new aquarium

[ilgazz]

recently all my fish died from ich. medicine and higher water temp didn't helped.
i disposed old water, but left gravel, artefac plant, rocks. do i have to clean them to.
and how to start new aquarium from scraich, beginning water, how long should it be in aquarium before fish, that to add to water,
tank is 55ga, tap water

 

[mitche8359]

How long ago did this happen? Did you rinse the gravel at all? I'm thinking that there's plenty of bateria in the substrate to get you going rather quickly if the tank hasn't been down too long.

 

[ilgazz]

two day ago, didn't rinse gravel

 

[Jchillin]

I would suggest running the tank 86d just to be sure all the ich parasites are long gone since your going to use the gravel. This may delay you getting fish but it's best to be sure.

 

[An t-iasg]

The cysts from the ich parasite will probably still be in the gravel. I would also suggest to raise the temp -- I think 87 or 88 degrees is better, especially since no fish are in there now. High temps above about 80 degrees speed the parasite through its life cycle, and temps above 86 degrees kill the parasite.

The life cycle of ich consists of three stages -- a stage on the fish (when you see the white spots), a free-floating through the water stage, and then the cyst stage, where the parasite encases itself in a cyst, and then breaks out to infect again. Raising your temps will ensure that the ich in all these stages are killed.

To fill your tank again, put dechlorinated water in. Don't just fill with tap water and then add dechlor -- the chlorine in the tap water will kill the good bacteria that still may be in the gravel, so to try to preserve it. Dechlorinate the water in a bucket, and then fill the tank. Leave all the gravel and decorations in the tank, to make sure they get the benefit of the heat treatment too.

I would keep the temperature raised for three weeks. Usually two weeks after you see the last white spot is good, but since this seemed to be a particularly bad case, I would give the empty tank 3 weeks. Is three weeks without a fish host overkill? I don't know, but I think it's better to be safe than sorry.

Also, I think you should continue to do water changes and gravel vacs during this time. Remember the cysts? They can be in the gravel, so vaccing will help remove them, and also, doing a water change will keep the free-floating ones in the water in check.

Here's an article on ich -- plus it has all the correct names for each stage:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=32

 

[An t-iasg]

I just thought of something else -- I would not put new fish in this tank until you're sure the ich is gone, by following the steps above. However, without fish to create ammonia, the good bacteria is going to die. You could try sprinkling fish food in the water, or, if you can find some, pure ammonia with no detergent. I don't know how much ammonia to tell you, though -- how many fish were in the tank? Was it completely cycled? You could try to simulate that bioload, or just do a search on "fishless cycling" and try for a dose of ammonia near the end of the cycle if your tank was established before this ich episode.