How long to leave quarantine tank alone?

[ponokareefer]

I had a sick fish in my quarantine that ended up dieing. I am not sure what the disease was as there was no marks on the fish, just that it was breathing very rapidly one day, the next day stopped eating, the next day was very lethargic and then was dead on the last day. It had been healthy and eating prior to this.
This seems to be the symptom of a number of diseases, ich, clownfish disease, velvet, and I was wondering how long I should leave my quarantine tank bare until adding something new? I have read from 2 weeks to 3 months.

[daniella3d]

I would say a minimum of 8 weeks.

I had a sick fish in my quarantine that ended up dieing. I am not sure what it was as it showed no signs or marks on the fish, just that it was breathing very rapidly one day, the next stopped eating, the next day was very lethargic and then was dead on the last day. It had been healthy and eating prior to this.
This seems to be the symptom of a number of diseases, ich, clownfish disease, velvet, and I was wondering how long I should leave my quarantine tank bare until adding something new? I have read from 2 weeks to 3 months.

[marie]

You could just drain it and bleach everything....

[ponokareefer]

You could just drain it and bleach everything....

When I refill it, won't that create a cycle again since it is essentially starting a new tank all over again? This tank has been running steady for a couple of years now.

[Leah]

You could just drain it and bleach everything....

Marie,

Could you please explain this in greater detail. :biggrin:

[ponokareefer]

I would say a minimum of 8 weeks.

Any specific reason you pick 8 weeks?

[marie]

Any specific reason you pick 8 weeks?

That's the number of weeks it would take to make sure there is no ich in the tank



When I refill it, won't that create a cycle again since it is essentially starting a new tank all over again? This tank has been running steady for a couple of years now.


Yes it would start a cycle over again but if you have to wait 8 weeks to get rid of ich anyway, cycling would take less time


Leah I meant just that, if you use a bleach/water solution to clean the tank and filters then it would kill any possible pathogens and chlorine dissipates in a few days making the tank habitable again.

[ponokareefer]

That's the number of weeks it would take to make sure there is no ich in the tank


Any idea on the other diseases, or are there some that don't need fish to live?

[daniella3d]

yes it's the safest minimum for most parasites with cycle.

I read that the ick cyst can life up to 71 days but that is extremely rare. 99.9% will be dead by 60 days. So 2 months is relatively safe for most parasites. If you want to be 100% sure, then 3 months but I think that over doing it. In case of something severe like marine velvet, I would go 3 months.

I would definitly NOT wipe a tank that is established for 2 years..what a waste. YES cycling would take maybe less than 8 weeks but it would be a young tank still, not a mature and well established tank that it is now. It's best to wait. Those disease that don't need a fish to live are not a problem for fishes. It takes 2 years to get a mature 2 year old tank. That's a lot of time. Think about all the micro fauna that is established and thriving, and sometime this is very important for the fish we put in our tank and that need to eat these pods etc..



Any specific reason you pick 8 weeks?

[MitchM]

My experience with Ich is that it is always present.
It can show up on some of my fish if the fish are stressed or if the water quality drops for one reason or another. A return to good quality water conditions makes the symptoms disappear.

I've never had a tank without fish for any length of time, but the Ich parasite DOES require fish to be present in order to complete it's life cycle.
30 days is the typical Ich life cycle, but I'm sure it can be lengthened by lower temperatures or other factors

Ich isn't the end of the world, just make sure that your fish are living as stress free as possible, you feed them well and you keep your water quality excellent.

[daniella3d]

your experience is probably because you never got rid of it. Then yes if you don't do something about it, it will always be present living in small number on the fish gill until a stress happen and bang.

I don't have ich, never have, in my main tank because I do a strict quarentine with hyposalinity to kill ick even if a fish look healthy I still do it. It's easy on the fish and a good practice to eliminate lots of parasites and ick.

ich is not the end of the world but it does kill lots of fish and when it grow out of control because of stress, it can wipe out a tank. I have seen it before.

Ich is like fleas on a cat and dog...yes they can live with it, miserably for some, more or less ok for others, but as much as our cats don't have to live with fleas, our fishes don't have to live with ich. At least mine don't.

My experience with Ich is that it is always present.
It can show up on some of my fish if the fish are stressed or if the water quality drops for one reason or another. A return to good quality water conditions makes the symptoms disappear.

[MitchM]

Daniella I agree. My tank has always had Ich. Even healthy tanks have lower "incidences" of the disease break out.

..But I also still have the same first fish I bought when I got back into salt water aquariums 11 years ago....:wink::smile:

I didn't know about quarantining back then.

On another note, where did you buy your microscope that you have mentioned before?

[Cal_stir]

daniella3d is correct, i've had several battles with ich in an established q tank that i use mainly to quaratine corals, made the mistake of quarantining a fish with some corals, the fish had ich, and now i quarantine my fish in a bare 5 gal hospital tank, the corals remained in the q tank for 45 days, no ich transfered to the display.

[ponokareefer]

I'm pretty sure it was clownfish disease, which has a shorter life cycle than ich, so 8 weeks should be safe.

Thank you for all your help everyone!

[daniella3d]

I bought my microscope from a nature store around Montreal (Lire la Nature). It was around 200$ or a bit less if I remember. It's only a 400x microscope but it is very cool to see all the microscopic world. Especialy usefull to ID pest algae like dinoflagellates and cyano.


..But I also still have the same first fish I bought
On another note, where did you buy your microscope that you have mentioned before?