Out of options

[rudedog40]

Do yourself a favor and call ahead to whichever LFS you plan on going to to see if they have a refractometer. Out of the three LFS in my area, anytime I see them checking water parameters, they are using the plastic hyrometer. I've never seen a refractometer in either store for sale. Don't assume a LFS has a refractometer in their possession. Many of them just ballpark their SG levels, and rarely put their tanks in hypo. If they have a fish with ich, they either use the meds, or douse the tanks with copper.

 

[kornele23]

early bird - if I said I had a refractometer, it was a mistake. My husband made that post and well, he's not the brightest crayon in the box most of the time.
rudedog - you are right about the LFS not having a refractometer. I called yeterday to see if they did and they did not. They use a plastic hydrometer. I called to another one I know of in a nearby town, and they also just use a plastic hydrometer as I am using. I certainly cannnot afford to go buy one right now. I would if I could. I'm going to call 2 other fish stores in our area. If they don't have one, then I'm not sure what I should do.

 

[earlybird]

Originally Posted by Kornele23
early bird - if I said I had a refractometer, it was a mistake. My husband made that post and well, he's not the brightest crayon in the box most of the time.
rudedog - you are right about the LFS not having a refractometer. I called yeterday to see if they did and they did not. They use a plastic hydrometer. I called to another one I know of in a nearby town, and they also just use a plastic hydrometer as I am using. I certainly cannnot afford to go buy one right now. I would if I could. I'm going to call 2 other fish stores in our area. If they don't have one, then I'm not sure what I should do.
If you can't pick up a refractometer you might consider copper. All you'll need is a copper test kit and the copper treatment which has to be less than a refracto.

 

[kornele23]

I've thought about Copper. My fish seem to be doing great. I see no ich as of right now. Of course that doesn't mean that once I raise the SG back up that it can't show back up. If I get to that point - and it does come back - I will go this route. I still have 2 stores to call to see if they use a refractometer. If they do, I will go that route. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of meds in a tank, especially copper that has to be monitored often. I'm rarely at home, and this could pose a problem from what I read if I don't keep on top of my tank everyday.

 

[m0nk]

Originally Posted by Kornele23
I've thought about Copper. My fish seem to be doing great. I see no ich as of right now. Of course that doesn't mean that once I raise the SG back up that it can't show back up. If I get to that point - and it does come back - I will go this route. I still have 2 stores to call to see if they use a refractometer. If they do, I will go that route. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of meds in a tank, especially copper that has to be monitored often. I'm rarely at home, and this could pose a problem from what I read if I don't keep on top of my tank everyday.
Honestly, keeping stable salinity with a refractometer requires about the same amount of monitoring as copper, imo. Unless you have absolutely no evaporation, you should be checking the salinity every day, if not twice a day. The all-in-one nano tank setups are good for that, but if you have any water surface area open to the air you'll have evaporation, which will throw your salinity higher. Just something to keep in mind. I hope you're able to get things worked out and save your fish.

 

[kornele23]

OK so new set of problems.
My nitrates and nitrites are through the roof in my QT. I'm preparing water as we speak to make a considerable size water change.
Also, I had turned the lights on, and when I stuck my hand in there to get some water samples, I got a slight "shock". I immediately started looking for possible problems. I didn't notice anything right off the bat, so I turned off my lights for a few minutes. Stuck my fingers back in and the "shock" was gone. So my lights are off the tank for now. Just seems the problems keep piling on.

 

[sepulatian]

There are so many posts lately that lead to trouble with the power. Can you check your stray voltage? It requires a meter to test what comes out of your outlet. At the very least, your equipment should be plugged into a surge protector. Your water is going to have to be changed. Clearly this is not going to be a productive hypo. You may want to think about bringing the SG back up and using copper if you can't get a refractometer yet. The cost of copper and a copper kit is going to run about the same as a refractometer though. These are the two effective ways to kill ich. They both cost money and they both require daily testing. Copper is more extreme than hypo.

 

[kornele23]

I don't have a volt meter and the stray voltage seems to be gone since I took the lights off. I've done almost a 75% water change since the nitrates and nitrites were so high. They have reduced by almost 75% but will require some additional water changes today to get them where I want them. My fish are doing great and there are no signs of ich anywhere.
lol obviously if I cannot afford a refractometer, I cannot afford the copper either. Nothing I can do about money. I can't make it grow on trees. wish I could though lol. As long as my fish are happy, eating, and looking good, I will continue on this course.

 

[ufo8micats]

I don't blame you for not wanting to pull all that rock out. i had the samee problem in my tank not to long ago. i did the hypo salinity idea, and it has worked. all fish ich free. i have damsels, clowns, chromis also. and they are a bear to catch. I thought i was getting stressed out with white spots on my by time i gave up.

 

[kornele23]

I've done 2 large water changes to try and reduce the nitrates and nitrites, but haven't been very successful. The amonia is at 0 - so this is good I suppose. My pH is varying from about 7.9 - 8.1. I've been adding the buffer with each water change.
The fish look bad today. I know I have stressed them out by changing the water in the tank several times, and Im about to have to do another one. If I don't, the nitrates and nitrites will continue to rise. Its been....6 or 7 days since I've gotten them to 1.009, and this is the first day since day 2 oe 3 that I've seen ich on them again. My questions are:
How long does it usually take for the ich to die?? I'm sure there is no set amount of time, but surely a good estimate is out there. It seems to me that 6 days is a long time for them survive the low salinity, but I'm hoping that this time is a normal one.
What should I do with my nitrates and nitrites. Keep doing water changes and hope for the best??

 

[kornele23]

OK another question:
I think I may be able to borrow some money this week to get a refractometer. How should I go about doing this. Should I being my SG back up to normal and then try hypo again? See my quesiton above on how long can ich survive in the 1.009 SG. Maybe this is just their final stage (you know....the typical get worse before it gets better)???????
My husband refuses to use copper since he is convinced that since we are going to use this tank again as an actual tank, that the copper can't effectively be cleaned out and it will be in there forever. sigh.......

 

[earlybird]

Originally Posted by Kornele23
I've done 2 large water changes to try and reduce the nitrates and nitrites, but haven't been very successful. The amonia is at 0 - so this is good I suppose. My pH is varying from about 7.9 - 8.1. I've been adding the buffer with each water change.
The fish look bad today. I know I have stressed them out by changing the water in the tank several times, and Im about to have to do another one. If I don't, the nitrates and nitrites will continue to rise. Its been....6 or 7 days since I've gotten them to 1.009, and this is the first day since day 2 oe 3 that I've seen ich on them again. My questions are:
How long does it usually take for the ich to die?? I'm sure there is no set amount of time, but surely a good estimate is out there. It seems to me that 6 days is a long time for them survive the low salinity, but I'm hoping that this time is a normal one.
What should I do with my nitrates and nitrites. Keep doing water changes and hope for the best??
How often do you feed your fish while they are in QT? If every day I'd cut back to every other or even every 3 days. They will be fine. Turn off all your pumps while you feed and siphon out any remaining food before turning your pumps back on. When my fish were in hypo I did 0.5-1 gallon water changes every day with water at 1.009 SG. It's better to do more small water changes as opposed to large water changes on such a small tank. To reduce stress keep the lights off as much as possible. They don't need light but you should have it on when you are observing. During hypo you need to try to keep your pH as stable as possible. I aimed for 7.8-7.9 and buffered to keep it there. Lower pH is good for hypo sessions. Your fish need to remain in hypo for 3 weeks after the last signs of ich. At the end of 3 weeks you need to take one week to slowly raise your SG up to your DT's level. I then added a week for good measure.

 

[kornele23]

I feed them once a day. Feeding them always makes them happy lol, so seeing them happy always makes me happy. I can cut back if I need to.
But my question of how long does it usually take the ich to die? is 6 days too long? Does this mean I have a resistant type strain that hypo won't be successful? I've heard that it gets worse before it gets better. But as soon as I took it down to 1.008-1.009 all the ich disappeared completely for about 3-4 days. Now its back..and it's getting worse I think. I've kept the lights off for the most part, but put them on when they eat and when I watch them.
I will take your advice about the feeding. I've already put an algae sheet in their this morning. So, perhaps I will not feed them again until tomorrow. I just always thought tangs and angels needed to eat often. I don't overfeed at all, and usually there is no leftover food at the bottom.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Kornele23
I feed them once a day. Feeding them always makes them happy lol, so seeing them happy always makes me happy. I can cut back if I need to.
But my question of how long does it usually take the ich to die? is 6 days too long? Does this mean I have a resistant type strain that hypo won't be successful? I've heard that it gets worse before it gets better. But as soon as I took it down to 1.008-1.009 all the ich disappeared completely for about 3-4 days. Now its back..and it's getting worse I think. I've kept the lights off for the most part, but put them on when they eat and when I watch them.
I will take your advice about the feeding. I've already put an algae sheet in their this morning. So, perhaps I will not feed them again until tomorrow. I just always thought tangs and angels needed to eat often. I don't overfeed at all, and usually there is no leftover food at the bottom.
It is completely normal that the ich have reattatched. It usually happens three or four days into hypo. I would not be at all concerned yet. The problem is that until you have the refractometer you will not know for sure that your sg is at 1.009. You can still feed them everyday, but only feed them a very small amount.

 

[kornele23]

This is good news then. I just thought the 6 days was a long time, but I will not worry about it. I should have enough money tomorrow to go and purchase a refractometer. I will keep ya'll updated.

 

[kornele23]

I posted this in another thread, but I will post it here:
I have been feeding my fish fresh garlic with their food. It is making my water cloudy. Why is this?? And it this necessarily bad? It's also giving the tank a nice garlic scent lol. I've followed the instructions on how to preprare the garlic - but I've gotta say that not MUCH juice is created and alot of the "chuncks" of garlic get into the food and tank. I try to syphon out the remaining chuncks of garlic when they are through eating, but the water still remains a little cloudy.
Also, update, fish are looking good. The angelfish has had a moderate case of HILE and its actually starting to look a lot better. It started looking better when I started using the fresh garlic. Maybe just a coincidence? But he has had the erosion for about 3 months now and nothing seemed to make it go away. Now its finally starting to clear up. The angel is finally ich free (no signs on it anyways) and Bubbles won't come up close enough to let me get a good enough look. When I saw it on him about 3-4 days ago, it was so small I could barely see it. I only saw it when he turned to the side and could see the light bouncing off of it.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Kornele23
I posted this in another thread, but I will post it here:
I have been feeding my fish fresh garlic with their food. It is making my water cloudy. Why is this?? And it this necessarily bad? It's also giving the tank a nice garlic scent lol. I've followed the instructions on how to preprare the garlic - but I've gotta say that not MUCH juice is created and alot of the "chuncks" of garlic get into the food and tank. I try to syphon out the remaining chuncks of garlic when they are through eating, but the water still remains a little cloudy.
Also, update, fish are looking good. The angelfish has had a moderate case of HILE and its actually starting to look a lot better. It started looking better when I started using the fresh garlic. Maybe just a coincidence? But he has had the erosion for about 3 months now and nothing seemed to make it go away. Now its finally starting to clear up. The angel is finally ich free (no signs on it anyways) and Bubbles won't come up close enough to let me get a good enough look. When I saw it on him about 3-4 days ago, it was so small I could barely see it. I only saw it when he turned to the side and could see the light bouncing off of it.
If the water is getting cloudy from the garlic then something isn't going right. Crush it on a plate with the blunt side of a knife. You can microwave the clove for a few seconds first to soften it. The water has never once gotten cloudy on me from the garlic. Yes, the garlic is geat to boost the fish's immune system and is shown to help with HLLE. I am very glad that your fish are doing better. Please keep us posted

 

[genzod66]

hey i have a great way to catch any fish,i use to stress catching fish,now its a joke. i can catch any fish in under a half hour,get a 2 litre soda bottle,take of stickers and rinse,cut the bottle in half,well take off about a quarter of bottle,punch a tiny hole thru top of bottle,and attatch fishing string,now place brine shrimp in bottle and let sink in tank so it is resting on side,wait and be patient til the fish you want swims into the bottle,then pull string ,bottle will stand up and reel it to top and pull out of tank,ive actually caught 3 fish at a time with it,and the fish are in a container as well,plus keep the trap for later use,no more stressing fish or moving rock!!!!!

 

[kornele23]

UPDATE:
Fish LOOK GREAT! No signs of ich for almost a week now in the hypo. The angel HLLE has almost cleared up completely!!! (which is amazing considering he has had it for almost 4 months now). And they are eating like PIGS. I know that they are starting to feel a little cramped in the 29 gallon because the angel is staring to chase around the 3 chromis, but for now they all seem happy. YAY

 

[kornele23]

OK it has been 3 weeks since I have seen any traces of ich on fish. It is time for me to start bringing up the salinity! YAY. My yellow tang had a bacterial infection and thank goodness the medication finally started to work.
Question: Is it ok to start bringing the salinity back up to normal while they are still taking the medication - or would that be too many things going on at once?