How To Administer ICH-X for Beginners

I started to use this product (ICH-X Aquarium Solutions) and quickly learned there is a lot of online controversy over how to administer it & what it's compatible with. I had a large amount of questions, I thought the label on the bottle was a bit vague, so I E-Mailed Hikari Solutions & would like to share the information they gave to me;

- It states to use 5ml to treat 10 gallons of water, for SMALLER aquariums that would be .5ml per gallon.
- Is it safe to Use in conjunction with Aquarium salt? Not recommended
- Is it Safe to use with Prime water conditioner? Not recommended
- Is it safe to use with API Stress coat Water Conditioner? Yes it is safe, but you must not overdose it. That water conditioner must be used also at .5ml per 1 gallon, and they noted if using both products to increase aeration with an airstone.
- On the bottle it states it is safe to be used with Hikari water conditioner.
- Will the Aquarium Lighting need to be decreased/ turned off whilst using ICH-X? NO.
- Will I need to turn the heat up in conjunction with using ICH-X? NO, you do not need to raise the water temp, but keeping the current temp constant, including during water changes during the treatment period is crucial.
- Am I supposed to add an airstone?
When using API stress coat too, yes. (They did not specify if it was absolutely necessary).
- On the bottle it states Staining may occur.
- It also says it can expose you to Formaldehyde.

BEFORE USING:
Remove ALL carbon from filter, carbon pads, inserts, if it's embedded inside the filter pad, you can cut a hole in the media, open it up, then shake all the little black carbon pieces out over a trash can. The bottle states to NOT stop filtration, just to remove the carbon. I removed my carbon pad, left my sponge & just added one extra small sponge from a separate cycled tank.

DOSING:
Day 1;
You can choose to do a water change beforehand, or not.. Add your dose; using the 5ml > 10gallon ratio or 2.5ml> 5g ratio or .5ml > 1g ratio.
If your using a small Quarantine tank or bin.

Day 2: change 1/3rd of your tank water. (If unsure of what 1/3rd of your water is, you can use a search engine or calculator to divide X amount of gallons by 3) Try to use a Gravel-Vacuum
To remove debris from the bottom. & Re-Dose the ICH-X medication- the same exact amount you dosed on Day 1.

Day 3: Rinse and repeat. Continue to water change 1/3rd of your water & re-add the same amount of ICH-X every day until ALL visible ICH has gone. This may take several days (or more).
Once the symptoms have cleared CONTINUE to dose the ICH-X for 3 EXTRA Days.

- While doing treatment, monitor water parameters, if something goes amiss, for example a nitrite spike occurs, you can remove a piece of cycled filter media from an established tank & add it to the tank/bin being treated to try & help balance and stabilize the beneficial bacteria.


Before using any medication, we as fish keepers are supposed to evaluate the situation, research the symptoms, diagnose the sick fish, then research our tank specifications ( what other types of fish, plants ect are in the tank) and make sure the medication is suitable for our specific situation.

I personally Find this process stressful. Clean Water & making sure the water parameters are correct are always first on the check-list. I was hesitant to reach for medication, I found the questions I needed answered right away were hard to find, so I hope by compiling this information it may help some other Member who needs it.

 

I can confirm this method because I did the same exact thing and with 1.5-2 weeks, ich was gone. My white filter media was temporarily stained and so was the suction cup for my thermometer. I used the API Stress Coat, but without an airstone.

 

Thanks. Other members using Ich-X might find this very helpful. There are a couple of things that I would do a little differently to their advice to improve effectiveness but it may not be helpful for me to post conflicting advice here.

 

I never had a fish with Ich, but it looks like a hard one to get rid of if you need to medicate for 1.5-2 weeks!
As an illness noob I really appreciate this, thank you!

 

Just like any med, definitely not something to be used lightly.

 

If there is a formaldehyde warning that tells me that Formalin must be one of the ingredients, in which case I would not add stress coat or any other medicine during the treatment cycle. You would be better off with natural tannins that promote slime coat health in this case instead of the stress coat

malachite green is effective against a host of things on its own

 

If there is a formaldehyde warning that tells me that Formalin must be one of the ingredients, in which case I would not add stress coat or any other medicine during the treatment cycle. You would be better off with natural tannins that promote slime coat health in this case instead of the stress coat

malachite green is effective against a host of things on its own

Yes Formalin is a listed ingredient right on the bottle. I had purchased this a while back. Bought some new fish, two ended up covered in ICH, I was stressed out, and asking questions, but found it was hard to have them answered, because so many aquarists treat ICH differently or have tried different mixes together. I realized I needed to speak to the manufacturer. The information Up above I just posted to share what they told me, I don't want to start any arguments or conflicts, just simply what I have learned.
Edit; Oh the API stress coat in this post is mentioned and referred to ONLY as a water conditioner not to promote any kind of healing.

 

Yes Formalin is a listed ingredient right on the bottle. I had purchased this a while back Bought some new fish, two ended up covered in ICH, I was stressed out, and asking questions, but found it was hard to have them answered, because so many aquarists treat ICH differently or have tried different mixes together. I realized I needed to speak to the manufacturer. The information Up above I just posted to share what they told me, I don't want to start any arguments or conflicts, just simply what I have learned.
Edit; Oh the API stress coat in this post is mentioned and referred to ONLY as a water conditioner not to promote any kind of healing.

No arguments here haha, the info you posted looks great

 

Yes Formalin is a listed ingredient right on the bottle. I had purchased this a while back Bought some new fish, two ended up covered in ICH, I was stressed out, and asking questions, but found it was hard to have them answered, because so many aquarists treat ICH differently or have tried different mixes together. I realized I needed to speak to the manufacturer. The information Up above I just posted to share what they told me, I don't want to start any arguments or conflicts, just simply what I have learned.
Edit; Oh the API stress coat in this post is mentioned and referred to ONLY as a water conditioner not to promote any kind of healing.

Pretty much did EVERYTHING you said and followed it to the LETTER for my salt water wall and just finished using ICH-X for a blue hippo tang. I was also able to make a bath/dip using the tank water and small amounts of VERY diluted herbtana. Seemed to knock the parasites off quick VERY WELL and he was more than fine for the 10/15 minute dip. We have just hit day 18 of treatment and he has put on weight and FULLY bounced back with minimal scaring

 

Changing water before starting treatment is very important .
Old/ dirty water will degrade the med just like light can ...
Too often people do not do proper water changes and then say the med did not work ??
ShadowChix saltwater ich is totally different then freshwater ich ..
Meds usually[besides copper ] do not work ..Marine ich has a life cycle of over 1 year and can live without a proper host much longer then freshwater ich .. Good luck ..

 

Thank you for this. I'm getting my first two fish soon and I want to make sure I'm as prepared as I can be. I've bookmarked this thread for future reference if I ever am in need of an ich treatment guide.

 

Shoot! Wish I saw this post a few weeks ago. I’ve been treating ich with ich-x for a few weeks and using Prime conditioner. Now that the ich is gone (well, hopefully) two of the fish have been looking really worse for wear so I immediately started API general cure. The younger smaller sick fish didn’t make it but I’m hoping the older bigger one pulls through. These were also the two fish most effected by the ich.
I hope the Prime didn’t make their illness worse!!