Fish off to lfs

[shoreliner11]

My 2 clowns were fighting a really mild case of ich...so I was slowly working on getting a qt tank up. Well, one of them had a big outbreak and he died today. I'm taking the other clown who is showing signs as well and the yellow watchman who looks normal to the lfs for copper treatment for 10days or so, thats what he recommended. My question is while they're gone, should I perform hypo on the tank itself? I do have a couple corals in there and I don't know if hypo is ok for them. Also, I know that 1.009 is the goal you want to meet with hypo but is it that critical with an empty tank? Would it be smart to do a total tank water change? I would think there would still b enough bacteria in the sand to prevent the tank from cycling again. Or would this just take out some of the ich and leave some. I was thinking that if I could do this I would do a quick freshwater dip on most of my lr to help. So basically how long should I leave the tank by itself with nothing in it?
Thanks a bunch

 

[julie]

Basically, the tank fish free should be left alone for 3 weeks, then the ich should be gone. It needs a host to stay alive, that would be a fish.

 

[elfdoctors]

The phases of ich which can live away from a fish usually can only live 23-28 days. Most people recommend keeping the tank fish-free for a month. Some people raise the water temperature to speed up the life cycle of the ich parasite.
Corals and other invertebrates (including much of the life in your live rock) cannot survive hyposalinity. You either have to remove your corals, live rock and invertebrates OR remove your fish. The 1.009 recommendation is for treatment of the fish. This has to be kept very close to 1.009 otherwise you are setting yourself up for failure. A refractometer is recommended as there is little room for error. That being said, hyposalinity is an effective treatment which isn't too hard once you've done it once or twice. I just finished a treatment and a week later it seems like it has worked.