Does the Ick in the tank affect plants

[GeeKay]

Greetings!

I had Ick in my 20gal tank and before learning my two Gauramis were killed.

Now I've bought a new 25 gal tank and I'm cycle the tank as instructed in this forum. I did have couple of live plants and castle in my previous ick affected tank.

Please advise if i can use those live plants and castle.

Thanks

 

[BBradbury]

"Ich" Parasites

Greetings!

I had Ick in my 20gal tank and before learning my two Gauramis were killed.

Now I've bought a new 25 gal tank and I'm cycle the tank as instructed in this forum. I did have couple of live plants and castle in my previous ick affected tank.

Please advise if i can use those live plants and castle.

Thanks

Hello Gee...

The "Ich" parasite needs a live fish host, because it must feed on its bodily fluids. A parasite might attach itself to a plant during its life cycle and in that case you'll need to rinse plants in a bit of standard aquarium salt and some of your treated water you use for water changes. Most parasites will live in the substrate, so do a good job of vacuuming too. Fish pathogens have very little tolerance for salt.

Keep the water pure with large, frequent water changes and use a teaspoon or so of standard aquarium salt in every 5 gallons of new, treated tap water and your fish and plants will stay healthy.

B

 

[Rivercats]

Yes ick can be transferred into a new tank if all the ich wasn't killed in the original tank. I can't remember how many days off the top of my head how long ick will live a fishless tank but if your doing a fishless cycles you don't need to worry. I personally don't like to use salt in any amounts in planted tanks since some plants are not as tolerant of even low levels along with certain fish. I've been running planted tanks since the 80's without ever using salt in them. Another thing is if you run the tank temp at 86F for a couple weeks it will also kill off most all strains of ick and most all plants do okay with this higher temp for a short period of time. The higher temp will also aid in speeding the growth of beneficial bacteria in a cycling tank since bacteria grows faster in warmer water.