Loaches Online Forum

I have a 55g tank that previously housed a couple of goldfish. I gave the goldfish away to a friend, with the intention of setting that tank up as a(nother) loach tank (hehe!).Before I got the heater in, my sister brought home a large ryunkin goldfish from our local fish club, not realizing I'd gotten rid of the goldfish. She put the fish in the tank, and we soon realized it had a fish louse on it's fin. She removed it, and then shortly after removed the fish from the tank, which by this time had been in the tank for about a month. I'm wondering if I now need to treat the tank, which is empty save for a few pond snails, for the lice or if any that may be present will die w/o a host (how long will this take?).
I'd like to get the tank set up and move some loaches in that i've been qting, but wont until i'm certain it's safe.
Said tank has been running is in my basement for 3+ years, and without a heater stays between 55 and 60 farenheit year round. If i put a heater in and set the temp to 77 will this kill the nitrifying bacteria? Or will they adapt to the heat? Should I up the temp slowly? I've been feeding the tank (ammonia) to keep biological filtration happy, and was hoping to not have to re-cycle before adding fish.

Raising the temperature will help the bacteria. They grow better at temperatures in the 70s. They are very slow growing at temperatures in the low 60s and under.
I would use heaters that are based on about 5 watts per gallon of tank water, and let them heat the water. It might take several hours to overnight. That is not too fast for the cycle bacteria.

I have no idea how long fish lice live off the host, or at what temperature. If the lice on the fish had a chance to reproduce there might be some thing waiting to attack the next fish that enters the tank.
I can see a few options:
Research even more, and see if you can find the answer.

Salt the tank very heavily (1 tablespoon per gallon) and kill whatever parasites might be hanging out there.

Other treatment (bleach) that will kill fish lice, but will also kill the cycle bacteria. Followed by thorough washing and the fishless cycle.

Add a few sacrificial fish to the tank and monitor them to see if they get any fish lice. I would choose some bottom fish so that if any lice spend any of their life cycle off the fish, this is where they would hang out.

Here is more info about fish parasites:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa041
scroll all the way to the bottom (well, almost) to Argulus