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

 

[manuelink]

you need to keep the tank at least 1 month!!

(spanish)
yo tuve el mismo problema 2 veces por no cuarentenar!
pasando 28 dias ya puedes meter otra vez a los peces
y he tenido por lo tanto 2 veces el exito de erradicar el ich!

 

[das75]

Just leave the tank fish free 6-8 weeks to break the life cycle of the parasite (no hosts), ensure fish are ick free before returning.

 

[snorvich]

Actually, it is my recollection that the 99% time is 11 weeks. Below that, your odds diminish. However, you can speed that up a bid by raising the temperature.

 

[Deftones2015]

I read an article a while back by a German man stating that sometimes the cysts of the Ick will go dormant when the oil and what not from the fish are not present in the tanks water. Then once you put the fish back into the tank the ick cysts will then proceed through their process and reinfect the fish.

Anyone have thoughts on this? I wish I could remember where I read this article.

 

[tmz]

Some cysts have remained viable for as long as 72 days but that was in cold water.Most recommend 6 weeks witout fish. Never heard of the lack of fish oil slowing them down. Would like to read that article if you can find it.

 

[Deftones2015]

http://joejaworski.wordpress.com/2007/09/28/the-marine-ich-epidemic/


This site doesn't talk about the other thing I read but it says that "There is new evidence that suggests raising the temperature of the display tank to speed the life cycle of the parasite is a bad idea. This will cause some cysts to go into a long stasis period, perhaps several months. So do not raise the temperature of the display tank"

 

[tmz]

Thanks for the link and information on temperature.. Unfortunatley he doesn't state the source of the new information (what temperatiue range ? ,etc.)which seems counterintuitive.. Personally I don't fiddle with the temperature. I have observed ich slow down in response to lower sg though. Sometimes the ich will not show after hyposalinity is started but even after weeks it pops back up once the sg is adjusted north of 1.020 or so.

 

[Deftones2015]

That makes sense to why a friend of mine tried hypo on all of his fish for the whole duration and when he placed the fish back in his display a few days later the powder brown was covered in ich.

Is it better to dose copper as well as hypo? Or how should this be done to prevent the slowing of the life cycle to ensure the ich is completely gone?

Also, how long can the fish stay in hypo before they experience kidney failure or things associated with keeping them in hypo?

 

[sittnon18s]

just use kick-ich works great and is reef safe

 

[tmz]

Just copper (cupramine) is my choice.The two week treatment should take care of any ich and/or velvet.

Many like hyposalinity. It kills some strains and takes at least 6 weeks. It will not kill hypo resistant strains and may just slow the life cycle sometimes. It has no effect on velvet(amyloodinium).

A third option is tank transfer. This involves moving the fish to a clean tank with clean water every 3 days for a total of 4 transfers. No meds required.

FYI,Flukes and brooklynella are common but not as much as ich and velvet. They will not respond to copper but will to formalin.Copper(especially chelated forms such as cupramine ) and formalin should not be dosed together in my opinion.

I do not think kick ich is effective or reef safe . Some do.

 

[SoSa 110]

In the begining I tried many products and they just seem to irritate all of the Corals, rock and my Algae growth... In my personal opinion a good Uv filter and a solid diet should keep your fish nice and hardy reguardless of the ick.. if the fish isnt eating then you have a problem.. keep your skimmer running and with every feeding use vitachem and Garlic.. Does the trick for me..
Good luck..