Help with disinfecting

[Jumperson]

 I had something that started out looking like Ich in one of my tanks. I started a treatment of Ich-X but it spread so rapidly that all my fish were dead within 3 days. well all but 5 small tetra. It is a 75 gal tank with some driftwood and plants. I have the tetra in a medic tank now and want to disinfect and rebuild the 75. 

 My question is what is the best way to disinfect the driftwood that has live plants on it?

 I will be disinfecting the tank and filtration system and starting the water cycle all over but would love to save the plants and driftwood. Replacing the substrate and cleaning all the other rocks etc. I just don't know best way to treat the driftwood and plants to disinfect them without making them not safe for the clean tank.

 What ever hit my tank started out looking like a grain of sand ( had white sand substrate ) on one or two of the tails of my clown loaches tail. but within 3 days they were covered and also had a whitish fuzzy fungus on them and all died. I lost them and two small clown plecos.  Whatever it was that hit the tank I'm scared that if I don't disinfect everything it may still be alive.

Any advice is appreciated

just incase it helps

0.0 ammonia 

0.0 nitrite

less then 10 ppm nitrate

weekly water changes

and cycled tank

thanks 

[Guppysnail]

I’m sorry this happened to you and your fish. Remove the plants from the wood. Use hydrogen peroxide on the wood and let it soak.  Hydrogen peroxide breaks to water and oxygen so leaves no residue. You can use this method of Reverse Respiration to disinfect your plants without damaging them. Hope this helps. 

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

First of all, welcome to the forum @Jumperson, but I'm sorry this is the way you had to start here. To help "diagnose" out of curiosity did you treat also by raising the temp if you use a heater or what does your tank run at temp-wise. 

I'm wondering if it was Epistylis- which looks a lot like Ich, can be more stubborn and sometimes harder to treat- it's exacerbated by treatment with heat and spreads faster. Do you happen to have any pics of any of the fish pre-death with the spots?

[Jumperson]

I do not have any pictures of the clowns loaches. But we did look at and thought of the possibility that it may have been Epistylis. When it popped up on the loaches first it looked like sand from the substrate but we had never seen it stick before. We started the Ich-X treatment. But within 3 days they all died. We then set up a medical tank and removed all remaining fish to it. Because one of the clown pleco showed signs of something but it was more grey or tan spots. We lost both of them. But tried to save them medicating them with co-ops trio because we didn’t know. And still not to sure. Here is a pic of the pleco and the progression.

[Colu]

Looks like Epistylis the most effective treatment is kanaplex in food feeding a small amount twice a day for 7 days as epistylis spreads more quickly at higher temperatures and feeds off gram negative bacteria on the skin of your fish  and I would add some aquarium salt 1 table for 3 gallons for one week   if any of your remaining tetras are still showing symptoms 

Edited October 6, 2022 by Colu

[Jumperson]

On 10/5/2022 at 9:14 PM, Colu said:

Looks like Epistylis the most effective treatment is kanaplex in food feeding a small amount twice a day for 7 days as epistylis spreads more quickly at higher temperatures and feeds off gram negative bacteria on the skin of your fish  and I would add some aquarium salt 1 table for 3 gallons for one week   if any of your remaining tetras are still showing symptoms 

thank you

Will give it a shot. We have that med also and we have aquarium salt.

Thanks for the advice all.