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My fish tank is now officially empty. I lost all my fish to a really nasty outbreak of ick (and maybe something else too).

Now I'm thinking of starting over again but first I think I need to disinfect everything in the tank. Would a bleach solution be suitable to do that? Will it kill any parasite that might be left?
I don't have any live plants, so that's not a concern.

I'm also planning to change all the medium in the filter and re-cycle the tank.

Sorry for your loss . Unless you really suspect something else you wont need to do all that much to disenfict after Ich. Ich cannot live without fish so two weeks with no fish and your tank will be ich free. A combonation of ich and the meds may have been what took your fish out. Remember that Ich shows up most often in stressed fish, so stress from the ich combined with stress from the meds disturbing the cycle and it's no wonder that we lose some to ich even though it's realitivly easy to treat .

I would suggest at this point just giving the tank a good gravel vac, water change, and let it run by itself for two weeks. You'll need to re-cycle the tank and or restock the tank slowly when you start it back up again.

^_^

Hi and sorry for your loss. Ich is present in water. It's in your water supply, drinking water (ewwww). What causes an outbreak of this ever present parasite is stress. Stress may have been caused by many factors, but ommonly an ich outbreak is caused by a water change where the water going in is too cold. It may seem overkill but I use a thermometer to make sure it's the same. It should be the same temp within one or two degrees. Whatever the sourse of their stress, it caused them to be more susceptible to Ich and the outbreak occurred. Give it a very good gravel vac, a good water change, put some carbon in the filter to make sure you get the meds out and let it run for a while. Good luck!

Hi,

Sorry about your loss.
Ich is caused by a ciliated protozoa that parasitizes in fish.
Although it usually passes on from one fish to another, being a parasitic organism, it will have life cycles involving stages out side the body of the host (fish). In the case, the juvinile protozoa matures inside the fish, causing ich/white spot to develop. The matured protozoa then escapes the host and settles on to the substrate and reproduce by secreting cysts (babies). So even all the fish are dead, you will still have cysts living off the substrate. How ever, with time they might eventually die because there is no host for them to mature in. To be on the safe side, it's better to have some sort of treatment than totally ignore it.

If you are going to strip the tank completely, use some bleach solution to disinfect the tank. Also, gradually use warm water then hottish water to further disinfect the tank. Heat will further kill off some cysts. Also, you can use a slightly higher temperature after resetting up to disturb the life cycle of the parasite.

Best of luck.
Keep us posted.

Regards,
Jim

I lost all my fish to a really nasty outbreak of ick (and maybe something else too).

As you have no idea of the causes of the deaths I would be far more sevear than most. First I would remove and replace all the substrate and and materials in the filters strongly clean all the tank and any other bits and pieces in the tank and start a fresh to bo 100% on the safe side.

Before you even start get your water tested by your LFS. Go through the complete cycle process again also before adding any fish get the water tested again to make sure it is safe to add any fish and then only add them very slowly.

I also suggest you get back to us before you add any fish etc.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos


Keith

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