How long should main tank be fish free if ick is present

jcmjoe

New member
Hello everybody, this is my very first post here at reef central so please be patient, I use this site on a regular basis for advice and finally decided to join. Having said that, here is my question, I recently bought a Coral Beauty and learned the hard way of the importance of a quarantine tank. I was in a pinch for time and rather than putting the fish in quarantine I put it directly into my main tank. The next morning I discovered the fish was covered in ick and shortly after that the fish died. I observed the tank and after a week noticed all my fish scratching and some white spots on my yellow tang and red fairy wrasse. I removed all the fish from the tank and put them into a quarantine tank with a copper treatment. How long should I leave my display tank Fish free to eradicate it of Ick? It is a 60 Gallon, fish only with live rock tank and I have a CPR aerofuge and a Rena XP1 that goes thru a 15 watt U.V. Sterlizer before entering back into the water. I dont want to treat the tank with copper since I have live rock and all kinds of cool little critters that live in it. The bulb is new in my Sterlizer and it generally keeps my tank disease free and my water is crystal clear. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Salinity is 1.023
Temp is 76
P.H. is 8.0-8.3
 
Hiya,

I left mine for 7 weeks with nothing in it bar inverts, although I have read of people leaving it over 3 months.

So far so good been ick free for 6 weeks now

Good Luck, its a bugger to get rid off!

Peter
 
Thanks Peter, Should I leave the lights off and raise the temperature of the tank. I heard the "swimmer" stage of Ick comes out at night and didnt know if leaving the lights off and raising the temp may speed things up, hopefully my U.V. will zap em all!!! Thanks again.
 
8 weeks is the minimum, 10 weeks to be safe. It won't matter lights on or off, uv sterilizer or not, fishless, no host 8-10 weeks is the only sure way to be rid of it without treating with copper.
 
Thanks Peter, Should I leave the lights off and raise the temperature of the tank. I heard the "swimmer" stage of Ick comes out at night and didnt know if leaving the lights off and raising the temp may speed things up, hopefully my U.V. will zap em all!!! Thanks again.

UV will not rid the tank of ich, ad raising the temperature and keeping lights off is not relevant. Simply leave it without fish for 8 weeks.
 
Cool guys, thanks so much, any other tips would be greatly appreciated, I have the fish currently in a quarantine tank with cupramine, would you suggest leaving them in the quarantine with the copper for 8 weeks or ween off the copper and go the hyposalinity route since its 8 weeks while main tank is clearing up. Thanks for all the help. Joe
 
UV will not rid the tank of ich, ad raising the temperature and keeping lights off is not relevant. Simply leave it without fish for 8 weeks.

I've read that raising the temperature slightly increases the life cycle of the crypt organism. Is this inaccurate?
 
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