keeping it hot 86

[Laura]

Been trying to keep my tank at 86 to kill ick, room temp is 70, heater will take it to 86 in the day due to llghts and UV sub heater motor,but night comes and I drop to 82-84 ackkkkkkk was told two heaters would do the trick, but will that really work, thought all heaters just got ya 12 degrees above room temp???? No signs of ick now, but do want to keep um hot at least 3-7 more days, Any thoughts ?? THANKS, Laura

 

[CopabX]

If you don't want to spend another $30+ on another heater, try covering all the openings with towels or some kind of insulation since that's where most of the heat is lost. If you really want to go crazy, you can wrap the whole tank. Reducing the water level should also help keep the temperature up. :biggrin:

 

[aquaticclarity]

Unless you can keep the tank temp stable your are going to do more harm then good in trying to treat ick. (I'm personally not a fan of raising the temp to kill ick...so take my advice wth a grain of salt)

Here's the low down:

Ick has a three stage life cycle-
1-free swimming stage looking for a host (the treatable stage)
2-attached stage on host (looks like a salt grain stuck on the fish body), this stage is not treatable and once it matures it "explodes" releasing eggs
3-eggs in the substrate, etc. which hatch into the free swimming stage, physical removal via gravel cleaning/water changes can help reduce the number of eggs

Much like a common cold in people ick oubreaks normally occur when a stressed fish enters a tank or a major event takes place in a tank causing stress. Keeping a stable aquarium (and quarantining new fish) helps greatly in preventing ick in established tanks and making it easier to treat ick on new fish.

Raising the tanks temp to treat ick is attempting to due two things:

1) speed up the life cycle of ick (a parasite) so it can be dealt with faster

2) and more so-ick can't live well in higher temps so hopefully a healthy fish can overcome the bug on it's own then

The Problems:

+keeping the temps stable is key as if the temps are moving up and down 4-6 degrees or more (personal opinion on temp range) you are adding more stress to the fish which makes matters worse and gives the ick a better chance of surviving

+elavated temps high enough to effect ick will almost always stress out your fish

+to be most effective in treating ick with higher temps the addition of a medication is VERY helpful in speeding up the process

I find it easier (and more effective) to treat ick with medications like Quick Cure which have a dye (like methal blue or malachite green) a formeldahyde componant, and copper. In proper doses the meds (which I understand some people do not like) don't hurt plants but can be rough on inverts. If you have inverts in the tank avoid meds with copper in them.

A U.V. sterilizer is also an effective ick treatment but has a larger added expense up front. If you are apposed to using meds in your tanks a U.V. sterilizer would be a wise investment.

 

[Laura]

Unless you can keep the tank temp stable your are going to do more harm then good in trying to treat ick. (I'm personally not a fan of raising the temp to kill ick...so take my advice wth a grain of salt)

Here's the low down:

Ick has a three stage life cycle-
1-free swimming stage looking for a host (the treatable stage)
2-attached stage on host (looks like a salt grain stuck on the fish body), this stage is not treatable and once it matures it "explodes" releasing eggs
3-eggs in the substrate, etc. which hatch into the free swimming stage, physical removal via gravel cleaning/water changes can help reduce the number of eggs

Much like a common cold in people ick oubreaks normally occur when a stressed fish enters a tank or a major event takes place in a tank causing stress. Keeping a stable aquarium (and quarantining new fish) helps greatly in preventing ick in established tanks and making it easier to treat ick on new fish.

Raising the tanks temp to treat ick is attempting to due two things:

1) speed up the life cycle of ick (a parasite) so it can be dealt with faster

2) and more so-ick can't live well in higher temps so hopefully a healthy fish can overcome the bug on it's own then

The Problems:

+keeping the temps stable is key as if the temps are moving up and down 4-6 degrees or more (personal opinion on temp range) you are adding more stress to the fish which makes matters worse and gives the ick a better chance of surviving

+elavated temps high enough to effect ick will almost always stress out your fish

+to be most effective in treating ick with higher temps the addition of a medication is VERY helpful in speeding up the process

I find it easier (and more effective) to treat ick with medications like Quick Cure which have a dye (like methal blue or malachite green) a formeldahyde componant, and copper. In proper doses the meds (which I understand some people do not like) don't hurt plants but can be rough on inverts. If you have inverts in the tank avoid meds with copper in them.

A U.V. sterilizer is also an effective ick treatment but has a larger added expense up front. If you are apposed to using meds in your tanks a U.V. sterilizer would be a wise investment.

First, thanks for the helpful notes ! I guess you didn't see where I had added a 9 watt UV first thing and do daily gravel vacs as well as water changes.........note the "dumb" I wrote for not quaranteening, can't undo that, BUT I do hear ya on the stable temps. I keep my tank 80-82 usually, was told that I should be thru the first stage in 2-3 days with that temp, and to try and keep temp up for the next 3-5 days after that. I have added a cover at night at that did the trick NO signs of ick yesterday so will hold a steady temp for 3-5 days then slowly drop to normal. From what I am getting on this forum, my cacts would be happier at 79..........and better for more mixed sexes in spawns. Thanks for all your help. Laura

 

[Laura]

blanketing tank worked

If you don't want to spend another $30+ on another heater, try covering all the openings with towels or some kind of insulation since that's where most of the heat is lost. If you really want to go crazy, you can wrap the whole tank. Reducing the water level should also help keep the temperature up. :biggrin:

WOW that totally worked !!!!!! I kept my same temp up all night with a total tank wrap, except to a few air holes by the filters I used a heavy blanket for the tank and heavy towel across the back Good to know for the future, should have thought of that, made it thru power outages that way in past
THANK YOU Laura