Hey guys, so I started my first saltwater tank this year, added a firefish goby which almost instantly got ich and died. Now my tank is completely empty and I'm completely sad.
Leaving out details of that story that I mentioned in other threads, my main issue now is that my display tank most definitely has ich in it, which I would like to eradicate before I go any further with my tank. I
The tank is 32 gallons with cycled rock and about a 1-1.5" sandbed. There's no inverts or corals in it, I moved my inverts to a QT once my fish started presenting symptoms, and the tank has been running at 1.009 for about a week now, although the fish just died yesterday.
So I see two paths to success here, but the point of this thread is to see which option would be more effective and efficient, or to see if there's any other options I hadn't considered. Here's the options:
Option 1: Crank up the heat in the tank as high as possible (to shorten the life cycle of the ich) and continue to run hypo for a month. I would also do a heavy cleaning and continue to dose microbacter start to maintain the biofilter. After this I would return the salinity and temperature to normal and add the inverts back in. Then I would QT any new fish for a minimum of 2 weeks, which would mean the tank would be fallow for a minimum of 45 days before fish are added, 30 of which would be in hyposalinity.
Option 2: Drain the tank completely and let the rocks and sand air dry. (I'm not sure how long that would take, but with my setup I would probably leave it for at least a week) I would also stir up the sand to make sure it thoroughly dries. Once it's completely dried out I would refill the tank with normal salinity and temperature, then redose the tank with microbacter start and ammonia chloride to recycle the tank. For me this took about 14 days. Then I would add the inverts back in, and QT all new fish for at least 14 days before adding them to the display. So this method would last for a minimum of 35 days before any fish are in the tank.
Which method would be more effective? I'm definitely drawn to a method that I can do faster, but not at the cost if risking any ich surviving in the tank. This is also assuming that completely drying out rock and sand does actually kill ich. I can't find much information on that but it seems logical. But any advice on either method is welcome!
Leaving out details of that story that I mentioned in other threads, my main issue now is that my display tank most definitely has ich in it, which I would like to eradicate before I go any further with my tank. I
The tank is 32 gallons with cycled rock and about a 1-1.5" sandbed. There's no inverts or corals in it, I moved my inverts to a QT once my fish started presenting symptoms, and the tank has been running at 1.009 for about a week now, although the fish just died yesterday.
So I see two paths to success here, but the point of this thread is to see which option would be more effective and efficient, or to see if there's any other options I hadn't considered. Here's the options:
Option 1: Crank up the heat in the tank as high as possible (to shorten the life cycle of the ich) and continue to run hypo for a month. I would also do a heavy cleaning and continue to dose microbacter start to maintain the biofilter. After this I would return the salinity and temperature to normal and add the inverts back in. Then I would QT any new fish for a minimum of 2 weeks, which would mean the tank would be fallow for a minimum of 45 days before fish are added, 30 of which would be in hyposalinity.
Option 2: Drain the tank completely and let the rocks and sand air dry. (I'm not sure how long that would take, but with my setup I would probably leave it for at least a week) I would also stir up the sand to make sure it thoroughly dries. Once it's completely dried out I would refill the tank with normal salinity and temperature, then redose the tank with microbacter start and ammonia chloride to recycle the tank. For me this took about 14 days. Then I would add the inverts back in, and QT all new fish for at least 14 days before adding them to the display. So this method would last for a minimum of 35 days before any fish are in the tank.
Which method would be more effective? I'm definitely drawn to a method that I can do faster, but not at the cost if risking any ich surviving in the tank. This is also assuming that completely drying out rock and sand does actually kill ich. I can't find much information on that but it seems logical. But any advice on either method is welcome!
