Filtering ich

[Young Frankenstein]

Is it possible in an empty tank (no rocks, decor etc.) to filter ich?

 

[Shagsbeard]

what do you mean by "filter"? If you mean remove... sure. There's lots of ways to sterilize water. The problem is that it will also kill everything else along with the ich. All your benefitial bacteria will be gone, all your livestock. It will be a sterile rectangular mass of water. The problem with ich is trying to kill it, without killing everything else in the tank.

6 weeks or so without any fish and your ich will have died from lack of a host. That's pretty much a sure thing. If you are trying to cure a fish, you have to remove it into an environment that will kill the ich... hyposalinity or copperbased treatments are the only ones that we know work.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Is there a filter pad small enough to catch ich if it drops from a host?

 

[returnofsid]

No, not a pad per say. If you were to filter your tank through a 1 micron filter, you'd probably filter out a lot of the Ich that's in the water column. Keep in mind that this is the shortest part of Ich's life cycle. Treating Ich only while in the water column, ie. Micron filter, UV and such, is not really the best treatment because you're not doing anything to rid the Ich that are hosting on the fish or in the substrate multiplying. Having a fishless tank for a period of 8 weeks while QTing fish in a Hypo treatment for a period of 8 weeks after all visible signs of Ich are gone is your best treatment IMO.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

bump

 

[papagimp]

a diatom filter is sometimes able to remove small parasites, but in all honesty, I would do this the natural way. If you attempt to filter the parasites out, you run into this problem: How are you going to check to see if they are all out before adding the fish again? You really can't. So if there is one little "ich" still in there and it gets ahole of a fish again, then you have to start all over once more. Best to let the tank remain fallow for sufficient amount of time to let the parasites die off naturally. 4-8 weeks.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Thanks people I will start the 6 week strugle of quarantine, and I wont do it again introducing a fish without quarantine.

 

[returnofsid]

Most of us learned the hard way. I know I sure did...lost several fish in the process. Good luck with everything and keep us posted!!

 

[alexb518]

I think a summary of what shagsbeard and what returnofsid said is what you should do. QT your fish and use hypo (1.009-1.010) to rid the fish of ich. This should take about 6 weeks. In the meantime, the ich in your display will die off without a host to feed off of.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Thanks again friends