ICH Question

[jpawson]

Hello- Let me start by saying I have been reading these message boards for several months now, and they are very helpful to someone like me who is new to the hobby. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
My story:
I have ich in my 120 gal reef tank, so I just spent my evening catching the fish and placing them into an established 20 Gal quarantine- will start hypo tommorow. What a pain in the A## that was!
Fish
Blue Hippo
Purple Tang
Bar Gobie- Favorite
1 Small Perc Clown
1 Royal Gramma
The Tangs are the only fish showing symptoms of ICH.
Before you ask how I have ICH in my display while having an established quarantine, I will admit I was impatient when I bought the Purple Tang. He did not stay in the quarantine as long as he should have. Now I am paying for my actions! My question is with the length of time the display should remain fishless. Is this time period based on the severity of the ICH? I see other posts say 30 to 45 days.....Longer the better? It would seem in theory that the period of time would vary based on the level of infection in the tank. Will leaving the tank fishless for one month kill a severe case of ICH?
Oh yea, I tried using Kent RXP and Poly Ox- Useless products- for me at least. I dont know why I used chemicals. Did a massive water change in the display tonight now it sits alone and empty (well corals and shrimp will have to entertain me). I want to be sure I take care of this problem so I never have to catch those fish again! How long to be safe?
120 Gal (Made my own stand and canopy)
Fish above
3 leathers
5-6 diff types of polyps (star,sand, button, green,sun)
Zenia
Open Brain, Plate coral,Pagoda,several mushrooms,bubble coral,candy coral
4 Cleaner Shrimp, 6 Peppermint, 2 feather dusters, Urchin, cleanup crew
Pic Attached- I am proud of what I built. I did it by myself with limited tools and no experience.

 

[bobo]

i read somewhere that the lifecycle of ich is exactly 3 weeks, i did 30 days on one of my tank with just lr and hermits and the fish i put back in it from qt didn't have any problems. just my novice 2 cents though, but i wonder if your 20 gal tank, although establish, will be able to handle the waste of your fishes...esp if the fish are big. also they might get territorial in that little space. maybe you might benefit from transferring the fish to a bigger rubbermaid or other container and transfer some water from your main tank for the bacterial, then do hypo from there. just my novice opinion...never had a huge tank like yours before. i like my bar gobie too, he cleans my tank pretty well and has a great appetite, its interersting watching him take forever chewing his food...reminds me of some caricature savoring a good meal.

 

[beth]

The treatment that you want to use here is hyposalinity. There are many discussion and the "how-tos" written up here in previous and current threads in the Disease Forum.
The process for hypo will take about 30 days. During that time, your main tank will remain fishless. As ich is dependent upon a fish host for their survival, they will not survive in a fishless tank beyond what their life cycle is, which is approx 23 days. As not all ich in your tank will begin and end their life cycle at the same time, the 30 days will just about cover all possibilities.

 

[jpawson]

thank you. 30 days it is then.