Sad 24 hrs ... lost my 3 fish to ich ... need restart advice

[blk2000xjc]

I started my first saltwater tank in February and everything was going VERY well until 2 days ago. I had a beautiful Cowfish and a black domino Damsel for months (along with many little inverts) in a 55 gal tank. About 3 weeks ago I bought a Kobe Tang from the LFS and it brought along some friends aparently. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure it was ich.

I caught it too late and they all died the first being the Tang and the last my Cowfish Gozilla.

I noticed the problem yesterday afternoon and promptly went out and bought a 10 gal startup kit for a QT and some CopperSafe but to no avail. It was too late ... lesson learned.

Now I'd like to start thinking about the future. I've got a tank full of inverts and a 10 gal QT tank which I will use from now on whenever I get a new fish.

My question is how long should I wait before I start introducing new fish back into the tank?

Here's some pics of my late Cowfish Gozilla ... RIP.

 

[HoopsGuru]

Gorgeous fish and a terrible shame . No need to beat a dead horse here, glad to see you learned a tough lesson.

The main tank needs to remain fallow (without fish) for a MINIMUM of 4 weeks. This will allow the life cycle of the ich to run its course and die off.

Good luck moving forward!

 

[blk2000xjc]

Thanks, It's been a rough day. I'm gonna really miss Gozilla.

 

[HoopsGuru]

I can imagine, a lapse in judgement brough ich into my main tank through feeder shrimp. I almost lost my porc. puffer several times, and I know how tough it was just to go through that before he got better. RIP Gozilla indeed.

 

[Salt4Us]

I'm sorry for your loss blk, it was a cool looking fish.