After speaking with the kind folks in First forum's chat I have concluded that temperature is the root of my problems. I have read the comment "Never trust your local fish store." - well I did... They told me that as long as my temperature stays in the green, I'm good to go without a heater. Well, apparently that was the worst advice they could give. After adding the salt recommendation Ichthius I ran back down to the store to purchase a couple heaters for my tanks. In the tank that is showing signs of Ich again I have raised the temperature to 76 degrees (it has been hovering at 74 degrees). I plan to raise the temperature slowly to about 86 degrees throughout the night (I'm be here with them the whole time). I have added another air pump and lowered the water level slightly (so the filter adds additional air). If it looks like the fish are starting to get stressed I will back the temp down. So far they appear to not mind a bit.
Get this - the LFS recommended that I take a beta bowl and fill it with salt and drop it in the tank. I'm going to stick to Ichthius' recommendation, but thought I would share that with everyone anyway. I'm fairly sure that is a bad idea in this case, but wondered if I should do something similar to the tank that is not showing signs yet. The other tank has had problems with Ich in weeks past, so I'm not sure if I should treat it again right away or wait for signs to show up.
Thanks to everyone for the wonderful help you have given me. After this is all said and done I will modify the original post with the new information. Has anyone else experienced these early signs and can validate them?
Many thanks,
Sitaga
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