how eliminate ick from a tank??

[castroantonio]

I had a ick problem, The fish are in Hospital tank now with cupramine..

the tank is without any fish.
what is the best way to elminate the parasite from the tank??

How long I have to leave the tank without any fish???
I want to be sure that the parasite is killed.


I would do everything!! I need this parasite out!!!

thank you

 

[MotherFish]

Simply leave the tank fishless for 6+ weeks and the Ich will die-off without any fish on which to feed.

That's the easy part... the hard part is making sure that you properly treat the fish while in QT to make sure they are Ich-free before you return them to your clean display tank.
Follow the directions for treatment to the letter.
Whether it's copper or hypo, the range for successfully treating the Ich is very narrow.

 

[rastarainy]

my advice is to freshwater dip your fish once every three days until you no longer see and ick on them. a FD can stress the fish however, so do it at your own risk. also, you can use medications such as Ick Attack (which is reef safe) and Kick Ich. i agree with mother fish as well, you need to leave your display tank fishless for at least 6 weeks if you dont want them to get it again.

 

[jenglish]

FW dips are hard on fish and can sometimes get light infections early a properly executed hypo regimen will get you a complete kill. Or look into copper based or the tank switch method. Ick attack and kick ich have very spotty performance from what I hear. Some people have luck with them and some say they do nothing. maybe they work on some strains or maybe the fish develop partial immunity and people attribute it to the treatments.

But like motherfish mentions there is not a whole lot of margin of error in hypo or copper treatments. The aim of these treatments is essentially making the enviroment just inhospitable enough to kill crypto but not inhospitable enough to kill the fish. The cupramine is considered a bit safer than other forms of copper but still exercise caution. You can turn up the temp in your DT just don't stress out any inverts you have in the DT. Higher temps tend to speed lifecycles. Some propose it helps in the QT as well, I tend to avoid putting anymore stress than is absolutely needed on the fish. JMO Good luck

 

[RBU1]

What some people fail to mention is that ALL items going into your tank need to have a QT period. That includes rock, snails, corals and any other item you put in your tank that is alive. It is possible for any item to have ich on it. Now the possibilitites could be far less with some of those items but the possibility is still there. So in my opinion if you are going thru the trouble of leaving your display fishless for 8 weeks and are going to utilize the QT process make sure you QT EVERYTHING......Or you are just wasting your time.

 

[jenglish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14106021#post14106021 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RBU1
What some people fail to mention is that ALL items going into your tank need to have a QT period. That includes rock, snails, corals and any other item you put in your tank that is alive. It is possible for any item to have ich on it. Now the possibilitites could be far less with some of those items but the possibility is still there. So in my opinion if you are going thru the trouble of leaving your display fishless for 8 weeks and are going to utilize the QT process make sure you QT EVERYTHING......Or you are just wasting your time.

I think this is a good point. Although there is less chance of getting crypto in your tank on an invert or a rock as this stage prefers substrate it is of course possible. This stage lasts from 3-28 days depending on temp. I think the only point I would disagree with the above is that you mention QTiing anything that is alive. I would think that a powerhead or other piece of equipment would be more likely to be inhabitated by the tomont stage (which is ideally looking for substrate) than say a shrimp or a sea slug. You are more likely to introduce crypto via water your rock or invert are in that it actually being on them. But yes QTing everything certainly reduces your chances of reintroducing ich

 

[rastarainy]

If your going to QT your rock/inverts than you would want a separate tank for them and your fish (so as to not mix diseases).