F8 with ich

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
perek
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Post by perek »

Yea the spines got me too. I am so overprotective of my fish. :P
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Post by Pufferpunk »

A nitrite of 3 is extremely toxic!
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
susans
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Post by susans »

i know it is, im working on it.
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Post by onebadpuffer »

If your nitrite is still at 3 ppm that long after adding Bio-spira, then you got a bad bag of it or you didn't add enough. I recommend following lisalisa's advice(i find myself doing that a lot lately), and getting some more bio-spira and adding it to the filter media after doing a large water change to bring the toxicity levels down so that the Bio-spira can do it's job.

Did you purchase your original Bio-spira online or at a LFS? What size filter for what size tank? Was the Bio-spira cold when you received it? Did you keep it cold until you used it?
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Post by susans »

i bought it at the LFS, found it online - it was cold up until i put it in, i have a 10 gallon tank, with a bio wheel filer. i bought a bag of it and used only a portion, because it was big enough to feed both my 30 gallon and my 10 gallon.... maybe i did not put enough... i will try again. how much can i put in my 10 gallon. they do not carry one bag for just a 10 gallon tank so ill have to buy bigger than i need.
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Post by susans »

20 gallon filter, sorry
susans
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Post by susans »

im glad to know im not the only one perek! :)
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Post by susans »

is it possible to put too much bacteria? (bio spira)
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Post by Phaedrus »

no. and in your case, you probably want a lot right now.
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Post by susans »

ok, so like a whole bag? im on it!
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Post by onebadpuffer »

Yeah, with Nitrite that high, put the whole bag in at once, put some right on the bio wheel, spin it as you put it on, put some on the filter media itself, and some in the filter box. That should do you fine.
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Post by Phaedrus »

Don't do a water change for 48 hours afterwards to give the bacteria a chance to settle out of the water column and onto the substrate and media.

Also, you've been dosing with Prime to detoxify the nitrite right? So even though it's 3, it's hopefully not as toxic as it would be without the prime.
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Pufferpunk
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Post by Pufferpunk »

Do a 80-90% water change, before adding the B-S.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Phaedrus
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Post by Phaedrus »

We should make a sticky on bio-spira
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Post by susans »

got it, thanks! water change before b/s, then nothing for 48 hours, and yes prime everyday. thanks guys!! talk to you soon, hopefully not for a sick fish!
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