after ich meltdown, ich and live plants

[Alchemy129]

Ok background info : i just had a ich attack in my 6 gallon planted community tank. It wiped ot all the living fish in two days, excpet the suspected carriers that were 2 balloon belly mollies that lasted a week. Anyway all the dead fish are out as of today and i have been treating the tank daily with "Ick away"since day 1. All thats left in the tank are some pest snails and a small ramshorn..im guessing snails are immune to ick. And also i have 4 misc live plants in the there which brings me to my question,-
can ick be on the live plants "carried by them if u will" so do i need to throw them all away or will they survive being scalded or what i really like the plants, and i'm guessing i need to take the whole tank down and scald everything before i add new fish don't i or is that not neccesarry?..and yes it will be cycled again if i start over.

[Jchillin]

What type of plants do you have? I don't see any in your profile.

[MarkLehr]

You do not need to start over. Without fish in the aquarium your Ich will die within days. Think of ich as a mosquito which needs a host to feed on. Without fish, the Ich can not survive. Ich only has a 3 day life cycle, so waiting 5 days will be plenty of time.
Your biggest concern should be identifying why you had a disease outbreak to begin with. Test you pH, Ammonia, and Nitrite before adding any more fish.

Also, you had way to many fish in such a small tank. A pair of Balloon Molly's would have been plenty by themselves, and it looks like you had several more fish. Also, in such a small tank, you need to stick to only 1 species of fish. Mixing species in a small tank will only lead to stress on your fish and make them more suseptable to disease.

What pet shop are you working with? I'm curious who would suggest such a heavy stocking load in a small tank. The best shops for knowledgable employees in your area are Sandys Pet Shop, Pets Palace, Noah's Ark, Auburndale, & Southside Pets. I would stay away from the Feeders Supply & Super Pet stores...

Good luck!

- Taylorsville, KY