Fallow periods: Going Fishless

[jeff williams]

Im treating my fallow tank right now for dinos with bleach. We know it kills dinos, I wonder if it kills ich too. Bleach is used to clean the tanks after all right? Could potentially shorten the fallow period.

Bleach will more than likely kill the free swimmers but may not have an affect on the encysted stage imo the only sure way is fallow for 76 days or the tank being drained and allowed to air dry for at least 24 hrs and that includes everything in the tank being dry for 24 hrs

 

[Humblefish]

Im treating my fallow tank right now for dinos with bleach. We know it kills dinos, I wonder if it kills ich too. Bleach is used to clean the tanks after all right? Could potentially shorten the fallow period.

2.4 mg/L for 1 hr will kill all theronts.

A much higher concentration (60 mg/L) is required for 24 hrs to kill all tomonts.

However, both concentrations are likely to wipe out most of your bio-filter and in essence, "uncycle" your DT.

Source: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa164

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

Once the 76 day fallow period has been reached along with treating the fish in QT, how long after placing the fish back in the DT would it take for ich to resurface? I know theoretically speaking this should not happen, but what if I unknowingly made a contamination error during QT.

 

[jeff williams]

Once the 76 day fallow period has been reached along with treating the fish in QT, how long after placing the fish back in the DT would it take for ich to resurface? I know theoretically speaking this should not happen, but what if I unknowingly made a contamination error during QT.

Probably within a few weeks however your fish in qt might have a temporary immunity built up also

 

[melypr1985]

Once the 76 day fallow period has been reached along with treating the fish in QT, how long after placing the fish back in the DT would it take for ich to resurface? I know theoretically speaking this should not happen, but what if I unknowingly made a contamination error during QT.

It could take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. It would depend a lot on when the theoretical contamination occurred. If it was a week or two before the end of the fallow period, odds are high that ich would surface sooner rather than later. If it was earlier, my thought is that there would be less parasites in the water (having starved as they emerged from their cyst) so it would take longer for you to notice they are there.

 

[melypr1985]

Probably within a few weeks however your fish in qt might have a temporary immunity built up also

good point also ^^

 

[ltrace]

Theoretically if ich does reappear would you have go through the 76 day fallow period again?

 

[melypr1985]

Theoretically if ich does reappear would you have go through the 76 day fallow period again?

Yes you would. Though this member seems to know that, the main question was how long before he knew he was in the clear from having to worry about it.

 

[ltrace]

Thank you

 

[Brew12]

Yes you would. Though this member seems to know that, the main question was how long before he knew he was in the clear from having to worry about it.

The biggest advantage imo is that you don't have to worry about catching all the fish you transferred out again. Catching the Molly is easy!

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

But as it was mentioned before, wouldn't the Molly have to be QT'd (more fun) before introducing it into the DT.

Wouldn't removing a large portion of the DT water into a container then placing the Molly in there work? It doesn't compromise the DT fallow period or the fish in QT.

That water can then be discarded and replaced with new water into the DT

 

[Brew12]

But as it was mentioned before, wouldn't the Molly have to be QT'd (more fun) before introducing it into the DT.

Wouldn't removing a large portion of the DT water into a container then placing the Molly in there work? It doesn't compromise the DT fallow period or the fish in QT.

That water can then be discarded and replaced with new water into the DT

I am not aware of any fresh water diseases that can thrive in marine systems. If you get a Molly and condition it to salt water yourself you don't need to worry about any illness it may carry.

The water concept could work but I wouldn't recommend it. A better option may be to pull the molly at 2 1/2 days and putting them in a QT. That way any parasites it does pick up should still be inside the fish. Then keep it in its own tank for 2 weeks or so looking for symptoms.

 

[USMC 4 LIFE]

Didn't know that. I'll definitely try the Molly experiment then. Thanks

 

[Humblefish]

Didn't know that. I'll definitely try the Molly experiment then. Thanks

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-black-mollies-vs-marine-fish-diseases.312166/

 

[dgwkpe]

I'm just now starting my Fallow period since I got an outbreak of Velvet that killed most of my fish within 48 hours and the only survivors were 2 eels, yellow tail wrasse and gold spot rabbitfish. (lost a full emperor, blue face, lemonpeel, 2 puffers, harlequin tusk, sailfin tang and a few others). Its a 265 gallon tank. I now have the survivors in a couple hospital tanks and should get my CP (My vet gave me a script for it!!) in a couple days to treat the eels and I'll be using cupramine or coppersafe (Not sure which one yet) to treat the wrasse and rabbitfish. I'm going Fallow for 76 days just to be safe. Couple questions:

1. I had to drain 75% of my water out to catch the eels and wrasse (Put the same water back in, just used some 55 gallon barrels for temporary storage). In the process of catching the eels I used some frozen/fresh foods (Krill, chopped fish, squid etc) to entice the eels out. Do I have to track down and remove the un-eaten food from the tank for it to be truly "Fallow"? Can the velvet or ich attach to solid foods?

2. Whats the proper method of "sterilizing" nets, buckets? In general, my nets were used in my 265 (Velvet infested tank) to catch my fish along with other equipment, tongs etc... How do I make sure I don't transfer anything from these nets to my other saltwater tanks? I was thinking as long as I rinsed and dried my nets and stuff off it should be good after its been dry for 24 hours? Is running them under hot water good enough (about 110 degrees)? Or do these nets have to be bleached or soaked in something? Just want to be sure I don't spread this to my 150 gallon reef tank next!

 

[dgwkpe]

One more question. When I'm treating for the 30 days with either CP or copper, is ok to NOT do water changes during that 30 days so I don't have to re-dose. Of course that is assuming I don't have an ammonia spike.

 

[Humblefish]

1. I had to drain 75% of my water out to catch the eels and wrasse (Put the same water back in, just used some 55 gallon barrels for temporary storage). In the process of catching the eels I used some frozen/fresh foods (Krill, chopped fish, squid etc) to entice the eels out. Do I have to track down and remove the un-eaten food from the tank for it to be truly "Fallow"? Can the velvet or ich attach to solid foods?

At present time, my understanding is that free swimmers will only seek out and attach to a live fish. Trophonts stop feeding and drop off shortly after the fish dies. However, my research into this is currently ongoing.

2. Whats the proper method of "sterilizing" nets, buckets? In general, my nets were used in my 265 (Velvet infested tank) to catch my fish along with other equipment, tongs etc... How do I make sure I don't transfer anything from these nets to my other saltwater tanks? I was thinking as long as I rinsed and dried my nets and stuff off it should be good after its been dry for 24 hours? Is running them under hot water good enough (about 110 degrees)? Or do these nets have to be bleached or soaked in something? Just want to be sure I don't spread this to my 150 gallon reef tank next!

24 hr drying time is the best/easiest way to disinfect. I use fans to ensure whatever is thoroughly dried.

One more question. When I'm treating for the 30 days with either CP or copper, is ok to NOT do water changes during that 30 days so I don't have to re-dose. Of course that is assuming I don't have an ammonia spike.

So long as you have a capable biofilter (to control ammonia) and QT stays tidy, water changes are not needed. However, if you do need to perform a WC dose any replacement water with the appropriate amount of copper/CP before adding it to the QT. So a therapeutic level is constantly maintained and it never drops.

 

[YellowFinsReef]

So, after getting my butt kicked in an endless battle with marine ich, which I later discovered was actually marine velvet, I have decided to go the fallow period route. I did some research and found out that marine velvet are photosynthetic and it is advised to turn off the light during the fallow period. However, I am hesitant about this, because I have a large amount of soft corals, which are impossible to move and various macroalgae that have already established themselves.

Will the marine velvet eventually die after 6 weeks because there is no host to complete its lifecycle or will it get by with using the lights as a source until it finds a host (meaning when I reintroduce fish in a couple of months)? I'm kinda in a tight situation, but willing to do the right thing provided that I get some good feed back on best practices. Let me know.

 

[Big G]

My understanding is that while the velvet parasite is a type of algae and contains some chlorophyll and does use light as a partial source of nourishment, it must have and needs to feed upon fish for the nutrients necessary to continue its reproductive process.

 

[YellowFinsReef]

My understanding is that while the velvet parasite is a type of algae and contains some chlorophyll and does use light as a partial source of nourishment, it must have and needs to feed upon fish for the nutrients necessary to continue its reproductive process.

It sounds like whether it is photosynthetic or not, the parasite needs a fish host to complete it's cycle? So, does that mean I don't need to pull this tank apart and run it without lights during the fallow period?