Ick

[dj_spoolin]

Hey, I’m new to this site and pretty new to the whole brackish tanks.
I bought 2 white tipped catfish 1 spotted puffer and a Pleco...the man at the store said they would be OK all together.
About 8 days of having them, they got Ick,tried treating them but a few days later they all died one by one.

So my question now is what to do with my tank.

I asked around and some ppl said to add bleach to the tank and let that run for 24 hrs...clean it thoroughly and start fresh.....that to me sounded a lil scary.

Some other ppl said to leave the tank, clean 20% of it and put the cycle ect... lower the temp to 76-78 F and buy a couple of starter fish.

Does anyone have any suggestions or links that may help me out?!

In advance thanks

[Primetime]

I'd empty out the tank. Let it dry. Leave it dried for a couple hours, and refill. ICK cant survive if the tank dries up FULLY.

[dj_spoolin]

I'd empty out the tank. Let it dry. Leave it dried for a couple hours, and refill. ICK cant survive if the tank dries up FULLY.

How about the bleach should i bother doing this or just quickly clean it and let it dry? :shark:

[sploke]

I thought salt killed ich? Didn't think it would survive in a brackish tank. Maybe I was wrong.

BTW like your avatar DJ

[BeelzeBob]

they're many types of ick, both marine and freshwater.
when i first got my violet goby from petsmart, he was in freshwater and had a light case of ick. throughout the week i pushed my SG from 1.008 to 1.012 and kept it there and the ick cleared up.
think about the sharks is that they get huge. ive had mine for about a year and he's approaching 9in. i plan on buying like a 300gallon troff or like one of those round assembled swimming pools and keeping the guy outback

[dj_spoolin]

So should i just empty the tank or should i clean it w/ bleach?

[archerman22]

I may not be the best person to give advice, but I would say that the bleach thing is not the best idea. I would think that the bleach "residue" would stay in your tank for a while after you used it and that probably would not be good for any fish. If it were me I would probably just clean out the tank with some very hot water and rinse out the gravel or sand thoroughly. I had a violet goby get ick when I first got it and used ick guard 2 by jungle products and the ick is gone and he is very happy.

[reiverix]

If you have the patience, let the tank run for a few weeks with no fish. The ich won't survive without a host and will die off. You could raise the temperature to speed up the process. No chemicals required.

[TKOS]

Yes, a couple of weeks at temps at least 86F will make sure the ich will die off.

[patoloco]

This comes from my experience:

1- Bleach is safe to tanks as long as it's made with chlorine. You can wash the tank with bleach (1 cup/ 1 gl water) or even more concentrated. Let it stand for an hour, and then rinse it a lot. In the 3rd rinse, fill it with water and add a LOT OF the cheap dechlorinator. This will take care of any chlorine residue. IME, after adding the dechlo, even the bleach smell dissapears.

2- Freshwater ich will perish in a BW tank. I got some GSP a while ago, and they were kept in freshwater. I added them to a new cycled FW tank. I started raising the salinity slowly, ans when it was SG 1.002, ick started to show on them. I just raised the salinity to 1.004 and ich dissapeared.