Jaydeath

Hi everybody, I'm a new member so excuse me if I am unknowingly breaking any rules or addressing a topic that has already had closure. In any case, I started up a tank quite a while ago, it's 40 gallons and seemed to have normally cycled until I added a Parrotfish and 2 oscars. The actual issue i'm having is that there's a HUGE ammonia spike, tests are reading over 8.0 ppm and have been for over a week now. Somehow the fish were perfectly healthy seeming and happy until yesterday when the ich attacked. Now my real question is this: most ich treatments require that I remove my activated carbon, if I do this I'm very worried that the ammonia will really run rampant and immediately kill all my fish; if I don't do this I'm worried the ich is going to kill the fish as one of them is already completely covered. I dropped a few pennies into the tank and increased the temperature for tonight hoping that will slow the spread of the ich at least a little bit. Somebody please help me out here! I put ammo lock in the tank tonight as well; I'd rather save my fish and be able to cycle again another time because my parrotfish was $20 and so was my red oscar. Thanks so much!

ZeroSystem

Welcome to FTF!

How long did you allow your tank to cycle? Did you do a fishless cycle or with fish? 40 gallons is not enough to keep even a single oscar, let alone two plus a parrot fish! This could be part of the problem.

If the tank was cycled properly then removing the carbon shouldn't harm anything. Leaving the carbon in will make the medications ineffective. Why did you drop pennies into the tank? Increasing the tempature will increase the speed at which the ich will spread. Adding aquarium salt and increasing the heat in the tank is an effective method I have used in the past and it wouldn't require you to remove the carbon from your filter. Might be something worth trying unless you've already got the meds on hand. I would look into rehoming the oscars as they are not going to be able to live in a 40 gallon tank long term. Good luck! Let us know if you have any other questions!