My friend has many fish. She told me that she used Ich away to be safe. More in description..?

Question

My friend has a few fish. She told me that she used Ich away to be safe - but none of her fish have ich. I told her never to do that again unless they actually have ich because its harsh on the lil fishies, and she said ok and did a water change immediately. I also asked her if she took out the filter when she put the ich away in, and she hadn't. I know it says to not use it in a tank w/ a filter on the back of the bottle, but what are the consequences of doing so? What should I advise her to do? Should I tell her to get a new filter cartridge or is it ok?

Answer 1

The reason the bottle tells you take out the filter (probably it just says to remove the carbon) is that the carbon will pull the medication of of the water. That's why carbon is used for drinking water filters - it removes a lot (but not all kinds) of impurities from the water. So if your friend put that in the tank with the filter running, chances are there already wasn't a lot of the medication left in the water!

You don't say how large the tank is, or how big the filter is. The more carbon there was, the more of the medicine it would adsorb. If the tank was fairly large, or there was little carbon in the filter, you might want to change the cartridge, just so you're sure most of the medication is out.

NOTE: both malachite green and formalin (the ingredients in Ich Away) are both carcinogenic. Tell your friend to be careful whenever she uses the chemical and it isn't good to use any medication on fish unless they have a disease or a parasite that you can positively identify. She may do her fish more harm than good by using the wrong medicine, or using one when it's not needed!

Answer 2

I used to work at a petstore. We put it in our tanks there to keep ich away and we had filters as well. We did clean those once a month and replaced the cartridges every 2-3 months. If you have a tank that does not have ich, and did not just add new fish...I wouldnt use it. Only if you add new, or see a problem. tell her to clean cartridge with hot water ( and the whole filter) and it should be fine. This takes alot to overdose the fish though. Not very harmful, so dont worry. A great health maintainer is aqua plus and cycle. use them together. Aqua plus is a conditioner removes hard water, chlorine, ect and is a stress reducer. Adding new fish alot they get stressed and could die. This will also help the ammonia levels. Cycle is "good bacteria" to keep a healthy balance. Bad bacteria out. I think that needs to be kept in the fridge though.

Answer 3

Be careful, also, when changing the water as it can cause shock to the fish.

Keep an eye on the fish, the Ich away shouldn't have hurt the fish, and I wouldn't worry about the filter if you don't notice any problem with the fish. However, it may depend on the type of fish in the tank.

Answer 4

She sould probally change the filter, just to be safe.