[BellaNavis]

After just reading the thread on ich, I have a question. When you leave the tank fishless for 6 weeks, it said not to add any water, what about adding water so the pumps do not blow air bubbles into the tank? Does that make sense?

[leebca]

WELCOME TO REEFLAND!

Thank you very much for reading the post so closely. I try to write in detail and I try to write clearly. I obviously failed to do that in that part of the post.

What I meant by add no water, was to not add any other tank saltwater to the aquarium going fishless. Salt water from other tanks (e.g., an LFS system, wholesalers system, on-line supplier, or another tank in the home) may be contaminated with disease organisms. Also, I meant to add nothing that comes with outside saltwater. For instance, even though they are not susceptible to Marine Ich, adding snails to the aquarium going fishless would be in effect also adding potentially contaminated water from another aquarium or LFS.

As recommended by Steven Pro and myself, all things going into an established, parasite/disease-free marine system, should be quarantined.

I crowded all that into the short phrase of 'don't add water.' Not too good on my part. :slap: I'll try and make it a bit more clear.

Thanks again for reading the post and thanks for pointing this out to me.

What isn't meant is to not do water changes with freshly made saltwater, and what isn't meant is to not add-back evaporated water (by adding distilled or RO/DI water to maintain salinity.) That is. . .It's okay to do water changes and top-off with non-contaminated water.

[Reefland]

Hi BellaNavis,

[BellaNavis]

Hi guys, and thanks for getting back to me. I thought that was what you ment, I just wanted to be sure. Also, I have inverts, LR, LS, and a mandarin in the tank, will the ich still go away after 6 weeks? I am a little confused, if they can be carriers, can the ich still survive? Sorry for all the questions, I just want to do it right.

Nikki

[leebca]

All fishes can be a host to the Marine Ich parasite. Your tank will not be rid of Marine Ich so long as the Mandarin or any other fish remains in the tank.

The inverts cannot act as hosts to the Marine Ich parasite, so the parasite will die with them being in the tank. What is carriers is not the inverts, but the water they are in. Thus the caution about not adding any potentially contaminated water to the fishless tank.

Ask whatever you need to know!