Questions about ICH

laga77

New member
Does ich survive in cold water or is it just a tropical disease ? I was cleaning my transfer tank and equipment and was thinking about people who boil different items to sterilize them when I thought about an ice water bath or dip. At this time of year my tap water is 36f right now. If I was to run equipment under this water in a bucket should this not be an efficient form of sterilization ?
 
The articles I read from advanced aquarist suggest there are some variants that survive and are native to colder waters, and the longest reported cyst that lasted 72 days was in a cooler temperature.

Most are reported to last 3-28 days in a "reef" temp setting, averaging about a week or so.
 
There are strains of Cryptocaryon that can handle lower than tropical temperatures.
If the temperature drops below 19°C (66F) the reproduction of the tropical Cryptocarion strains stops. But that doesn't necessarily mean it dies - it may just go into a hibernation state and continue when the temperatures goes up again. I wouldn't take that risk.

Lowering the temperature is in general not a good way to sterilize, ie kill microbes and the like as it usually only slows them down. Even the bacteria on your goods in your freezer don't die but just slow down to a crawl.

On the other hand raising the temperature above the point where an organisms proteins degrades (that is the key) will kill pretty much everything.
For Cryptocarion that temperature seems to be 40°C. You just need to make sure that every point in you tank, rock, pump, etc. gets up to that temperature. Considering that and measurement inaccuracies I would go at least to 50°C and hold it there for an hour (or just boil it if the item you want to disinfect is small enough to fit into a pot and can handle the temperature).

Chemical sterilization options include chlorine, bleach, vinegar, to name the easiest available.
 
I need help

I need help

Just started a display and introduced fish into display after tank transfer method, but still powder blue tang carried the ich into display. (I might have lacked proper sanitation during the tank transfers).
So now I Pulled all the fish out of display. I really don't care about killing the biological filtration in my tank now (will re-establish it again).
here are my options:
  1. rise the temprature to 45 C and hold it for a day? I have a strong 1500 watt bucket heater and with neptune apex controller I can do this.
  2. Or I can drain the tank and throw away the saltwater and put RODI in it and leave it for a month? Will this kill ich cysts?

I can wait for a month but not 2 or 3 months and leave the display fishless for that long. we ourselves live only for 70 to 80 yrs if we are lucky and waiting quarter of a yr seems crazy to me. Also, I don't have anything in my tank now so I can do whatever I want to kill the ich cysts right?

Any suggestions or advice will be appreciated.
 
Just started a display and introduced fish into display after tank transfer method, but still powder blue tang carried the ich into display. (I might have lacked proper sanitation during the tank transfers).
So now I Pulled all the fish out of display. I really don't care about killing the biological filtration in my tank now (will re-establish it again).
here are my options:
  1. rise the temprature to 45 C and hold it for a day? I have a strong 1500 watt bucket heater and with neptune apex controller I can do this.
  2. Or I can drain the tank and throw away the saltwater and put RODI in it and leave it for a month? Will this kill ich cysts?

I can wait for a month but not 2 or 3 months and leave the display fishless for that long. we ourselves live only for 70 to 80 yrs if we are lucky and waiting quarter of a yr seems crazy to me. Also, I don't have anything in my tank now so I can do whatever I want to kill the ich cysts right?

Any suggestions or advice will be appreciated.

if you don't want to wait 2-3 months,pour bleach into the tank.. bleach the whole thing. start over.

other than that.. wait 3 months.. I wouldn't even wait the recommended 72 days. I wait the full 90 days

OR don't stock your tank too full. give the fish plenty room and food. they can survive with it
 
Hydrogen peroxide has shown to be effective against velvet for sure and I would venture to say ich too at 2-300 ppm. Raising the temp to 140 degrees is a lot easier said then done, I tried it and had 0 success at reaching that temp in my tank. I dumped a entire bottle of ich shield powder and enough formalin for 700g in my 625g and let it run for one week. Then I drained the tank and filled with freshwater and let that run for one week also. Put in disease free fish and everything is fine.
 
Just started a display and introduced fish into display after tank transfer method, but still powder blue tang carried the ich into display. (I might have lacked proper sanitation during the tank transfers).
So now I Pulled all the fish out of display. I really don't care about killing the biological filtration in my tank now (will re-establish it again).
here are my options:
  1. rise the temprature to 45 C and hold it for a day? I have a strong 1500 watt bucket heater and with neptune apex controller I can do this.
  2. Or I can drain the tank and throw away the saltwater and put RODI in it and leave it for a month? Will this kill ich cysts?

I can wait for a month but not 2 or 3 months and leave the display fishless for that long. we ourselves live only for 70 to 80 yrs if we are lucky and waiting quarter of a yr seems crazy to me. Also, I don't have anything in my tank now so I can do whatever I want to kill the ich cysts right?

Any suggestions or advice will be appreciated.

People have had really varying experiences with letting a tank go fallow for 72+ days as far as ich goes. 3 months is a long time to wait for a maybe solution.
 
I dumped a entire bottle of ich shield powder and enough formalin for 700g in my 625g and let it run for one week. Then I drained the tank and filled with freshwater and let that run for one week also. Put in disease free fish and everything is fine.

Do you have corals in there? I would be worried about CP adsorbing onto the rock and sand and then leaching over time.
 
Do you have corals in there? I would be worried about CP adsorbing onto the rock and sand and then leaching over time.

No and CP isn't absorbed by rock or sand. There are other threads on here where people have taken all inverts without a exoskeleton out and treated with CP and then ran the lights and carbon to rid the tank of the CP and added inverts back with little to no issues at all. Even if it was absorbed by the rock and sand the med breaks down and is rendered useless in a short amount of time when exposed to UV light (sun,fixtures ect) Also biological filtration also has a effect on CP so over time even with doing nothing to remove the CP it will be a non issue. I took rock right out of a system I used CP on and put it into my old 220g reef with no negative effects (literally pulled it out dripping wet and put it in the 220g), so I know for certain it isn't absorbed. CP will kill algae,corals and any invert without a exoskeleton. Also some wrasse really don't take well to it. As far as being absorbed, its nothing like copper is.
 
No and CP isn't absorbed by rock or sand. There are other threads on here where people have taken all inverts without a exoskeleton out and treated with CP and then ran the lights and carbon to rid the tank of the CP and added inverts back with little to no issues at all. Even if it was absorbed by the rock and sand the med breaks down and is rendered useless in a short amount of time when exposed to UV light (sun,fixtures ect) Also biological filtration also has a effect on CP so over time even with doing nothing to remove the CP it will be a non issue. I took rock right out of a system I used CP on and put it into my old 220g reef with no negative effects (literally pulled it out dripping wet and put it in the 220g), so I know for certain it isn't absorbed. CP will kill algae,corals and any invert without a exoskeleton. Also some wrasse really don't take well to it. As far as being absorbed, its nothing like copper is.

Good to know. Given how amphipathic chloroquine is, I find it surprising it wouldn't adsorb onto calcium carbonate. I've read plenty of posts about the half-life of CP in our tanks, but I have never seen a LC/MS experiment showing that it's actually degraded. I had a FOWLR overrun with aiptasia and treated the whole tank with CP (worked like a charm), but I've been afraid to use the rocks for anything with coral. From what you have said, it sounds like I'd be safe. Thanks.
 
Good to know. Given how amphipathic chloroquine is, I find it surprising it wouldn't adsorb onto calcium carbonate. I've read plenty of posts about the half-life of CP in our tanks, but I have never seen a LC/MS experiment showing that it's actually degraded. I had a FOWLR overrun with aiptasia and treated the whole tank with CP (worked like a charm), but I've been afraid to use the rocks for anything with coral. From what you have said, it sounds like I'd be safe. Thanks.

I would try it in a controlled environment before throwing a bunch of rock in a large established reef tank but from what I have seen and also tried it didn't cause any negative effects on my inhabitants. I have also dosed Prazi in a reef tank without causing long term damage to any inverts. Seachems Paraguard on the other hand was not good for clams at all. As far as a experiment to show the actual degrading of CP in a tank being that its relatively new to those of us not i the public aquarium setting and being that the only way to test for it involves a $10,000 piece of equipment, I don't see that being proven with a actual test for some time
 
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