ick anf fillters

Question
I have a 75 gallon tank with black fin sharks. They have ick and a friend told me to use my Magnum 350 filler with a white powder called ( this is a bad try at the spelling) dinatachous earth. To make the filler more fine. he feels it will filler the ick out of the water. Any idea?

Answer
Hi Mark
Never heard of that treatment option.  I believe the only thing that may actually kill off, but not sure, would be a UV sterilizer or possibly even a diatom filter.  

Black fin sharks, also called Columbian sharks can actually tolerate salt.  They'll eventually need a brackish set up as they get older.  So, I'd go with the heat and salt treatment for them, assuming you don't have them in a brackish tank now.  Raise the temp to about 82 F, and add some salt at a 1 tablespoon per 5 US gallons.  Treat for about 14 days, or for 3 days after the last white spot falls off.  Be sure to vacuum the gravel/substrate real good as well.  Be sure to do regular weekly water changes of at least 25%.

How many are in the tank, and what's their sizes?  Ich usually shows up when fish are stressed and their immune system is down because of that.  If there's too many in the tank, or not enough frequent water changes(poor water quality) that would be enough to stress out the fish=causing the ich problem.

Hope that helps, and good luck with the treatment!

Christy