Main and 1 QT tank dilemma

I just lost all fish except one to ich. I treated the tank with something called Parasite Remedy from Imagitarium, a herbal treatment that didn’t work. The ich was pretty bad by the time I caught it. The fish in the tank is somehow perfectly healthy and never had a spot on it but the ich must still be in the tank. How long must I wait until I can turn the heat up to rid the tank of the ich? I also want to set/up a QT tank but certainly can’t use the main tank water now. Guess my best bet is to cycle the new QT.
Thoughts?

 

There's a few naturally occurring diseases that cause white dot-like growths. The actual ich parasite doesn't live very long outside the fish. If your fish is fine for over a week or two then there is probably no ich.

 

it takes 2-3 weeks without a fish host to be certain, in the freeswimming stage the ich need a host to attach to, without one for 48 hours or so, it dies. it takes the time to be certain it's all hit that freeswimming stage of life and starved out.

you can technically move the single fish to the QT and just let the tank run without a fish for 2-3 weeks for all the ich to run it's full lifecycle, hit the freeswimming stage and die off. raising temp might make it faster but really needs to be a minimum of 2 weeks to 3 weeks to ensure they all have gone freeswimmer and they have nothing to feed on.

then the fish that survived this long lives in QT for that time, and if it doesn't get ich, it could move back after the QT. is over, but it's just easier to treat and maintain a smaller QT tank if it does turn up sick, and this gets your main tank fish ready faster also.

No host, the ich can't survive for much longer than 2 weeks. 3 weeks is where you can be pretty confident its gone from the tank. your beneficial bacteria colony will not die off in 3 weeks. some might, but it won't all go, not even close, no worry about that. just when you go to restock, take it a little easy at first.

 

The actual ich parasite doesn't live very long outside the fish. If your fish is fine for over a week or two then there is probably no ich.

From New Life Spectrum: "There are unknowns when dealing with Ichthyophthirius multifiliis: such as whether they can go ‘dormant’ in their encysted stage when conditions are unfavorable (and as such stop infecting the aquarium, but be potential available for a re-infestation during a future time of stress). Prior to setting-up a tank (or reusing a tank that previously had ich) for new fish, we recommend filling it with clean fresh water and dosing the water with potassium permanganate to the point where the color has a visible red tint. We let it sit in the solution for a day. We then dry the tank. After this point, we use it for fish. Ichthyophthirius multifiliis is an extremely hardy parasite (particularly in it’s encysted stage) and it is worth the effort to sterilize a tank as a preventative."

 

I’m sure the entire filtration system would require the potassium treatment as well.