Fallow period

How long do you leave a tank fallow for if you do not know the possible disease or cause of fish loss?
Recommended: 45-60 days in which I refer the full 60 days
 
I vote "60" days if you really want to sleep well. (Other people can live with shorter times-- raising the tank temp, etc. But I had one tank that had to go fallow 3 times... likely due to 'user error'... mine.)
 
How long do you leave a tank fallow for if you do not know the possible disease or cause of fish loss?
I personally had this happen (though I think it was velvet). I left it 4 months, while I re-thought what I wanted to do with regards to preventing the problem going forward, as well as making sure parameters were in line. I would think the 60-76 day period is what most people would say. After the 'disaster' - I wasn't feeling any rush to restock.
 
How long do you leave a tank fallow for if you do not know the possible disease or cause of fish loss?

That's a tough one. The fallow period for Cryptocaryon, marine Ich is very commonly listed as "76 days", but that is actually an erroneous extrapolation from older literature. Certainly, longer works just as well as the minimum time, but 60 days is fine. It can be as short as 45 days at 81 F. or higher temperatures.

The issue comes in here if you don't know the disease. The fallow period for flukes is 30 to 35 days with no fish host, and for velvet, it's reported to be as short as 24 days, but I use the ich time frame for velvet as well. The issue is really with rare oddball diseases - viruses, internal protozoans and non-obligate parasites. Nobody really knows the time frame for those.....

The biggest issue with "fallow periods" is when new fish are added back into the tank that have not been given a comprehensive quarantine - they can bring a new disease into the tank, making the fallow period *seem* to fail....
 

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