[Frank_Farmakis]

Ive heard many time periods for how long to wait before reintroducing your fish to an aquarium after ich. I have four fish in the quarintine tank and they have all recovered. But my reeftank had ich before. How long should i wait before putting my fish back in. And once its safe, should i put them all back in at the same time or one by one????

[weez1959]

6-8 weeks minimum, 8 would be better and I would put them back 1 at a time.

[leebca]

8 weeks is your target for assuring over 99.9% of the Marine Ich pathogen has died in a fishless marine system.

The rate of returning fish to the marine system depends on the ability of the system to handle the biological impact. If during the 8-week 'vacancy' the hobbyist still was feeding the clean up crew, live rock, etc. by adding foods to the system, then it is likely that multiple fish can return at one time. It depends upon how much of a bioload the fish represent, the bioload capacity of the system, and how the system biological filtration was (or wasn't) maintained during the vacancy.

If the marine system was overstocked to begin with, then putting all of the fishes back in at one time may cause a system crash. At the other extreme, if the system was significantly understocked, then putting them all back in at the same time would likely be okay IF the hobbyist was feeding the invertebrate residents during the vacancy.

Not sure if you're under or over or properly stocked? Check this out: Fish Stocking Limit - for FO and FOWLR

[Frank_Farmakis]

This place really rocks, cause you always get perfect advice... thanks alot team