High temp for killing Ich, OK for live rock ?

[fishii]

I'm trying to eliminate ich in my fallow tank as thoroughly as possible. I read somewhere that most types of ICH cannot reproduce in temps higher than 86 degrees.

My question is, how high can the temp be without harming the live rock? The fish will be moved to the QT. My plan was to raise the temp in the main tank to 87-88 degrees. The article I was reading says 86+ for 10 days should do the trick.

Any thoughts, experiences ?

[papagimp]

I know that freshwater ich will die off in temps above 81 F but I'm not too sure about saltwater ich. If all you have in the tank is the live rock, no inverts, snails, crabs, things like that, then I'd say go for it. Bacteria will always re-colonize the rock, after a bit of a cycle first. Of course, if you just live it barren for a 30-45 days, that should do the trick also. last ich attack I had, I took the fish out for 30 days, then when I reintroduced them to the display I kept them extremely well fed for several weeks before going back to the normal routine.

[mike89t]

My tank consistantly reaches over 83 degees every day during the summer and I still have had Ich infections. I've read that warmer water does tend to speed up the Ich life cycle though.

[Sk8r]

It will bleach coralline. And kill other things.

Think of it this way. The ich parasite is a complex organism with the ability to change shape [cyst, trophont, etc.] like a Star Trek monster. Your poor defenseless microfauna are single-celled organisms whose only capability is eating and breeding. I think by changing the environment that radically you are far more likely to create a dieoff in your rock and sand that will create a toxic ammonia atmosphere for the tank...and if anything survives that, it will probably be the highly adaptive ich.

My advice would be go the lie-fallow route, and then stock your tank with ich resistent species [gobies/blennies/dartfish] and let it go another few months before adding any tang, angel, or clown, or rabbit, which are the world's most susceptible.

[barjam]

Either the fallow is effective or it is not, not sure why you would advise to go with ich resistant fish for a time after that.

My tank has a low level ich infection and the only two fish to *ever* show signs were my royal gramma (often) and my neon goby (slight). The clowns and yellow tang are flat out immunue... at least visibly. I don't add this to refute your list of resistant/nonrestant fish I just thought it was interesting.

[fishii]

Hi All,

Thanks for your advice. Well, basically my enthusiasm and momentum hit a brick wall when my tank got ich. Now my plan is to leave the tank empty with just the LR and LS for 2 months... but I want to make SURE that the ich is as gone as possible by then.

So I've set up a 29G which is my secondary main tank basically until Christmas.

Are there any ways to check if the ich still around in the main tank ?

[Kurt03]

does hyposalinety kill the ammonia - nitrite - nitrate bacteria?

[bertoni]

Hyposalinity might upset the nitrogen cycle bacteria some in a tank. It shouldn't be run on live rock, in any case. I haven't heard of losing filtration due to hyposalinity when using a standard bio-filter like a bio-wheel or a sponge.

I wouldn't heat the tank to kill ich. There's just too many things that could go wrong.

[Sk8r]

Fishii, I don't know of any way but with a microscope, and then you still can't prove a negative: ie, there may be a needle in the haystack, but you have to move every last straw to prove there isn't. The only proof is statistical: if they don't eat in 6 weeks, they don't reproduce, or at least the ones we tested couldn't, and died.

You can, however, have your second tank as barebottom and just get it going as observation or qt. That way you can enjoy your fish and make sure they're ok before putting them into your tank.

[Finding_nemo1]

I have a dragonfly wrasse and I think it needs sand or live rock. If I set up a QT will it be okay with barebottom?

[Finding_nemo1]

do i need to take snails and crabs out of the tank too?