How To Sanitize A Tank That Previously Had Ich

emmettbaby · Jul 21, 2010

My mother recently had a 29 gallon tank. The tank had ich and all the fish died. I am taking that tank and am wondering what I should do to the tank so that my current fish in my 10 gallon (which I will be moving to the tank) won't get ich. I am already going to remove all the gravel and plants, but would like to keep the plants if I can. The filter is a HOB with carbon filter which I have removed and a biofilter.

Bignose · Jul 21, 2010

Ich is an obligate fish parasite. That is, it has to have live fish available to parasitze, otherwise it cannot survive. Ich does not have a dormant state or similar.

In other words, if you just leave a tank free of fish for a long period of time, all the ich will die off. If the tank is still at tropical temperatures (70 degrees F), the tank will be completely free of ich within a week. If the tank is left cold, you may have to wait about a month.

Another choice, would be to let everything dry out. Ich also cannot survive being dried out. If the plants are live, that probably isn't a choice. Leaving the tank alone for a long enough period of time is your best bet.

emmettbaby · Jul 22, 2010

ok thank you! I will probably let the tank dry out and dry the plants since they are fake. What about the biofilter? Since my mother always runs it under tap, I doubt there is any bacteria on it, so I was planning on just drying it out too. Then I was going to add my biofilter from my 10 G to get the bacteria into the 29 G filter.

How long will I have to let the ich die once everything is dry? A few days?

Bignose · Jul 22, 2010

I would wait a few days after dry. But make sure dry equals totally dry. I.e. not moist or damp, or any semblance of any moisture at all. Totally dry. Every nook and cranny of every decoration, fake plant, piece of gravel, and tank. All totally dry.

drobbyb · Jul 22, 2010

It may help to take the gravel and spread it out on a trash bag(s) in the sun. You will probably dry it out in a day and the trash bags make it easy to gather it all back up.