# Help...ich in new tank



## JonC888 (Jun 23, 2017)

Hey guys. I just set up my tank a bit over a week ago and was doing my fishless cycle. I came home to some tetras in it. I guess somebody was eager to put something in it. Anyways, after a few days I saw some white spots on them. I guess ich from the stress since my tanks temperature wasn't set properly and no hiding spaces etc. The tetras are slowly dying off. My question is, if the tank is empty with no fish and cranked up temp for a week, will that be good enough? if possible, I'd prefer not to do whole water change. Thanks in advance for any replies!


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## Geoffrey (Jun 24, 2015)

If you return the fish and the tank remains empty for 2 weeks, the ich will die (2 weeks to be safe, but really establishing the bacteria will take about 4-5 weeks total anyways). Ich needs to host to continue its life cycle.


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## JonC888 (Jun 23, 2017)

so during the next 4 weeks or so should I do any water changes? Or just run the tank and don't do anything with it? Also, should I put some salt in the aquarium? Would that be beneficial for anything?


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## Jousters (Jan 16, 2014)

Remove the fish to an established aquarium to treat for Ick.Let your tank continue the cycle.You can speed up the process by adding media from another established tank.


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## Mick2016 (Jun 16, 2016)

RE: "Remove the fish to an established aquarium to treat for Ick."

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OK . . . ONLY if there are no other fish in that other tank.

I wouldn't add any salt to the tank currently being cycled, but I might bump up the heat a couple of degrees in the meanwhile. If you have an air pump running, water changes would not be necessary without any fish or plants. Check the ammonia levels to see that these readings are dropping as time passes without water changes. However, a 10-25% change per week would not hurt the cycling.  (Water changing is a good habit to establish anyway once the fish and plants are added later.)


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## JonC888 (Jun 23, 2017)

Ok thanks guys! Well i just bought a air pump and test kit that I'll be using the next few weeks. I've turned up the temp in my tank to around 85. I've got a spare 10 gallon that I'll use as a quarantine in the future. One more question I have is that I'm using Eco complete substrate in my tank. I bought it from King Ed's and the guy said that if I use that substrate with plants in the aquarium, all I have to do on water changes is get out some water and replace with new. No need to run it over the substrate. Is that correct?


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## Jousters (Jan 16, 2014)

Do you mean rinsing the substate before adding to the Aquarium?I am using Ada soil and I do not rinse.I add the water slowly to prevent the water from clouding.I do rinse gravel to remove the unwanted dust.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 24, 2015)

You could do water changes to get into the habit of doing them, but during fishless cycles, there's really no need to do them unless ammonia or nitrite goes above 4ppm. When they're 4ppm+ it could stall the cycle. When the bacteria is established, you'll have a bunch of nitrates, so do a large water change before getting fish.


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