues. I used it for years and if needed is a go to in my fishroom.

I have read plenty of good things about ich-x and definitely don’t doubt it’s effectiveness. Actually the only bad thing I read about ich-x was that it didn’t work for their tank. Thats why I was a bit shocked because I detected ammonia and nitrite after dosing it the 2nd time. I do know that overdosing anything can cause problems so I was assuming it was from my own error of not dosing correctly.

I can confirm that it’s not the medicated food because I have been using it in my other tanks without issues, and the fish eat them so quick that it doesn’t have enough time to foul the water. 

[mynameisnobody]

@knee have you been gravel vac’ing every 2 days? I've also used and swear by that medicated food. I’ve never had any issues. You’ve got me very curious. 

[knee]

On 4/8/2024 at 7:40 PM, mynameisnobody said:

@knee have you been gravel vac’ing every 2 days? I've also used and swear by that medicated food. I’ve never had any issues. You’ve got me very curious. 

I do but every three days. The way I have my tank scaped makes it very difficult to gravel vac but I do as much as I can. 
 

I have messaged Ron and asked if there are any drawbacks to not doing a gravel vac when feeding medicated food and the only reason he gave me was that it can cause a reinfection. When I used it on my 20 long i just vacuumed the front part of the tank and I didn’t encounter any issues. 

[mynameisnobody]

@knee yes and even if a reinfestation occurred, it still wouldn’t explain the cloudiness. Did you ask Ron if he has had adverse reactions to the combo? It may be a game of percentages.  I’m just tossing stuff at the wall and hoping something sticks. Good luck

[knee]

On 4/8/2024 at 8:51 PM, mynameisnobody said:

@knee yes and even if a reinfestation occurred, it still wouldn’t explain the cloudiness. Did you ask Ron if he has had adverse reactions to the combo? It may be a game of percentages.  I’m just tossing stuff at the wall and hoping something sticks. Good luck

I haven’t even thought of asking him lol 🤦🏻‍♂️

Thanks for the suggestion! Gonna message him now 🙏🏻

[mynameisnobody]

@knee no worries, I’m very interested so please keep us updated. 

[knee]

On 4/8/2024 at 9:22 PM, mynameisnobody said:

@knee no worries, I’m very interested so please keep us updated. 

I just got a response from Ron and he informed me that they have also fed their medicated food while medicating the tank and it didn't affect the cycle.

My tank has already cleared up and no nitrites are showing. I feel like I just overdosed on the ich x, then the medicated food does make the tank cloudy and I just rescaped a few weeks before this. Had the canister off for several hours so that might have contributed to the cloudiness as well. 

[mynameisnobody]

@knee if it solves the illness issues, then it’s worth the wait. Not ideal being you just escaped, but we live and learn.