The Hikari Ich-X can be used to treat Ich, Saprolegniasas, Trichodiniasis and Velvet (Gold Dust). However, overdosing this product can cause major issues with your already sick, stressed and fragile fish.
To see what you can do when you accidentally overdose Ich-X in your fish tank, you can check out this troubleshooting guide.
Official Dosage Instructions for Hikari Ich-X
According to Hikari, you should dose around 5 milliliters which is a teaspoonful, for every 10 gallons (or 40 liters) you have in your fish tank.
Keep in mind that substrate, rocks, décor and other objects in your aquarium will take up space, which will result less water volume. Therefore, you may want to dose a little less than the recommended amount.
How to tell that you overdosed Ich-X
Your fish may show the following signs of stress if you accidentally overdose Ich-X in your aquarium:
- Gulping for air at the top of the water surface (this is also known as piping)
- Coughing heavily
- Jerking their head
- Jerking their entire body
- Darting all over your tank suddenly without being provoked
How to fix a fish tank that has been overdosed with Hikari Ich-X with a water change
In order to fix a fish tank that has been overdosed with the Hikari Ich-X, then we recommend doing a large water change as soon as possible.
You can do so by taking the following steps:
1. If only some of your fish or other aquatic pets are reacting really adversely to the treatment, then you might want to remove them from the tank and then put them temporary in a water that hasn’t been treated with Ich-X.
2. Remove at least 50% of the water from the tank. If you severely overdosed Ich-X, then the more water you remove will be better as you will be diluting the concentration of the solution.
3. Next, add new water back into the tank.
If you are adding tap water back into your tank, then make sure you dose a sulfur-free water conditioner first in order to remove the chlorine and chloramine. The conditioner should not have any sulfur in it; otherwise, it will cause issues with Ich-X as well as deplete the oxygen in your fish tank.
If you are looking for a compatible conditioner for Ich-X, then we recommend picking up the Hikari Water Conditioner. You can find this product on Amazon with this link. (#CommissionsEarned)
To see how you can use Ich-X with Seachem Prime, you can take a look at this step-by-step tutorial.
Distilled water doesn’t need to be treated with a conditioner to be fish safe.
4. After adding water back into your tank, keep carefully observing your fish to see if they are still showing signs of stress or discomfort.
5. If you have an air stone or filter, then you can try increasing the intensity of the air flow or water flow to add more oxygen in your tank.
6. You can also try adding a little bit of carbon media to more Ich-X from the tank.
7. If your fish has calmed down, then they should be okay in regards to Ich-X. If you remove fish that were reacting badly to the Ich-X before, then you should be able to safely add them back into the tank.
The next time you dose Ich-X, make sure you use less of it or you may run into the same issues again.