What to do after ich has hit?

[King Fisher23]

Well ich has just killed off all my fish in my tank and was wondering do I have to do anything to the tank like start from scratch and cycle it again and do I boil the tank decor and gravel any help would be great a real sad day for me.

 

[King Fisher23]

Anyone?

 

[JakeH]

This is just my opinion, so look it up...
If all the fish are dead, the first thing I would do is put some kind of ammonia source in the water to keep the bio filter going. After that, I would do 2 full rounds of medicated Ick treatment, gravel vac like crazy, then let the tank sit empty for 2 weeks.

 

[ErikFromNJ]

With no fish in the tank the parasite can not live. How long has the tank been running w/ no fish? I'd give 3 days to be sure the ick is dead and if there hasn't been any fish in the tank for 24 hours, you'll be recycling the filtration. Good Luck.

 

[sostoudt]

ich can survive for 8 weeks with out fish(thats saltwater ich, its a different parasite but i think fresh is atleast a couple weeks).

if you want you can medicate with copper, but depending on stocking copper could harm future livestock, mainly inverts, but i think sharks, puffers and rays dont like it either.

complete deconstructing your tank and filtration, then boiling is a option but you would be starting over with new cycle. i would rinse the tank out too if you go this method

 

[bluehairman]

What the heck... It's ich people. You don't have to disinfect you tank for ich. Raise the temperature a lot, to about 86F (if you really want to you can go higher) and add some salt. You'll be good to go in 4 days. Don't empty it and start boiling junk....

 

[JakeH]

I thought my method was a bit overkill...

 

[sostoudt]

i looked it up fresh water ich lives 12 days. you can speed up its life cycle by raising the temperature. but i would still wait atleast a week.

 

[King Fisher23]

The temperature is about 84F right now and the last fish just died early this moring so its barely been running less then a day with no fish. So before I add anymore fish should I atleast do some water changes and gravel vac before I introduce any new fish to the tank? and should I wait about a week before I introduce any fish or longer

 

[ErikFromNJ]

Forget boiling and all that junk. Its not necessary. With no fish in the tank Ich can NOT survive. Within 24 hours it will be completely gone. 48 hours to be certain. If its been that short since the last fish died, ich is probably still present in the tank. I would go buy some cheap fish, but hardy fish... like giant danios or tiger barbs. Get something back in there right away or you're going to lose your BB in the filter and gonna have to re-cycle your filtration system again. Throw some fish in there and treat the tank with QuICK Cure made by AP Pro. Raise the temps to the high 80's and add some salt to the water. 1 tablespoon for every 5 gallons.

''Rid Ich'' and ''Ich-Attack'' I've never had any success with. Normally I would only treat with salt and temps. But in your case you just wanna kill the ich asap and get your tank running back to normal.

So just throw some hardy cheap fish in there, medicate, raise temps and salt the tank and after a week, do a 50% water change and add the fish you want. Ofcourse add them slowly.

Myself, I always have a 10 gallon running. After I buy a new fish, I place it in there and treat the tank w/ QuICK cure for 3 days, do a 50% water change, keep em in there for another 3 days and on the 7th day I take em out and toss em in the desired aquarium.