How long for Ick parasite to starve and die off?

[arminkropp]

Had Ick in my main tank and removed everything except LR. Turned temp up to 86F.
How long would you figure? I wanna make sure its gone!!!!

TIA

 

[RMPD109]

at least 6 weeks to let it go through its cycle. You can leave inverts in the main tank while waiting.

 

[melissfish]

6 weeks, watch your fish closely for any signs, please be careful when raising your temperature, inverts and corals dont like it

 

[arminkropp]

My fish are out of the tank and I dont have inverts or corals in it yet.
Temp is at 86F now.
According to the Article here at AA, with the temp that hight it should only take a couple days. Quote:Ich appears not to be able to survive temperatures above 86F. By raising temps to above 86F one can kill all the parasites; generally, 4-5 days after the temps have been raised above 86F you will see a reduction in white spots on your fish. It is best to continue temps above 86F for at least 2 weeks to ensure all the parasites have been killed.

This was in the FW section thought, so might be different for SW ich.

 

[steve-s]

C. irritans is unaffected by temps in this range. All it does is speed up the life cycle. 86° is actually the optimum reproductive tempurature for this parasite. It will absolutely do nothing to kill it. 86° will however affect the biofilter adversely.

Cheers
Steve

 

[PumaKrieg]

you could have kept corals and inverts in. I would say wait 6 weeks.

 

[xahx]

At least 4weeks, reccomneded 6, to be absolutley sure 8 weeks

 

[cmor1701d]

Your sig doesn't list any livestock in your sw tank.
What inhabitants did you remove?
Where did you put them?
How are you treating them for Ich?

Leave the main tank free of fish for at least 6 weeks.

 

[arminkropp]

Removed a domino and electric blue damsel
in QT now
copper as treatment

 

[quarryshark]

Cool! What kind of copper and do you have a test kit?

 

[cmor1701d]

Keep checking your copper levels to make sure you stay in the range to cure your fish.

The main tank needs to remain fishless for 4-6 weeks so the fish don't get re-infected.