After battling algae for more than a month in my 65 gallon tank and
finally getting things under control (maybe) I discovered the dreaded
white spot on my loaches and some other fish.

I don't have an extra tank large enough for a hospital tank so it came
down to treating the tank and trying not to kill my plants.

Other attempts to cure ich have really done a number on my plants. I
went to a local aquarium store (not a chain) and asked and got the
recommendation of using clout after telling them I had loaches and lots
of plants that I did not want to kill.

I started out with a big water change and removed the carbon from my
filter. Then I raised the tank water into the 80's and finally to 85
the next day while I started my first treatment of clout (65 gallon tank
lots of rock and gravel so I used 6 tabs in figuring I easily had 5
gallons of things that were not water in the tank). I also added an
airstone to increase the O2 levels to compensate for the increased temp.

Last night I did my third treatment of clout. My plants seem OK and
this morning I tried to look at my clown loaches for spots (hard to do
when they are hiding) and did not see any. Checking some of the other
fish did not turn up any spots either.

The question is how many more days should I continue treatment? I've
done some reading where a minimum of 4 days is mentioned. I have enough
clout for another several days.

Ofcourse my silicon has turned a nice blue color but I don't think that
will bother me much but I wish I had purchased a UV sterilizer when I
was trying to deal with the algae problem but the $130 cost for
sterilizer and the added cost for a pump seemed a bit much at the time.

From my research and experience Ich needs to be treated for 14 days.
Generally, you only need to treat on days 1, 4, 7 and 10 with a 20 percent
water change before each treatment. On Day 13, do a water change add the
charcoal back to the filter. The medication is only effective when the
parasites are free swimming and not when on the body of the fish.

Treating for 14 days increases the chances that you will medicate during the
free swimming stage of its' life cycle. That being said, keeping the
temperature at 85 will probably kill the Ich on it's own as it doesn't
tolerate high tempertures. Just make sure your fish have enough oxygen.

HTH,

Frank M.



"william kossack" wrote in message
...
After battling algae for more than a month in my 65 gallon tank and
finally getting things under control (maybe) I discovered the dreaded
white spot on my loaches and some other fish.

I don't have an extra tank large enough for a hospital tank so it came
down to treating the tank and trying not to kill my plants.

Other attempts to cure ich have really done a number on my plants. I
went to a local aquarium store (not a chain) and asked and got the
recommendation of using clout after telling them I had loaches and lots
of plants that I did not want to kill.

I started out with a big water change and removed the carbon from my
filter. Then I raised the tank water into the 80's and finally to 85
the next day while I started my first treatment of clout (65 gallon tank
lots of rock and gravel so I used 6 tabs in figuring I easily had 5
gallons of things that were not water in the tank). I also added an
airstone to increase the O2 levels to compensate for the increased temp.

Last night I did my third treatment of clout. My plants seem OK and
this morning I tried to look at my clown loaches for spots (hard to do
when they are hiding) and did not see any. Checking some of the other
fish did not turn up any spots either.

The question is how many more days should I continue treatment? I've
done some reading where a minimum of 4 days is mentioned. I have enough
clout for another several days.

Ofcourse my silicon has turned a nice blue color but I don't think that
will bother me much but I wish I had purchased a UV sterilizer when I
was trying to deal with the algae problem but the $130 cost for
sterilizer and the added cost for a pump seemed a bit much at the time.