White Spot returning???

agb123456
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I have a 125l tank with internal filter. Water parameters , ammonia 0ppm, nitrite 0ppm, nitrate 10ppm, ph 7.2, and i am in a soft water area of the country. Usually water temperature approx 25dec.

I change 25% of the water weekly, using a gravel filter on half the tank and alternating the half i clean. I was rinsing all of the filter media in used tank water every week but after advice that this was too frequent i havent touched the filter for nearly a month now.

I have what i think is my 5th outbreak of white spot in the last 3 months!!! I have lost over 25% of my fish in this time.

I intiitally spotted some spots and treated with love fish white spot treatment from pets at home. I removed the carbon from my filter and followed the dosing exactly as the instructions. After completing the dosing cycle all spots were gone however a couple of days later i noticed more spots so treated with exactly the same product again. This seemed to clear it.

Then a month or so later i lost a number of small fish in a matter of days, then again noticed spots. This time i tried an alternative treatment 'waterlife protozin white spot treatment' this seemed successful after a round of treatment but then 2 or 3 weeks later it returned. I tried turning the temperature up to around 30degc, but after a week or so this didnt seem to have an effect so i returned the temperature to normal and then treated again with the water life product, spots disappeared.

This was about 2 or 3 weeks ago and then couple of days ago i found two dead fish and another one covered in white spots so started another water life treatment and the spots do now seem to be disappearing but why am i getting an outbreak every few weeks? I have not introduced any fish or plants since the initial outbreak. Could it be thats is something else causing this?

Thanks in advance for any replies.
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Gingerlove05
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What fish/live stock do you currently have?
Ich/whitespot has a life cycle of 14 days, during this time the spores are only vulnerable when they are in the free swimming stage. Extra water changes can help catch some of the free swimming spores and keep the water pristine to prevent any secondary infections.
If you go down the temp method (30C+) you need to keep it up for at least 14days (the lifecycle) to kill off the ich.
If you do use the temp method dont use meds as well as warmer water doesnt hold as much oxygen as cooler water, and some meds can also take up oxygen, so you could cause issues with low oxygen.
Hope that helps :)
Jbromley
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I also have a similar issue,

I have an outbrake of white spot in my 240l. I raised temps to 28, done 2 courses of esha exit and esha 2000 with no reslts.
I then treated with waterlife protozin and i am now on day 4 and it is still spreading. I have now raised temps to 30 and have added garlic to food. Also done 50% waterchange before switchi g tretments
Do anyone have advice? Do i continue with protozin as i am now on day 4 which says not to dose again till day 6.
All water levels are fine and ph stable at 7.4
agb123456
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I think I'm going to try the temperature method now for the 2 weeks you suggest.

I cant understand though why it keeps coming back. If the lifecycle is 14 days why do I keep seeing spots about 3 weeks after I treat. Could it be it's not white spot and I've misdiagnosed?
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Gingerlove05
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Higher temps will speed up the life cycle of ich, but below 30C and the spores can survive. As mentioned i would do either temp or meds not both because of oxygen issues.
I would stop the meds for now and keep the temp raised for 14days, i would also do a couple of extra small changes to potentially help catch any free swimming spores.
Garlic can help but dont over do it either as too much can have negative effects.
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Gingerlove05
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If the spores are no killed off they can lie dormant until a host swims becomes available, any stressed/injured fish are more susceptible and it can spread quickly.
It’s possible you have misdiagnosed, pics would help determine better/for definite.
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Martinspuddle
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https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa006

Bit of a long read I know but it will give you an idea of what you're up against. ;)
WARNING - DO NOT BREED, FEED OR PET THE PUDDLE! :dodgy2:
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plankton
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Have you replaced any fish while this has been going on?

The garlic, I would just crush a quarter of a clove into the tank, the juice on its own will help to boost the immune system, but wait for 10 mins before popping in the tank for it to be more effective.
agb123456
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No new fish been introduced into the tank for at least two months, thats why i cant understand why its coming back and doubting whether it is white spot after all.

Image below of my black mollie, not as many spots as yesterday but there is still some.

Image

Also noticed today this white string coming out of my blue ram. Is that something to worry about? could it be related to the other problems im seeing?
Image
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Misty
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White spot (ich) can be a pain. The difficulty is, as mentioned above, ich can only be killed during its free swimming stage - this is when the spots "fall off" the fish and are not visible. So it is easy to assume it has been cured. I battled with a bad outbreak of ich a while ago. Don't remember what I did, but I had to change meds. While one medication helped some of my fish, it did not have any affect on the others (even though they were all in the same tank)...
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