Ich Pandemonium

[mlivvy]

I have a tank that suffered a major ich bomb and I lost over 15 fish in a span of a week. I left the tank alone for over 6 weeks with just corals and purchased some chromis recently who all died again with ich. My tank has it bad.

My question is.. I have over 100 nass snails, 2 blue legs, and a few zoas. If I removed the inverts and zoas and left the tank with just the LR and sand, what can I do to attack the ich parasite thats living somewhere in my tank. Hyposalinity? Drain the tank dry and refill? Any ideas would be helpful.

 

[Chris27]

The new fish you introduced.....did you actively treat them in QT to ensure they didn't have a parasite before you put them in? If you didn't, then chances are really good that they brought it in with them and started the cycle all over again.

 

[Orcrone]

The ich parasite cannot survive without a fish to host it. Six weeks may have been too short for all of them to have died off though. Or as Chris suggested you may have brought them back into the tank with the chromis. I would suggest letting the tank sit fallow for a longer period of time. A minimum of 8 weeks, but 12 - 16 is better. And quarantine everything wet that goes into the DT. That's not just fish but corals, live rock and invertebrates also.

 

[tubntxawg]

I would recommend doing a major water change... and then let the tank sit for 12-16 weeks without any fish for best result... like Ocrone have already said...

 

[steelhead77]

Chances are ich did not kill that many fish in one week. Typically ich is not an immediate death sentence. I suspect something else is going on. I would do a 75% water change install a good size UV sterilizer. If you leave the tank fish free for 8 weeks, the ich will be gone. If your fish come down with it again, they are bringing it in, if they die soon after putting them in the tank, from ich or otherwise, something else is going on. Not saying this is the case here but, IMO bad husbandry kills more fish than ich ever will.

 

[tubntxawg]

like steelhead77 said, if the fish come down with the same thing again then they(the newcomer) are bringing it in... Just make be sure to have good/stable parameters in the tank so that your inverts will be fine

 

[mlivvy]

Thanks for all the info. I have plans to setup a QT, run a UV, and do a huge water change.