RE: Treating Ick in a planted tank

["Giancarlo" <gp at isaconsulting_com>]

I too introduced 4 clown loaches a while ago into a healthy tank and had an
ich problem. Following various suggestions from the list I whent ahead and
treated the tank with QuickCure, I dosed it at half the reccomended dose (I
also have cardinals and cories) for approx 3 weeks until the bottle ran out.
I didn't notice any ill effects on the plants or any of the fish,
unfortunately 2 loaches died before the treatment could help them (they were
covered in it). Since then it has re-occured once following a large ph drop
which stressed the fish but quickly whent away on it's own. I also raised
the temperature to 82df to speed up the life cycle of the ich parasite. I
didn't have a spare tank at the time either so I treated the entire tank (55
gal) and everything whent well. If you isolate them it may be too late to
avoid contamination anyway, perhaps you might want to treat the entire tank
anyway. One thing I did pay attention to was dosing the quickcure just after
lights out so that the light would not efect the malachite green (sp?). My
plants are still doing good and I wouldn't have any problems repeating the
treatment if I had an ich problem again. Perhaps at full dose the results
may be different though

Good luck

Giancarlo Podio