I wrote this as an email for one of my moms friends that had an outbreak in her tank and lost almost all her fish even though she was treating with meds. I recently went through this and had no fish/plant/invert losses so I thought I would share my treatment method. Because this was a personal email the salt amounts are per her tank sizes so as a guideline for whatever tank size you have:
Day 1: 1tbsp per 5gals total(.1)
Day 2: 2tbsp per 5gals total(.2)
Day 3: 3tbsp per 5gals total(.3)
Salinity should not go past .3
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You didn't ask but I'll share anyways
Sorry this is so long.
So I had to treat both my 55gal goldie tank and one of my tropical tanks so this method of treatment will work for both but it's done slightly different. Do your research on scaleless fish as this treatment method may not be suitable for them.
Goldfish:
Day 1- So when you first discover the ich the first thing you will want to do is vacuum out the tank. Removing 10gals from your 55gal will suffice. Gravel vacuuming every day is important to remove the unhatched cysts that are laying on the bottom. Once you replace the water you took out hook up as many air pumps and air stones as you can(I have tons if you ever need to borrow some). I think I had 6 pumps going on my tank, point being you need to have as much air going in to aquarium as you possibly can. The massive amount of bubble won't bother the fish, if anything it will keep them alive. Once you have as many air pumps going as you can throw in a heater. The heat will speed up the life cycle of ich cysts so that you can kill them when they are in the free swimming stage. It is very important to increase the heat very slowly for cold water fish. Going from room temp to 86-88F degrees in the course of three days. Once you have the heater in it's time to add the salt. Get a cup and fill it with the tank water and dissolve 1tbsp per 5gals. in the cup. Once the salt is dissolved pour it into the filter and filter will distribute the salt. It may take a couple cupfuls of tank water to get all the salt to dissolve. I did 10tbsp for my 55gal tank, most 55gals are technically 50gals. I should note that the carbon media(if there is any) does not need to be removed.
Day 2- The temp should still be steadily being raised. Gravel vac out 10gals of water. Get your cup, fill it with tank water and add 13tbsp salt. 2tbsp is for the water you just replaced and 10tbsp is to increase the salinity to .2 .
Day 3- The temp should reach 86-88F degrees by day three. Vacuum out 10gal of water/replace water. Dissolve 15tbsp. salt in a cup of tank water and pour into the filter to be dispersed. This amount of salt will make the salinity of the tank be at .3 which is as high as you want to go. The temp should not be raised any higher then 88F degrees also, because we are treating a cold water fish. The reason why you need to dissolve the salt in cups of tank water first is because it doesn't always dissolve well on it's own, especially if it's rock aquarium salt and not the finer stuff. And at .3 salinity you really have to stir and stir the salt to get it to dissolve because of the high salinity.
Days 4~10-Continue to vacuum out 10gals of water each day, replace the water and replace the 6tbsp salt that you took out.
Things to be cautious of: All of my goldies did very well with this treatment except for my panda moore. She was laying on the ground and wouldn't move. Once I added air pump 5 and 6 she got very much better, just needed the oxygen bumped up. It's normal for fish to feel sluggish and just wanna lay on the ground cause they've got parasites on them, are in warm water with a high salinity and both of those things sucks out oxygen. If a goldie still looks like it's declining after two days and you've already added more air pumps then I would suggest moving it to it's own small tank and either having the salinity at .2(2tbsp per 5gals) or lowering the temp to under 80. Treatment can be prolonged until day 15 on the main tank just to be on the safe side as long as the goldfish are tolerating treatment well.
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Tropical fish: First take assessment on any scaleless fish you have in the aquarium. If you have any they should be moved to their own small aquarium and be treated with meds that are safe for scaleless fish. For the main tank I recommend the salt treatment.
For your 29gal I think vacuuming out only 5gals per day will be sufficient. Follow the same procedure as with the goldfish. However with tropical fish, the temp can be raised slightly quicker and for my tropical tank I raised it to 90F degrees. I was able to get away with a salinity of .2(2tbsp per 5gals) because the temp was so high. Keep the air pumps going. I will note that at the time of treatment, this was and still is a planted tank and it had fry/snails in the tank. I did not lose any plants or fry during the course of the treatment. Surprisingly the fry seemed perkier then the adult fish.
After the treatment is done on whatever tank whether it be 10 or 15 days do daily water changes afterwards but just don't replace the salt, it's important to keep the water sparkly because the parasites leave wounds on the fish that are at risk for infection. You may notice cloudy white spots on the fishes fins after the parasites have fallen off, don't be alarmed. I've found this to be scarring from where the ich was sucking off of and it should go away in a day or two. It's imperative to keep the salt treatment going for 10-15 days. Even though you may not see any more parasites on the fish there's still unhatched cysts on the substrate and decor and you can only kill ich once it has hatched and it is in the free swimming stage. I lost no fish when treating the goldie and the tropical tank. And the parasites stopped appearing on the fish after three days. I should note that if you are very unlucky and have an outbreak of a more resistant strain of ich and the salt and heat treatment does not work you will need to turn to meds as a more potent method of removing this parasite from your tank. Obviously don't do maintenance on any healthy tank with the cleaning equipment that you're using on the infected tank.
Hope this helps, such a stressful thing.
Day 1: 1tbsp per 5gals total(.1)
Day 2: 2tbsp per 5gals total(.2)
Day 3: 3tbsp per 5gals total(.3)
Salinity should not go past .3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You didn't ask but I'll share anyways
Sorry this is so long.So I had to treat both my 55gal goldie tank and one of my tropical tanks so this method of treatment will work for both but it's done slightly different. Do your research on scaleless fish as this treatment method may not be suitable for them.
Goldfish:
Day 1- So when you first discover the ich the first thing you will want to do is vacuum out the tank. Removing 10gals from your 55gal will suffice. Gravel vacuuming every day is important to remove the unhatched cysts that are laying on the bottom. Once you replace the water you took out hook up as many air pumps and air stones as you can(I have tons if you ever need to borrow some). I think I had 6 pumps going on my tank, point being you need to have as much air going in to aquarium as you possibly can. The massive amount of bubble won't bother the fish, if anything it will keep them alive. Once you have as many air pumps going as you can throw in a heater. The heat will speed up the life cycle of ich cysts so that you can kill them when they are in the free swimming stage. It is very important to increase the heat very slowly for cold water fish. Going from room temp to 86-88F degrees in the course of three days. Once you have the heater in it's time to add the salt. Get a cup and fill it with the tank water and dissolve 1tbsp per 5gals. in the cup. Once the salt is dissolved pour it into the filter and filter will distribute the salt. It may take a couple cupfuls of tank water to get all the salt to dissolve. I did 10tbsp for my 55gal tank, most 55gals are technically 50gals. I should note that the carbon media(if there is any) does not need to be removed.
Day 2- The temp should still be steadily being raised. Gravel vac out 10gals of water. Get your cup, fill it with tank water and add 13tbsp salt. 2tbsp is for the water you just replaced and 10tbsp is to increase the salinity to .2 .
Day 3- The temp should reach 86-88F degrees by day three. Vacuum out 10gal of water/replace water. Dissolve 15tbsp. salt in a cup of tank water and pour into the filter to be dispersed. This amount of salt will make the salinity of the tank be at .3 which is as high as you want to go. The temp should not be raised any higher then 88F degrees also, because we are treating a cold water fish. The reason why you need to dissolve the salt in cups of tank water first is because it doesn't always dissolve well on it's own, especially if it's rock aquarium salt and not the finer stuff. And at .3 salinity you really have to stir and stir the salt to get it to dissolve because of the high salinity.
Days 4~10-Continue to vacuum out 10gals of water each day, replace the water and replace the 6tbsp salt that you took out.
Things to be cautious of: All of my goldies did very well with this treatment except for my panda moore. She was laying on the ground and wouldn't move. Once I added air pump 5 and 6 she got very much better, just needed the oxygen bumped up. It's normal for fish to feel sluggish and just wanna lay on the ground cause they've got parasites on them, are in warm water with a high salinity and both of those things sucks out oxygen. If a goldie still looks like it's declining after two days and you've already added more air pumps then I would suggest moving it to it's own small tank and either having the salinity at .2(2tbsp per 5gals) or lowering the temp to under 80. Treatment can be prolonged until day 15 on the main tank just to be on the safe side as long as the goldfish are tolerating treatment well.
_______________________
Tropical fish: First take assessment on any scaleless fish you have in the aquarium. If you have any they should be moved to their own small aquarium and be treated with meds that are safe for scaleless fish. For the main tank I recommend the salt treatment.
For your 29gal I think vacuuming out only 5gals per day will be sufficient. Follow the same procedure as with the goldfish. However with tropical fish, the temp can be raised slightly quicker and for my tropical tank I raised it to 90F degrees. I was able to get away with a salinity of .2(2tbsp per 5gals) because the temp was so high. Keep the air pumps going. I will note that at the time of treatment, this was and still is a planted tank and it had fry/snails in the tank. I did not lose any plants or fry during the course of the treatment. Surprisingly the fry seemed perkier then the adult fish.
After the treatment is done on whatever tank whether it be 10 or 15 days do daily water changes afterwards but just don't replace the salt, it's important to keep the water sparkly because the parasites leave wounds on the fish that are at risk for infection. You may notice cloudy white spots on the fishes fins after the parasites have fallen off, don't be alarmed. I've found this to be scarring from where the ich was sucking off of and it should go away in a day or two. It's imperative to keep the salt treatment going for 10-15 days. Even though you may not see any more parasites on the fish there's still unhatched cysts on the substrate and decor and you can only kill ich once it has hatched and it is in the free swimming stage. I lost no fish when treating the goldie and the tropical tank. And the parasites stopped appearing on the fish after three days. I should note that if you are very unlucky and have an outbreak of a more resistant strain of ich and the salt and heat treatment does not work you will need to turn to meds as a more potent method of removing this parasite from your tank. Obviously don't do maintenance on any healthy tank with the cleaning equipment that you're using on the infected tank.
Hope this helps, such a stressful thing.
