Ap Fish Ich

[Devin Duhaime]

Well everything seems to be good all levels,,But now I have Ich,,don't want to use fish med's on the ap system,,,but I heard that ppl use salt? if so how much would I use??? my tank holds 204 gallons of water n my small grow bed has 15 gallons n my big bed holds 22 gallons n thats about 247 gallons of water cycling,,my pump, pumps at about 200 gallons a hour,, so how much salt should I use if I can to kill the Ich with out killing the fish n plants??????????

[TCLynx]

To kill Ick with salt, you will likely loose any salt sensitive plants like strawberries.

From what I've heard (I've never dealt with Ick myself) you want to increase the salt level in your system by 3 ppt fairly quickly then you need to leave that elevated salt level in place for as long as it takes to run the life cycle of the Ick.  The Life cycle of Ick is dependent on Temperature, shorter when temperatures are warm, do a little google searching and you should find some numbers to help you out.

As to figuring how much salt, well here is a blog post that might help you with the math and so on.

http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/salt-for-fish-health

[Devin Duhaime]

TY for the info 

TCLynx said:

To kill Ick with salt, you will likely loose any salt sensitive plants like strawberries.

From what I've heard (I've never dealt with Ick myself) you want to increase the salt level in your system by 3 ppt fairly quickly then you need to leave that elevated salt level in place for as long as it takes to run the life cycle of the Ick.  The Life cycle of Ick is dependent on Temperature, shorter when temperatures are warm, do a little google searching and you should find some numbers to help you out.

As to figuring how much salt, well here is a blog post that might help you with the math and so on.

http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/salt-for-fish-health

[TCLynx]

I've salted to 3 ppt before.  Don't go any higher than that with catfish or bluegill.  It will knock some types of plants around (strawberries) but most plants will survive.  And with current temperatures, you may need to maintain for a few weeks.  If water was in the 80's one week might do it.  Good Luck.

[Devin Duhaime]

Thanx for the replys,,but I solved the issue,, not by adding salt for this is not good for some plant,,But what I did was raise the temp of the water for 2 days,, for ich can't live in temp of 74 or higher,, I'll post a video later,, all fish are great n plants are great to,,,thanx again for the info,,,,

[RupertofOZ]

Devin.. I think you need further treatment... if you're not going to salt.. and rely on heat treatment alone...

 

Then I would suggest holding temperatures for 10 days...

 

The Ich life cycle is temperature dependent. Higher temperatures within its livable range speed up every stage of the life cycle, while the lower temperatures will slow it down. At 18°C/64°F the cycle takes 10-12 days to complete.

 

It has been found that Ich does not infect new fish at 29.4°C/85°F (Johnson, 1976), stops reproducing at 30°C/86°F (Dr. Nick St. Erne, DVM, pers. comm.), and dies at 32°C/89.5°F (Meyer, 1984)

[Devin Duhaime]

Well thanx for info,,, but  believe it or not thre is no sign's of ich n every thing is healthy n fish are getting bigger n lovely colours of the fish are great,,oh n they are Goldfish,,,n a Dojo,,did lose one Dojo n a cpl of goldfish ,,But like I said everything is great,,,,ty again for the input,,,,

RupertofOZ said:

Devin.. I think you need further treatment... if you're not going to salt.. and rely on heat treatment alone...

 

Then I would suggest holding temperatures for 10 days...

 

The Ich life cycle is temperature dependent. Higher temperatures within its livable range speed up every stage of the life cycle, while the lower temperatures will slow it down. At 18°C/64°F the cycle takes 10-12 days to complete.

 

It has been found that Ich does not infect new fish at 29.4°C/85°F (Johnson, 1976), stops reproducing at 30°C/86°F (Dr. Nick St. Erne, DVM, pers. comm.), and dies at 32°C/89.5°F (Meyer, 1984)

[RupertofOZ]

Ich can survive in the water for up to 10-12 days though Devin...