Ich... help!

[Chill]

Well after the salt dip they looked and acted much better the next day (yesterday) they didn’t have as many white spots. We did a 50% water change yesterday and we got the water up to 78 and they were swimming and seemed ok so we didn’t go any higher then that and we did that temp change over a full day and a half. they were tolerating the water temp and they were eating good and then this morning they all died):

Now that there’s no fish can we heat the tank up and will that clear the Ich out if we decide to get more fish? we had a hard time getting the tank to cycle properly I don’t want to start over if possible.

 

[libertybelle]

Sorry to hear that. Do 100% water change and vacuum really well (might as well since no fish.) Then crank up the heat and let it run empty (how hot does your heater get?) How long you need to run empty will depend on how warm the water is but I’d probably give it a couple weeks to be safe.

Feed the empty tank with fish food to keep the beneficial bacteria alive while doing this.

Personally I would probably just get an ich medication and treat the empty tank just to be safe but in theory manually removing most of it then running it without hosts for a while should be sufficient.

This will probably be hard on your beneficial bacteria but you won’t be starting from square one re-cycling.

 

[Chill]

I believe our heater goes to 88.
I think we will get the ick meds and treat the empty tank that way if we ever get it again we can start treatment immediately.

What about out filter? If we use the medication will that clear it out of the filter or do we need to replace the filter. My only worry with that is again the cycle

 

[Skai]

No you won't need to replace the filter. Take any carbon in it out. Just keep it running and feed the bacteria with some fish food sprinkled in. When you're ready to start stocking again run the carbon again to get the medicine out and you should be good to go.

 

[libertybelle]

But stock slowly and be prepared for a mini cycle. The time without fish in the tank may have been hard on your bacterial colonies. It will probably still take a little time for the bacteria to readjust to bioload.

 

[Skai]

Ah yes, good point. It's always best to give a tank a chance to catch up to the new bioload. But I wouldn't think it would be too bad.

 

[libertybelle]

Best to assume that the bacteria are not ready and be pleasantly surprised! Though I agree even if the bacteria colonies were a little damaged by cleaning, heat, or meds it shouldn’t take too long for them to bounce back.

In a 50 gallon tank if you are still considering relatively small schooling fish (and assuming you’ve been feeding the tank while it was running empty) I would probably just add one school at a time. That way the fish are comfortable and have buddies but you’re not fully stocking all at once in case there is a mini cycle to deal with. So if you add a school of tetras or something and see no ammonia/nitrite for a couple days then you can move on to the next species.