Removing ICH from a reef tank

[Heather80]

we have a 120 gallon reef tank and found ICH on our PB tang and our purple tang We tried the stop parasite treatment by Chem-Marin to no such luck we lost the powder blue tang, copperband butterfly, green mandarin, flame angle and a couple green chromis. After this happened we decided to take a more serious approach and are doing a copper treatment for the remaining fish in a hospital tank...and we ended up losing the purple tang. No our 120 gallon reef tank is fishless and I have read that if you leave you tank fishless for an extended period of time the ICH will eventually die out due to no host for them. We also did a 30 gallon water change and cleanded the sand during the water change. So my question is how long should we leave the tank fishless to insure that all the ICH has cycled out of the tank ? Also i was wondering what other peoples experinces are with doing this? Thanks!

 

[jcw]

Welcome.

There are stickies at the top of this forum re ich and treatment and fallow periods.

Articles I've read based on scientific data say at least 6 weeks. The number recommended here is 8 weeks.

Here's a great set of articles on ich

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/11/mini
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/12/mini
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/1/mini
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/2/mini

 

[Heather80]

Thanks for the articles i appreciate it

 

[Chris27]

Get the temp up to 80-82F, then leave it fallow for 5-6 weeks.

 

[Sk8r]

a reef should be around 80 degrees all the time. 8 weeks fallow and you should be good to go. 6 is cutting it too short.

This time qt all the fish you get, best prevention in the world. Most fish will break out in whatever they've got within 2 weeks, but extend the qt the full 4, [since there are a few nasty surprises possible, even then] and you should be a lot safer.