Help, ich!

[Gamefreak0109]

so im buying an aquarium setup from a local. comes with everything.. Tank, Stand, Hood, Lights, Filters, air pumps, decorations, some fish, and best of all.... ICH. she told me at the last minute that one of the fish has ich, and she is including the medication for it. First of all, they are gold fish, and i dont want them, so im gonna give them away. (someone already wants them and ill give the meds away with it) so my question is about the tank. My plans are to make it a cichlid tank. I have the fish already in a smaller aquarium, and ill keep them in there till i know they are safe to move. But this is my question, With the infected fish gone, is the tank still gonna carry the ich? if so, whats the best way to get rid of it FAST, like in a day (or instantly if possible). I dont know much about it, but since i dont have to worry about fish in it, i didnt know if i could put hot water in it to kill it, or if i should just run a butt load of salt water in it. from what ive seen in the pics, im not gonna use the decorations that are included. Im more of the natrual, planted aquarium look. would just emptying it and cleaning it with hot water(steaming bath water?) would do the trick. i dont want to sound dumb, but this would be my first incounter with ich, and i dont want to set the tank up and put my cichlids in it, and then have them become infected. I just want to do what i can to get rid of it as fast as i can..... i know they have to have a fish host to live, but i was wanting to have the stand at the house, and within a day, have the water in it and begin cycling. any suggestions?

 

[dkpate]

Ich can live in the substrate for a while. I would google the ich life cycle and see how long it says. I do not believe you can get rid of it in a day, unless you completely clean the entire tank with a 10:1 bleach solution or something like that.

 

[BigBear]

Freshwater Ich? Yuck!

Covers it well.
Working on the heat method for my Oscars now.

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.

 

[Gamefreak0109]

i plan on getting rid of everything inside. Im gonna start fresh with new substrate and all. i believe that the tank currently has colored rock and what not......nothign i wanna use. Pretty much im talking about an empty aquarium that has had ich in it

 

[mfdrookie516]

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.

sort of... 89.5 will kill ich, above 85 just keeps it from reproducing... http://www.desertfishes.org/proceed/1992/24abs46.html

Anyways, im with dkpate on this one. your best bet, imo, is to clean it out, use a 10:1 water to bleach solution, sun dry, then use 5x the amount of dechlor needed overnight in the tank. That should prevent any possibility of having it in your system.

 

[Gamefreak0109]

How fast will ich die if the water temp is 100 for a little while? And BEFORE ANYONE FREAKS OUT... There are NO FISH OR PLANTS in the new tank yet, I took everything out of the tank, scrubbed the tank, and put all new substrate, I put all my old drift wood on there and a couple fake plants (just untill the real ones go in) and when I filled up the tank I just used hot water from the bathtub. And don't worry, I treated the water as I filled the tank and I've also been waiting a few days. But once I had the tank filled, the thermometer read right at 100.