Question about ich and converting to DSB

[marty]

Ok, I just had a outbreak of ich on my yellow tank (seeking answers to this in the disease forum). I am also looking at converting my mixed cc and ls substrate to sand only in my 80 gallon tank. I currently have about 15lbs of live rock (which I know I need more, but...) Part of my solution to my ich problem is to go get a 29gallon tank to use as a hospital tank where I will do hypo.
I am wondering if I remove the lr and decorations, replace the substrate with sand and ls, replace all the water in the tank, basically start over except for the live rock and decorations, will this remove the ich parasite? Does the parasite live on the lr? (assume here that I place the rock and decorations in saltwater (Same as currently in tank or should I mix some new saltwater up?)
How do I clean the tank and filters and powerheads? Will letting them airdry for 24 hours kill the parasite?
Am I thinking too much or is this worth my time and effort? I know the tank can sit for 4 weeks to kill the ich which would give me plenty of time to replace the substrate.
My 80 gallon tank currently has:
1 yellow tang, 4 clowns, 2 domino damsels, 2 other damsels, 2 crabs, 2 cleaner shrimps, lots of snails, and 1 star fish. Fluval 404, Red Sea Prizm skimmer, 1 powerhead.
Sorry for the long post.
Thanks!

 

[tiffbritty]

not sure what you should do, but i have read that cleaner shrimp will eat the parasite . hope this is some help

 

[tyrfing]

The ich parasite needs a fish host to live, without one it will die off. Best thing to do is move your livestock to a QT tank and treat (copper, hyposalinity and many other ich cures will also nuke your LR & LS). Inverts don't get ich, so once you move your fish out, the ich doesn't have a host and will die. Keep your tank free from fish for at least 28 days and you will be ich free.
You may want to do a search on hyposalinity, since it's an ich cure, you'll find a lot of info.

 

[marty]

Thanks for the replies. Probably didn't word my thoughts very well earlier today. So many things going on, hard to keep focus.
My real question is:
Can I convert my 80 gallon tank to a dsb (i.e. removing the cc/ls mixture and replace with sand only - both dead and live) while my tank is empty of fish?
Is there any problem in doing this? Can I keep most of the water or should I start with 80% new?
Thanks!

 

[wrassecal]

I would definately convert while your fish are q'd and you don't have a lot of live rock to move. I think the important thing for your fish is to keep them in q for the 28 days of hypo to make sure the ich is gone from them as it can be present and not observable. So you could change out your water in main tank and do a whole new setup with your dsb, but even if you change out the water you might bring the ich back with the fish if you don't wait out the 28 days hypo. Give you something fun to do while you're waiting out the hypo treatment! oh yeah and remember you have to quarantine all the fish, not just the tang.

 

[marty]

Thanks Debi. I am looking forward to the 28-42 days of no fish in the display tank.
Another question: Should I try to keep the sand and bacteria that I have built up and try to remove just the cc? I am wondering if I just sift the cc out if I would benefit or not. I probably will have to see how the switch over goes before deciding that, just wondering if it would do an good or am I just wasting time. My thoughts are to get about 150-200lbs of dead sand and cover it with about 40 lbs of live sand (either the bagged stuff or from a lfs in Fort Worth).
Thanks again.

 

[tyrfing]

Marty:
Remove your cc and put it in (no kidding), a pantyhose leg. Tie the pantyhose leg off so you form several baseball sized balls. Leave those in the tank for the duration of your ich outbreak. That way you can easily remove the cc later, but the bacteria will remain in your tank and eventually transfer to your ls. This was recommended by Mr.Salty and a couple people have really sworn by it.

 

[marty]

I have a mixture of cc and ls. Should I sift the cc apart from the sand or should I just throw both the cc and ls in the pantyhose? There probably is between 40-60lbs of what was live sand from the bags.
Thanks!

 

[jim672]

Marty,
You're trying to save the bacteria that's currently in your substrate (so it/they can inhabit your new substrate), in those stocking bags, so you want to fill them up with anything that comes off the bottom of your tank.
Jim

 

[wrassecal]

Just throw it all in the panty hose.If you have it mixed up considering you are going to have a month to work on this I wouldn't try sifting, too much trouble. I'm about to do the switch over and put my livestock in a 20 gal I have. I have used the panty hose thing taking some cc out of my 55 and using it to seed the 20. It's worked well. If you can afford it, I'd add more live rock too at the same time so you can get a good cycle before your fishies go back in their pretty new tank.