Preferences for eradicating uronema in fowlr tank

[mattcoug]

I have a 200G fowlr tank that had an uronema outbreak last year. I now need to kill off the uronema and restock so my GF stops bugging me about "the empty tank".

For history, as part of the diagnoses last year(to confirm brook vs. uronema) I kept the tank fallow for several months. It now has a single fat happy 7" maculiceps tang as a test fish. The tang flashed a couple times over several weeks, so I dropped the tank to hypo conditions - the tang then started flashing frequently, every couple minutes. So with the proper diagnoses I brought the tank back to full seawater SG, and the tang will flash1-2 times per day at dusk(I do watch several hours per day, it is next the the TV).

IMO The tang is in no danger by himself, but I can't restock to normal levels without causing an outbreak so it is time to clean the tank.

As I see it, there are a few options to consider - most will require me to remove the tang to treat separately.

1. I have a KG of CP sitting around, In theory I should be able to easily kill the uronema if I can keep CP concentration high enough. However, given that this is a fowlr, I might have to redose daily given current evidence that bacteria in established tanks breaks CP down. Has anyone had success with this? What kind of dosage would I need to follow?

2. I have 300 grams of metro sitting around(in the form of 600g API general cure, which also contains pratzi), in theory I could dose the tank the same way, but again - has anyone had success with this? What kind of dosage would I need to follow?

3. I could pour a couple gallons of bleach in the tank and let it cook for a few days, then use water changes/prime/etc to remove all the bleach, then completely restart with a new cycle. Does this really work with a sandbed? Will the chlorine offgassing kill me in my sleep?

4. Replace water with tap water for a few weeks. Would this even work?

5. Stop being lazy, remove all the rock and cook in muriatic acid, throw away all sand, and completely wash/dry equipment with bleach.


I am definitely on the lazy side, so I am hoping something less drastic than option (5) would be sufficient. Hopefuly someone has been successful eradicating uronema without so much work. Thoughts?

 

[tassod]

Option 5 would be your best bet, not sure if this is what you ended up doing as I see this thread is about a month old. This is what I ended up doing to my tank and it's now currently cycling. Not sure if what i had was uronema but whatever it was, this was the only way to get rid of it for my situation. As for the rock, i did not acid wash it, only used bleach instead.

 

[ThRoewer]

I don't think flashing is really a symptom of Uronema, especially not if the fish seems otherwise healthy. It is more likely that you have Cryptocaryon in your system and the tang is immune enough to not get sick but not immune enough to fully prevent infection.

Uronema is an opportunistic organism that feeds on bacteria, detritus and dead tissue. It will usually only feed on fish when the fish's immune system is compromised and the fish has a wound that Uronema can use as entry point.
I'm sure many people live with Uronema in their system and never have problems with it.

If you still want to sterilize the tank I would just use pure Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) instead of bleach. You get it at Amazon.