A hypothetical question for the Crypto experts.

[kv2wr1]

Long story short, I learned the hard way not to trust anyone but myself to quarantine fish properly. The fish are doing well in a hospital tank being treated with Cupramine. Ramping up the dose slowly. Everyone is still eating.

Now for the hypothetical question:

My display is fallow and is fully cycled.

Since I have to leave the display fallow for 9 weeks and still feed the biological filtration, could I recycle the tank?

It is a FOWLR minus the fish right now. No inverts or corals or pods (I used dead dry rock and made it live which took several months using bacteria, ammonium chloride and ghost feeding to the point where the bacteria would colonize on the rock and effectively process waste).

I was wondering if I brought the ammonia level up through ghost feeding if that would kill the crypto any faster or more effectively?

If not, then I will ghost feed just enough to keep the biological filtration alive, but not enough to bring the ammonia level up.

Thanks in advance.

 

[MrTuskfish]

A fallow tank doesn't really kill Crypto, it dies in the free-swimming stage when it can't find a fish host. I see no reason to re-cycle a well-cycled tank. A pinch of dry food every few days should keep your bacteria healthy. Re-stock slowly when the time comes. Your bacteria will react to the increased load; friendly and established bacteria multiplies quickly when a new food source is added. (+ weeks fallow time gives you nearly a 100% chance of killing all the parasites as they emerge from their mother-cyst.

 

[b0bab0ey]

A fallow tank doesn't really kill Crypto, it dies in the free-swimming stage when it can't find a fish host. I see no reason to re-cycle a well-cycled tank. A pinch of dry food every few days should keep your bacteria healthy. Re-stock slowly when the time comes. Your bacteria will react to the increased load; friendly and established bacteria multiplies quickly when a new food source is added. (+ weeks fallow time gives you nearly a 100% chance of killing all the parasites as they emerge from their mother-cyst.

+1 There's no research (that I've seen) to suggest that an ammonia spike would kill Crypto.

Starving the parasites out by going fallow is the only way, unless the OP wanted to completely break the tank down and start over. I would just go fallow.

 

[kv2wr1]

Thanks everyone. I will just feed the display tank as you suggested.