I bought 10 gold fish from petsmart to cycle my 75. it's been about a week and now I just noticed lil white dots speckled on their fins and body. I'm pretty sure it's ich. If I medicate them will it mess with the bacteria im trying to culture durring the break in cycle? What should I do?
A heater helps with the cycle. Its easier to cycle a tank at 82-83 in my experience the little beneficial bugs like warmer temps and lots of oxygen.
As for the salt I typically use a rounded tablespoon full for every 5 gallons.
And its important to know that the ick was with out a doubt brought on from the stress of the ammonia that is in the tank.
If it were me i would add
1- a heater and slowly bring the temp up to around 80-83
2- add some meds for the ick. Like rid ick or other popular brand ick treatment. That will not harm bio bacteria. As well as salt in the amount prev. said.
3- a bottle of SAFE START by aqua safe to cycle the tank in a very short time (2-3 days). Only add this after you have brought the tanks temp up. Or it will not work very good.
The temp deal is assuming you will have tropical fish in the tank. If this will be a native cold water tank then the safe start will take a few more days to work the cycle out completely.
Ok so I added the salt and bought a heater and bumped it up to 79-80. The fish looked better for a day or two then they had the ich and what looked like fin rot pretty bad for a few days. So this morning I went and got the super ich cure liquid and removed my carbon and applied the recomended dose. When I got home from school today all the 4 remaining goldfish had passed away..
So my question is should i keep treating the water as directed without any fish?
If I introduce new fish will they get sick from the ich as well?
How will I know when the take is cycled? Do I need to buy more goldfish to keep it cycling?
