Ich/crypto tank reset - advice on cleaning

[Djmac]

Hi guys,

I’ve got Ich and my tank currently has a few fish including an eel which makes copper treatment difficult, I’ve been down the Ich management path with UV and peroxide but it hasn’t been successful.

So, my plan is to put the fish through TTM (most of them are not symptomatic) and to tear down and reset my tank.

What would be the best way to sterilise my display tank? I’m not going to reuse my rock or filter media (I’m going to steal some media from another one of my tanks). So I’m really only worried about the tank and plumbing/pumps/etc.

I’ve read bleach can be bad for the silicon, and not sure about vinegar. I’m really trying to avoid the fallow period. The small amount of corals I have in this tank will go into a small tank to wait out the fallow period.

I thought maybe quick treatment with bleach and wash off after 15 mins? Or completely dry out the tank?

 

[Tonycass12]

Vinegar is my vote. But if you are doing a proper fallow period then it's all a redundant teardown and cleaning. Hopefully you have another reason you want to change things it would drive me nuts to take down, clean and then re set up my system.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi guys,

I’ve got Ich and my tank currently has a few fish including an eel which makes copper treatment difficult, I’ve been down the Ich management path with UV and peroxide but it hasn’t been successful.

So, my plan is to put the fish through TTM (most of them are not symptomatic) and to tear down and reset my tank.

What would be the best way to sterilise my display tank? I’m not going to reuse my rock or filter media (I’m going to steal some media from another one of my tanks). So I’m really only worried about the tank and plumbing/pumps/etc.

I’ve read bleach can be bad for the silicon, and not sure about vinegar. I’m really trying to avoid the fallow period. The small amount of corals I have in this tank will go into a small tank to wait out the fallow period.

I thought maybe quick treatment with bleach and wash off after 15 mins? Or completely dry out the tank?

Vinegar water mix is safe (safer than bleach) as yes silicone is porous to a degree. You can run cuprisorb after cleaning to assure traces of copper if any are removed

 

[Cool tangs]

What size tank and what UV?

 

[Djmac]

Older 4ft Cade approx 450litres, and it’s a 57w aqua twist UV. It’s my son’s tank and has five fish (puffer, white eye eel, grouper, lionfish and a fox face).

I’ve got a number of 45L plastic tubs to do TTM with.

I’m hoping to sterilise DT so they can go back in after TTM treatment because I don’t have another spare tank to house them in to do a fallow period in DT.

 

[Dburr1014]

Vinagar or bleach. Vinagar is softer to use and bleach is a killer.
Dry completely. Putting in the sun is a great idea if you can also, for the extra UV pop to sanitize everything.

You can't leave anything wet that goes in the display or you can still be exposed to ich. The only other way is fallow for 72 days(or whatever the new time is).

HTH

 

[Cool tangs]

Interesting they only list flow rates up to 1,066GPH for 90,000microwatt I'd argue it needs lower flow rates then what the manufacturer is saying. 90,000microwatts is probably not strong enough.

I ran my lifegard aquatics 90watt UV at 180,000 microwatts with the correct flow and had great success.

I was a bit sceptical on aquaultravoilet. Really rate the lifegard brand. You really need to oversize the UV I believe to better the chances.

You could try lowering the flow through the UV by halve to get the 180,000 microwatts/cm² and see if that helps. Otherwise if you want to try QT there is some guns in here that should be able to help. I Def's can't help in that department as I had more badluck QTing then running a powerful UV at the correct flow rates.

Key is to not panic, as hard as that will be. Goodluck!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi guys,

I’ve got Ich and my tank currently has a few fish including an eel which makes copper treatment difficult, I’ve been down the Ich management path with UV and peroxide but it hasn’t been successful.

So, my plan is to put the fish through TTM (most of them are not symptomatic) and to tear down and reset my tank.

What would be the best way to sterilise my display tank? I’m not going to reuse my rock or filter media (I’m going to steal some media from another one of my tanks). So I’m really only worried about the tank and plumbing/pumps/etc.

I’ve read bleach can be bad for the silicon, and not sure about vinegar. I’m really trying to avoid the fallow period. The small amount of corals I have in this tank will go into a small tank to wait out the fallow period.

I thought maybe quick treatment with bleach and wash off after 15 mins? Or completely dry out the tank?

Why not keep the fish in the tank and just run through hyposalinity?

If you do want to do a “reset”, chlorine bleach is the most effective sterilizing agent. You want to ensure that you get a true fresh start, and 500 ppm chlorine will kill bacteria through fluke eggs.

 

[MnFish1]

Hi guys,

I’ve got Ich and my tank currently has a few fish including an eel which makes copper treatment difficult, I’ve been down the Ich management path with UV and peroxide but it hasn’t been successful.

So, my plan is to put the fish through TTM (most of them are not symptomatic) and to tear down and reset my tank.

What would be the best way to sterilise my display tank? I’m not going to reuse my rock or filter media (I’m going to steal some media from another one of my tanks). So I’m really only worried about the tank and plumbing/pumps/etc.

I’ve read bleach can be bad for the silicon, and not sure about vinegar. I’m really trying to avoid the fallow period. The small amount of corals I have in this tank will go into a small tank to wait out the fallow period.

I thought maybe quick treatment with bleach and wash off after 15 mins? Or completely dry out the tank?

There is no reason to tear down and sterilize your tank - you only need to leave it fallow for 6-8 weeks - with no fish. Note - this is assuming that the fish actually have Ich... If, however, you do want to sterilize your tank, I would use a dilute bleach solution - but again no reason to do it

 

[Djmac]

Why not keep the fish in the tank and just run through hyposalinity?

If you do want to do a “reset”, chlorine bleach is the most effective sterilizing agent. You want to ensure that you get a true fresh start, and 500 ppm chlorine will kill bacteria through fluke eggs.

Thanks everyone for the input, I've read a bit more on hypo and I think thats a good option. I havent tried it before as my son previously had a shark (which we has gone back to the LFS last year) which meant hypo wasnt an option then.

I have a cheap optical refractometer calibrated at 35ppt with "Continuum Reagents Refractometer Calibration Standard" (like this one https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/195683860571).

Would I need a better salinity checker to run at 1.009? I was looking at the Hanna HI98319 probe. I have trouble reading 1ppt graduations on the optical one even on a good day .

 

[MnFish1]

I do not think you need a new refractometer - unless you really cannot see the graduations. I tend to trust the better optical refractometers

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks everyone for the input, I've read a bit more on hypo and I think thats a good option. I havent tried it before as my son previously had a shark (which we has gone back to the LFS last year) which meant hypo wasnt an option then.

I have a cheap optical refractometer calibrated at 35ppt with "Continuum Reagents Refractometer Calibration Standard" (like this one https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/195683860571).

Would I need a better salinity checker to run at 1.009? I was looking at the Hanna HI98319 probe. I have trouble reading 1ppt graduations on the optical one even on a good day .

I always use 2 or 3 hydrometers when running full hypo as the safety range is so narrow - I do have a German lab hydrometer that I know is accurate, so I don’t used redundancy with that.

 

[AetherealKnight]

I wouldn't do this again but I'll leave it here as an option... I treated cupramine in my display tank with my fish in it. It was a 50 gallon 7 years ago. So alternatively you could remove your fish and do a TTM and move the corals into a rubber maid (if you have one or any large bin) and treat your display for 30 days (which should kill ich) Live rock and sand will absorb copper and leach out copper for a while after treatment so you won't be able to keep corals until Carbon has absorbed all of it. It took two months before I could put my corals back in).

But I agree with what the others said up there and that hypo salinity is probably a better solution.