When is a tank Ich free...

[84scrambler]

I started a 30 gallon saltwater tank about 4 months ago. I got a lunare wrasse, domino damsel, lion fish, and a serpent star. All were juveniles. About a week ago I got a black lion fish, (have been looking for him for a while). Well it turned out that this lion had Ich. Problem was I had to go out of town and couldnt do much about it. Long story short I didnt treat my tank with any chemicals, I did lower my salinity to about 1.019. I had to move my tank at that time and the added stress was to much for my damsel and lions. They developed ich and passed away. The wrasse fought through it and is improving. he ate quite alot today and was active as normal. The white film went away and he should make a full recovery. I was wondering how long will this disease be present in this tank? when will it be safe to introduce fish?

I know my tank is small, currently I am shopping for at least a 55gal. Once I get this tank i would like to re-use the water, and filter media, also change over from CC, to sand. Should I just start from scratch as far as biological media goes? or will my original tank be a problem with the ich incident?

[steve1s]

C irritans aka ick, is not a disease it is a parasite. Having that many fish in such a small tank would have increased much of the stress and contributed to the problem. The best wait period for adding anything should be about 6 weeks after the fish have completely recovered and show no sign of problems.


I know my tank is small, currently I am shopping for at least a 55gal. Once I get this tank i would like to re-use the water, and filter media, also change over from CC, to sand. Should I just start from scratch as far as biological media goes? or will my original tank be a problem with the ich incident?

Keep all the filtration you have now when you do the main transfer to the new 55. If you wait the appropriate time (6 weeks) for no sign of the ick there should be less concern. Personally If it where me, I would transfer all the live rock to the new 55 to cycle it with a piece of raw shrimp and then perform hyposalinity (http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html) on the 30 with the wrasse. If done properly, that will guarantee no future problems with the wrasse and it will also kill anything in the filtration system except the bacteria. The parasite cannot survive past 3-4 weeks of it's life cycle without a host so the transfered rock in the 55 will not harbour the ick after that time.

You can then keep the 30 set up or as a fall back to use as a QT for future fish purchases. That will hopefully guarantee no more parasite or other problematic deaths.

I would also suggest you reconsider the size of the new tank if you are to keep the wrasse. Lunare's can and will get up to 7" in less than 2 years. I know, I have one. In smaller tanks they will become very beligerant and mean as they get larger. It will most probably begin killing other fish in time.

Cheers
Steve

[84scrambler]

Thank you for the information... The 55 gallon is also another temporary solution.. I am still going to school and moving around a 100 gallon plus tank doesnt seem like much fun. I am also still trying to decide on my final inhabitants in my tank. In a way this is a learning experience, but I also dont want to be cruel to these fish. I also learned my lesson about setting up a quarantine tank.