Preventing Ich contamination

[Dekz]

Unfortunately my 20 gallon has come down with a case of Ich, I am taking care of it and I think it should be gone in a few more days.

My question is, what can I do to my vacuum & bucket to avoid infecting my other tanks. Would really hot tap water be enough?

 

[bs6749]

Most likely your other tanks already have the Ick organism, it's just that your fish aren't stressed so they haven't come down with Ick. It's an opportunistic parasite and is nearly always present in an aquarium. When my female Endlers give birth they seem to come down with Ick about 1/4 of the time and the other fish aren't affected and I have over 175 Endlers and 25 GBR's growing out in that tank. Since the other fish aren't stressed, they don't get Ick, even though it's present. Usually the Ick is gone on my females in less than 2 days. The stress from giving birth is enough to allow it to present itself but the fish are strong enough to fight it and be clear 2 days later.

 

[jsoong]

It is still good practice to isolate a "sick" tank, even though you might have dormant ich in the other tank.

To really isolate the tanks, you need to sterilize everything between tanks. For ich & most parasites, you can either soak in a weak bleach solution (and rinsing well & dechlorinate afterwards ... too much work) or soak in a solution of potasium permaganate <what most lfs use>. A simplier way is to let the buckets, etc dry completely between tanks. Not as effective as pp, but Ich is mostly dead when totally dried for a day or so. Hot water might help, but to truely sterilize, you need boiling water.