Planted tank post quarantine gone bad

[Ehcosbie]

Hi all,

I have a reasonably well planted tank that I have been using as a quarantine tank. Unfortunately, the six cardinal tetra that were in there have all died due to what I believed to be white spot/ ich. I am pretty gutted about this. As soon as I saw a white spot on one of them I started treating the tank with appropriate meds but for all my efforts, they have perished. I have already talked with the fish shop from where they came from and they are very apologetic and are refunding me.

But my question is this: as all the fish died from a parasite or bacterial infection/ disease do I need to take apart the tank and bleach everything and start again from scratch including new substrate and plants etc to make it safe for future in habitants?

All advice welcome.

Thanks.

 

[Tyko_N]

If you're sure that it was ich then running the tank without fish for a few weeks, preferably at elevated temperatures to speed things up, should clear the infection. Ich is an obligate parasite, so if the free-swimming stage can't find a host, it will eventually die out.

 

[Ehcosbie]

Would white spot or ich infect snails and shrimp or is it exclusive to fish?

 

[Tyko_N]

No its fish only, so you can use the tank for snails or shrimp directly if you want to. If you already have some in there, don't move them for the coming weeks, since they can still carry the parasite with the water in their shells and suchlike.

 

[Ehcosbie]

Ok, thank you for the advice. I really appreciate it.