Re-adding fish

[Aoife14]

I recently had Marine ICH in my tank but unfortunately all of the fish I had died from
It.

I want to re-add marine fish but I don’t know what I need to do to ensure my tank is free from marine ICH. All I currently have in there is a crab, 4 snails, rock and sand.

I had been treating the ICH with eSHa Oodinex but unfortunately it didn’t seem to help.

Should I empty all the water out, clean the gravel or what? Any help would be great as I want to try avoid this in the future.

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

All you have to do is let the tank run fallow (without any fish) for a few weeks. I think 45ish days but someone probably has a more specific time frame. Without fish to host the parasites they will die off and then you can add fish again.

 

[Aoife14]

All you have to do is let the tank run fallow (without any fish) for a few weeks. I think 45ish days but someone probably has a more specific time frame. Without fish to host the parasites they will die off and then you can add fish again.

All you have to do is let the tank run fallow (without any fish) for a few weeks. I think 45ish days but someone probably has a more specific time frame. Without fish to host the parasites they will die off and then you can add fish again.

Must keep doing regular water changes every week without the fish for 45 days? Also if I was to add treatment into the tank would it speed up the process?

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

Do some research on quarantine protocols to prevent this from happening again. A lot of people have separate smaller tanks to hold new fish for a few weeks and treat with medication to prevent introducing diseases that will wipe out the tank.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

No fish for 45 -76 days depending on which method you choose. I would go for 76 days. In the meantime you can setup a QT tank and get your new fish. By the time the tank is fallow for 76 days the fish can go right into the DT.

76 days allows the ich to die off due to no hosts

 

[rmorris_14]

45 days fishless if you keep the temp above 80.6 at ALL time. 76+ days if it drops below that at any point
I’d still do 76+ to be safe

 

[rmorris_14]

Also.. don’t add any other coral or inverts to the tank during that period or you need to reset the clock.

 

[kadamik]

I recently had Marine ICH in my tank but unfortunately all of the fish I had died from
It.

I want to re-add marine fish but I don’t know what I need to do to ensure my tank is free from marine ICH. All I currently have in there is a crab, 4 snails, rock and sand.

I had been treating the ICH with eSHa Oodinex but unfortunately it didn’t seem to help.

Should I empty all the water out, clean the gravel or what? Any help would be great as I want to try avoid this in the future.

The other option if you can find a place for your inverts. You can sterilize your tank with bleach and start over and re-cycle your tank. I did this option because my tank was only 2 months old anyways so I decided to reset it. I then bought pre-quarantine fish from Dr Reef. You can read up on how to Sterilize your tank, That part took about week. I filled everything back up and started to cycle it. I used turbo start 900 and add ammonia powder to start the cycle and kept adding a little bit of power to get the ammonia up to 2 PPM everyday, did this for about 2 weeks, I then waited the nitogen cycle to complete and added 2 clowns fish from Dr reef and I am adding live stock very slowly this time with quarantine fish only, I even purchased quarantine clean up crew from Dr reef because my clean up crew needs to be in QT for 76 days.

If you do this option you can have fish in your tank in about 4 weeks depending on cycle time, and have a pretty good confidence that it is disease free. This option probably will cost you more just depends if 4 weeks is better than 10 - 12 weeks.

Just my 2 cents, I am fairly new to this hobby so I am sure others will chime in.

 

[EricR]

The other option if you can find a place for your inverts. You can sterilize your tank with bleach and start over and re-cycle your tank. I did this option because my tank was only 2 months old anyways so I decided to reset it. I then bought pre-quarantine fish from Dr Reef. You can read up on how to Sterilize your tank, That part took about week. I filled everything back up and started to cycle it. I used turbo start 900 and add ammonia powder to start the cycle and kept adding a little bit of power to get the ammonia up to 2 PPM everyday, did this for about 2 weeks, I then waited the nitogen cycle to complete and added 2 clowns fish from Dr reef and I am adding live stock very slowly this time with quarantine fish only, I even purchased quarantine clean up crew from Dr reef because my clean up crew needs to be in QT for 76 days.

If you do this option you can have fish in your tank in about 4 weeks depending on cycle time, and have a pretty good confidence that it is disease free. This option probably will cost you more just depends if 4 weeks is better than 10 - 12 weeks.

Just my 2 cents, I am fairly new to this hobby so I am sure others will chime in.

Just to "emphasize" a couple of points (((that you probably said but making sure clear to the OP))):
-- Inverts and ROCK will have to stay in separate, fallow, (fish-less) QT for full 76 days
-- You'll need new ROCK and SAND for the main tank

*I like the "Dr. Reef's Quarantined Fish" plan (for when the re-started tank is cycled) but have no actual experience there (yet),,, plus would lean towards yet another, separate, observation tank for the fish when they arrive before going into main tank, just to be safe

 

[Aoife14]

If i

Just to "emphasize" a couple of points (((that you probably said but making sure clear to the OP))):
-- Inverts and ROCK will have to stay in separate, fallow, (fish-less) QT for full 76 days
-- You'll need new ROCK and SAND for the main tank

*I like the "Dr. Reef's Quarantined Fish" plan (for when the re-started tank is cycled) but have no actual experience there (yet),,, plus would lean towards yet another, separate, observation tank for the fish when they arrive before going into main tank, just to be safe

If I plan to leave my tank empty for 76 days and complete regular water changes, will
I still need to add new rock and sand after leaving it cycle for 76 days with no fish??

Although the Dr reef plan sounds good, Unfortunately it is not applicable to me as it is an english website and I don’t know if they ship to Ireland

 

[EricR]

If i

If I plan to leave my tank empty for 76 days and complete regular water changes, will
I still need to add new rock and sand after leaving it cycle for 76 days with no fish??

Although the Dr reef plan sounds good, Unfortunately it is not applicable to me as it is an english website and I don’t know if they ship to Ireland

That's fine if you go that route. After the fallow (fish-less) time, ich should be gone.

Here's a good read on the topic:
Marine Ich Life Cyle

*note -- I know nothing about the treatment/medication you mentioned so you might want to research that and consider if there's any concerns with that in your main tank,,, long-term

EDIT -- fixed link

 

[dado150]

Since this subject is up again. Claims are fresh water dip kills ich. I've also seen recommendations to do hyposalinity in tank. So why couldn't the remaining inverts be put in a small tank temporary or if a other tank is running & run a low hyposalinity tank for awhile to kill remaining stages? This could way reduce fallow period of DT. Just my 2 cents.

 

[MnFish1]

I recently had Marine ICH in my tank but unfortunately all of the fish I had died from
It.

I want to re-add marine fish but I don’t know what I need to do to ensure my tank is free from marine ICH. All I currently have in there is a crab, 4 snails, rock and sand.

I had been treating the ICH with eSHa Oodinex but unfortunately it didn’t seem to help.

Should I empty all the water out, clean the gravel or what? Any help would be great as I want to try avoid this in the future.

All you need to do is keep the tank without fish (fallow) for 76 days (there are protocols for shorter as well). You should not need to remove anything. Or do water changes IMHO - unless the medication you used recommends it. Usually carbon will take care of this. You do not leave your tank 'Empty' of water - you just leave it without fish or new additions.

 

[Saltyanimals]

Don’t forget to stir the sand when you’re going fallow. They can go dormant in quiet corners so keep the sand stirred. I learned the hard way.

 

[Jeffcb]

All I currently have in there is a crab, 4 snails, rock and sand.

Don't change or clean anything. Keep the tank running. Feed your crab occasionally and keep the light schedule on for the snails. A water change or 2 if you want.

Let it sit for 45-72 days and add a fish.