how long one must leave a tank fallow

[bongo]

when you get an ick outbreak...

I heard and read that you have to leave your tank fallow for 31 days

then again some say 6 weeks?

31 days is coming up this Saturday... should I wait 6 weeks?

[Rybren]

According to WetWebMedia, the fallow period should be 8 weeks.  Others may have differing opinions.

Never tried it myself.

[Hookup]

6 to 8 weeks is required.  Therefore, as above, 8 weeks is required.

[bluepointer]

A few months ago, I was in the same position, it is a huge pain and not very easy on the patience, but can you imagine if you wait 6 weeks and it comes back? I ended up waiting 8 weeks to be sure and I think it was the right decision. My tanks are thankfully completely ich free. 

[JD]

It would be nice to have a 100% ich free system. Only problem is how easy it is to reintroduce it. After doing your 8 weeks be sure to 100% quarantine everything.
Good luck!

[Hookup]

100% quarantine everything.

To clarify what everthing means...

EVERYTHING 
- new rock (not the dead/dry stuff, only new live/semi-live stuff)
- new corals
- new inverts (snails, crabs, shrimp, etc)
- new fish (quickly with copper, wait a week, get them feeding, them move them)
- new cheato/macro algaes
- new sand (not the dry stuff, only wet/live sand)

And since you cannot use copper on most of the above, well anything other than fish infact, you'll have to setup your QT and run it for 8 weeks to be sure to keep ICK out of your system.  Which, for corals, means getting enough light, stability of system, etc...

As said, Good luck! 

[Severum]

I ran my tank fallow for 6-8 weeks and QTed every fish for 6-8 weeks. My tank should have been ich free but its not. It probably came aboard some snails that I just acclimated to the tank. It seems strange to QT snails for 8 weeks...

In a healthy system, healthy fish will (should) not succumb to ich.

[salvini55]

ive been bad and havent QT'd anything. I think im lucky so far but i prolly just jinxed myself  . the sad part is that i have a QT... what am i doing!

[Hookup]

I had a QT.. it added 20gallons of system volume... that's it... I set it up so I could use it as additional volume, yet turn some valves and create an isolated system if and when I needed QT... it never got used...  

QT'ing is a PITA... Diping corals for flat worms, etc.. is good.. something I need to start doing.. i'm lucky so far... I have ICK, but it's completely controlled... never lost a fish to it in almost a year... red-bugs were eliminated no issues... but flatworms worry me... dipp'ing is mandatory at this point...

[bongo]

any advice on sanitizing nets and a python?

[Hookup]

I do not do this often, but have done it...

make a strong solution of bleach.. as strong as you like... I am cheap, so I go 4:1 water:bleach... soak for a while.. sometimes I get lazy and soak for a few days, but i'm sure within 30sec it's all dead..   rinse in hot water... repeat... soak in a bathtub of hot water... hot water helps break down the bleach... when you cannot smell it anymore you're good.. usually 3 "soakings" does it for me...  I usually forget the stuff and it soaks in hot water for a day... then I empty, fill with hot water again, and forget it for another day.. 3 days go by, cause I keep forgetting it.. and everything is good...

[bongo]

does leaving nets and python dry for two weeks kill ich?

[Vincenzo.]

im not sure, but you could dip it in boiling ro/di water.

[Hookup]

im not sure, but you could dip it in boiling ro/di water.

good suggestion...

[bongo]

hmmm boiling water for the net ok but for the 50 foot python...

I just hope that I get rid of that darn ich once I do all this waiting and cleaning... and waiting

[Hookup]

I hope you are successful.  There certainly are some people who claim they have staied ICK free following those processes.

Tim