ich issue

Question
QUESTION: I have a 20 gallon tank that has 6 tetras, 5 dawrf graumies, 3 platys, and 1 algae eater in it.... I also have ich! The weird thing is that my platys seem to be the only ones affected. I haven't seen any spots on the graumies and the spots on the tetras went away after the first few days of treatment. I bought a product called quICK Cure and have been using it for over a week now. I just followed the bottles directions: 1 drop for every 2 gallons & I removed the filter. I thought I had gotten it all but I have one platy that's covered now! So after cruising the internet I've found a lot of different treatments and I need some help filtering through them. One I read was heat and salt, but I'm worried that the salt may affect my different fish in different ways. Another thing was to do large water changes and gravel vaccums. I didn't think it was good to remove large amounts of water from your tank. See? I'm at a loss!
What is your suggestion for treatment?

ANSWER: Okay, first of all, pull all the fish out of that aquarium, drain, clean and change the gravel, or boil the gravel and cool and then place it back into the tank after disinfecting the aquarium fully, with soapy water.

If you can't do that, then leave it without fish for a month, with the heat turned up to 80 degrees, and the ICH will die off.  Even treated tanks can still contain Ich and it will live in the tank for the rest of the tank's life if you don't kill the life-cycle.

While the fish are in a hospital tank, treat them two ways.  First, add 2 teaspoons of salt per gallon, and again add the Quick Cure.  The two teaspoons of salt per gallon will help to kill the parasite on the platties.

Platties and mollies are fish which are ultra-sensative to freshwater diseases and parasites.  

Please feel free to followup if you have additional questions.

Renee

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I don't have another tank to put the fish into... So I guess I need to do the cleaning thing. After I clean all the gravel (and I'm assuming all the fake plants & other things in the tank as well# and disinfect the tank, how should I treat the fish?? Can I just put them back into the clean tank? Then should I do what you suggested for the 'hospital tank'? Also, how many doses of Quick Cure do you suggest?
Another question: What kind of salt do I need to use?
Last question: Will the salt have negative affects on my other fish #I have platties, tetras, dwarf graumies, & an algae eater

Answer
Hello,

If you don't have a hospital tank, treat your entire aquarium.  No need to clean it yet...as you have to treat the diseased fish someplace and stressing him out is not good.

So, treat him with the quick cure, as per the directions.  The salt must be marine salt.  Dissolve it in freshwater and add it to the system slowly and tomorrow, remember to increase by one teaspoon.

The tetras and the algae eater may not like the salt too much.

Tuesday, please take out 25% of the water and do a water change.

Remove all filter pads while you treat the fish.  Leave the filters going for oxygenation.

Increase heat to 80 degrees as well.

When the fish is better, keep treating the tank an additional week just incase.  Ich is very hard to kill.

After all this is over, change the water every weekend for a couple months, 10% a weekend.  It will keep it fesh and cycle out the quick cure.

The salt will kill the ich, alongside the quick cure.  The problem is it won't kill the ich inside the fish's skin right now, just the free-swimming larvae, so you have to treat the tank for about a week to kill the entire cycle of ich.

Good luck and if you need to email, I am online nightly.

Renee