Well, not completely. I'm just giving up the idea of putting snails and guppies in my 10-gallon. Even with water changes, it seems to be an unhealthy tank. My clown loaches and yoyo loach in QT in that tank have now developed ich. I lost the other yoyo loach yesterday, and the day before that, my clown loach in the big tank died unexpectedly. I wonder if that means the neon tetra disease is still in the big tank? I'm so frustrated. I hardly have any fish left now.

when was the last time you checked your water stats? what makes you think your clown died from neon tetra disease ?

I ran out of test strips, so it's been a while since I tested the water, but I try to do weekly water changes.

I'd lost a great deal of my population in the big tank over the past 4 or 5 months to neon tetra disease. Then it had been about 2 months since I had a fish death, so I was starting to feel safe about putting the fish in quarantine in the 10-gallon into the big tank. There are 5 cories, 1 baby yoyo, and 2 baby clowns in the 10-gallon. It's a bit crowded, but I didn't want to expose them to whatever is going on in the big tank.

Then a couple of days ago I noticed the clown in the big tank was swimming a little oddly, not eating well, and had white patches on his sides that resemble NTD. I'm not 100% sure if that's what it was, but it looked like it. I was going to post a thread the next day asking if I should euthanize him, but he'd already died. I'm feeling pretty discouraged.

what else have you got in the tank & do they show any symptons ? i would also be inclined to get a test kit & test the water to see if that was the reason

Perhaps it's time for a big clean.

Put some of those kids of yours to work. Plop the fish in a bucket for a couple of days, while you strip the tank down.

I'm wondering if there'd be a benefit in this:

Remove Fish.
Bring the water right down,
Mix the gravel to loosen the debris, siphon.
Replace water (still low), mix again, siphon.
^ repeat as required.
Replace water(still low),
Add concentrated Medication (a high dose) of ??? whatever.
Mix in with gravel (water only 0.5 to 1 inch above gravel)
Leave for ?? 24 to 48 hours, with semi regular mixing of gravel.

Siphon off,
Refill tank.
Prepare for return of fish...(water conditioner, heater, artificial filter seeding)

During all this, you could have your filter running off a bucket or similar, to keep it's aeration up (for the bacteria).

Kana, those are good ideas. I could even empty the 10-gallon's water and put the water from the big tank into the 10-gallon and temporarily keep the fish in there, while I'm doing a deep clean on the big tank. I could even replace the gravel with sand at that time. The question is, do I wait to do it after the ich is cured and my affected loaches are stronger, or do I do it now so I don't stress them out again after they're cured of the ich?

Just a suggestion...

Since you're losing fish anyway, I don't think this will hurt.

I did this in my son's tank containing mostly tetras when he had ich & it cleared it right up.

Try slowly (over hours or a whole day) increasing your tank temp to about 84f or 86f. Leave it there a couple days. Many bacteria & parasites can't survive the heat. My son's ich just melted off.

As far as what it will do to your fish - not much usually. The higher temp will kick up their metabolism...which means you may want to feed slightly larger portions. A healthy fish will survive this treatment.

Afte you see ich cleared up, slowly back the temp down to your normal level.

Good luck

Thanks, PepperedGary. I started raising the temp and some of them do look a little more active, zooming all over the tank. I'm also using a half dose of Quick Cure, which has done wonders for ich in the past. I just lost a clown which breaks my heart, but I'm hoping the other guy will pull through.

OT question, since I noticed your avatar: do you keep discus?

I've heard favourably of this raising the temperature method.

Just note that warmer water holds less oxygen. And most medications reduce the oxygen uptake of the water.

So increase your surface agitation if you're able.

I don't blame you for rambling! I do too when I'm talking about something I love. Our water is fairly hard with high pH, so it doesn't sound like the best parameters for discus. We may be moving out of state in the next few months, so maybe then I could try. I could also try some German blue rams to see how they would do in my tank, since they're sold here.

My tank is also a 55G. A couple pieces of wood, and I'm planning on getting more. It's heavily "planted" with fake plants, but after we move I want to convert to live plants. Aside from some neon tetra disease and a couple bouts of ich, I've never had a problem with the water quality. The nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia are always about zero, even if I get a little lax in water changes. The pH and hardness are also very steady, nothing changes. Tetras, cories, and loaches generally do very well in my tank, but I've been looking for a type of fish that gets bigger, to show off the tank a little more. I love my neon and bloodfin dither fish, but it looks a little dull when they're the only ones swimming around mid-level.