Killing Ich w/ low temp?

[ddaddy]

Is there any way to kill Ich with low water temperatures? The reason why I ask is because I have a tank that I know has Ich in it and there are currently no fish or inverts. Could you kill Ich off if the temp is lowered to lets say 50 degrees? I know that the parasites reproduction is affected by higher temps so maybe extreme low temp will kill it. It's an experiment worth trying seeing how my fish will be in copper quarantine for the next 4 weeks.

 

[bang guy]

No.
In fact, if you lowered the temp by that much the Ick metabolism would slow down so much that it might survive 6 - 8 weeks without a host.
I would suggest the opposite and raise the temp to 85 - 87F to speed up the metabolish and it will starve itself off in 4 - 6 weeks (with no fish).

 

[beth]

What is in the tank? And do you want whatever is in the tank exposed to high temps?
WO fish in the main tank, the ich will die out in 4-6 wks.

 

[ddaddy]

I remember reading something about Ich reproduction slowing down with lower temperatures but I thought that it would die at a certain point.
As far as the tank goes it's totally uninhabited. All I have in there is some liverock.

 

[chrismilano]

Dude - I WISH I was in your position. Just leave the tank uninhabited for 2 months and youre golden!

 

[bang guy]

Originally posted by ddaddy
I remember reading something about Ich reproduction slowing down with lower temperatures but I thought that it would die at a certain point.
You are absolutely correct, 50F won't do it though. The problem is that you will probably experience another cycle as the tropical inhabitants (bugs, worms, etc.) also die off.
Your best course of action right now to remove all ick from your tank is to just warm up the water and wait it out.