Can Marine Ich stay alive on dry goods?

[mandyplo]

I have a quarantine tank in my basement where I keep separate tools from my display tank (nets, those granny grabber tools, whatever else... filters heaters etc.)
My dad unknowingly used the QT tank grabber in my display tank to save a fallen coral off the sand bed.
+1 dad for saving my coral
-1 dad for putting ICH back into my display tank as it has all of a sudden shown up about 4-6 weeks approx. after my dad used the tool in my display.
I'm sure the pesty parasite can stay dormant in dry conditions... I'm sure thats how ich got in my display... I quarantine all fish I get, and I haven't obtained ANY new fish, corals, rock or ANYTHING in 4 months....
I have no explanation for it. So discouraging

So I'm going to take all of my fish out and put them back into treatment in quarantine in the basement, and leave my display tank without fish... How long do I need to leave my display without fish until the parasite eventually dies off?
And, can I treat my dry products with anything to kill the ICH before I put them in my tank? Like vinegar or something?... Or should I just keep separating dry goods from QT to Display and educating my family to not mix up the tools....
Thanks guys.... such a PITA

[George]

To be safe, let QT equipment dry for more than 24 hours before reuse them on anything else.
If you are paranoid, use bleach or any chlorine solution to clean equipment and let them dry (for bleach to evaporate rather than for marine ich to die).
If I were you, I would let the DT to go fallow for 12 weeks.
Good luck.

[hillegom]

I found a bit of information about drying of the ich parasite:

Does Ich lay Dormant, or is Ich always Present?

Ich is NOT always present in an aquarium, despite many claims to the contrary which is sometimes used to cover up for poor quality stock.
I have conducted tests (and read others) where I killed off any Ich (if there was any depending on the control group) and then subjected the fish to many stressors that commonly bring on Ich such as sudden temperature drops with NO resulting Ich outbreaks.
It is important to note that the Ich protozoan cannot live outside water and if dried, its cell wall would collapse permanently destroying this single cell parasite so this point also makes migration of Ich from anything other than transport via infected fish or similar water transfer impossible. This also goes for marine Ich (Cryptocaryon) which I almost never had problems with in tanks where all fish were carefully added and there were no previous outbreaks.

Which I got from this site:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts....ch.html#myths2