Need Advice On Re-starting Fish Tank

[Onzlow]

I had a tank that was up and running for about 18 years, and it recently experienced a lot of problems and all the fish are gone. It’s a 55 gallon tank, and for years I had a pair of clown loaches in it, who were part of the original crew to populate the tank. I added three other fish to the tank recently, apparently they introduced ich, and everything went to pot. I found the last fish – a pleco – dead yesterday.

OK, so now I have 55 gallon tank with no fish. Obviously, I can’t just add fish to it since the ones that were in there just died. How do I make it safe to start over?

The loaches clearly showed signs of ich, but I never saw that on the pleco. I’d like to make sur that the ich is completely removed from the tank. With no fish in tank, I’m not sure what happens with the ich’s life cycle. Will they just die off in a week or two or should I treat the tank?

Next, general water quality. Here are test results from the water right after I pulled out the dead pleco:

Ammonia – 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate – 20 ppm
Chlorine – 0
Hardness – 75 gh
Alkalinity – 300
Ph – 8.4

I plan to do several complete drains and refills of the tank, in part to remove the residual salt form my attempted ich treatment. That should get the alkalinity and pH in line, and hopefully leave the bacterial in place in the substrate to avoid NTS.

Does this sound like a good plan? Anything else I should look into?

Thanks in advance.

 

[pippoodle]

do a good gravel vac , raise the temp to 84+ then you'll have to feed the bacteria with something while the tank has no fish in it
either add fish food or ammonia
i would treat the tank with the interpet anti white spot treatment works perfectly IME

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I agree with pip's advice. If you are unfamiliar with the details of finding the right ammonia for feeding bacteria do some searches. It is much discussed in the "New to the Hobby" section. You need to look in the mop&broom sections of stores for pure household ammonia that doesn't have dyes, fragrances or surfactants/soaps.. so it shouldn't foam when shaken.

~~waterdrop~~