tank/equipment after ich

**Brhino** · 11-29-2010, 02:42 PM

I bought a new goldfish and placed him by himself in a hospital tank. He started acting lethargic after a few days, then ich appeared, and unfortunately he died a few days after that. How do I go about ensuring that the tank and filter are free of disease and ready for use again? Ideally I'd like to be able to save the BB on the filter, but I don't know if there's a way to make it safe for fish fast enough.

**Lab_Rat** · 11-29-2010, 03:47 PM

I just nuked my QT tank that I had problems in, nuked it with a cup of bleach. Since that will obviously not preserve the biofilter, you could let the tank run for 2 weeks with no fish, but you'll need to feed the biofilter. Without a fish host the ich cannot survive. 2 weeks should be enough time for it to complete it's lifecycle.

I'm having an ich problem right now and I'm trying to figure out a way to sterilize the equipment since I only have 1 python and don't want to nail my other tanks that are good. I know thoroughly drying out equipment works, but it's hard to dry out a hose. I'll probably run hot water through the hose before and after use. Also, will do WCs on the tanks without ich before doing the ones with, but I'm open to other ideas as well.

**Rue** · 11-29-2010, 03:52 PM

I'll bet a saltwater soak would kill off the parasites...just not sure how salty to make the water or for how long you'd have to soak everything.

**Scrup** · 11-29-2010, 08:46 PM

Turning up the temp would speed up the lifecycle, starving it out even faster.

Not sure saltwater soak would kill the parasites, as that is dependant on what stage they are in IIRC.

**Rue** · 11-30-2010, 04:34 PM

It would have to be a long-term soak...at least a week...

I'd have to look into it more.

But in the big picture...a week isn't all the long...

**Rue** · 11-30-2010, 04:37 PM

Maybe it's 2 weeks? If you just ran an empty tank (using the equipment of course) at a high heat...wouldn't that do it too? That might require the full 2 weeks though. I think the temp. would need to be 85-90 F.

**Lady Hobbs** · 11-30-2010, 04:39 PM

They die without a food source as well. They must have fish blood to survive so if no fish are in the tank, they starve.

**Brhino** · 11-30-2010, 04:40 PM

yeah, I think I'll play it safe, left the whole thing run for a while with the salt concentration I used in the treatment attempt. I'll also see if one of the old used heaters I got works, and raise the temp while I'm at it. BB will be toast, but I can regrow it.

**Taurus** · 11-30-2010, 06:33 PM

Originally Posted by Lab_Rat

Without a fish host the ich cannot survive.

I know thoroughly drying out equipment works, but it's hard to dry out a hose.

Labby has it right. Without a host and\or water, Ich cannot survive. If it was my tank, I'd empty it and let dry for a week. Same with the filter, and I would get all new clean media and seed it with material from a healthy tank in combination with using Stability.