Ich on equipment?

[slider162]

My nano was hit with ich, so I am treating with a hospital tank using hypo. I am really trying hard to keep that equipment separate from my display tank. How long can ich live outside of a tank, ie hoses, buckets, pipettes, test kits, etc?

 

[Young Frankenstein]

28 days and then they hatch if they don't find a fish host they die within 24hrs so a suggested quarantine would be for 6 weeks to be on the safe side.

 

[slider162]

No, nemo won't fit in a test tube anymore I am talking about equipment. If I spray my buckets out and let them sit for a day or two, can I be fairly confident that I won't get cross contamination (even if the water isn't 100% evaporated)? How soon after ich comes into contact with fresh water will they die? If I throw my favorite water change hose in the freezer, how long before the ich is dead?

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Hmm I would like to know the answer to that one myself.....

 

[chris.hampton]

I'm not sure on this one myself but would cleaning your equipment with bleach kill the Ich?!

 

[bsaastad]

If your equipment is THOROUGHLY cleaned AND DRIED you shouldn't transfer any ich (no droplets/wet spots in cracks/crevices/etc.) That's why the two-tank method of quarantine works for ich. Rinsing in diluted bleach adds an extra measure of safety - rinse well, obviously.

 

[alexb518]

ich prefers to live in teperatures between 66-77 degrees. although found as high as in the 90s. long story short, run hot water over your stuff in the sink or shower. if you want to go extreme...boil some water. since you brought up the idea of freezing them, i'm not sure what the lowest tolerable temperature is for ich, but i would imagine really cold water would kill them as well.

 

[Sk8r]

I don't think they encapsulate, and I don't think they're extremophiles. I'd be surprised if they survived drying. And nothing ordinary I know of lives through a dilute chlorox dip. You can use Amquel or some such to de-chlorinate the equipment after.

 

[cmsargent]

Here's what I've done to clean/sterilize disease contaminated equipment. Take all the PH, thermometer, hoses, scrapers, etc. and throw them into a 5g bucket filled with water and 1/2 c bleach. Soak overnight. Dump the water, rinse everything well. Refill bucket with clean water and add a bunch of Prime (or other decholorinator). Mix well or plug in a PH and let in mix everything up. Let it sit in the decholorinated water overnight again. After this everything should be clean, chorine free, and ready to use again.

 

[Myrphie]

I agree with the above, diluted bleach soak overnight, rise well, soak in water w/ a dechlorinator. Also, I tend to let everything dry out completely so that you'll just have salt left over. (Bleach is a solution of sodium hypochlorite, when it evaporates all that remains are salt crystals.)