How to perform a fresh water dip?

[weekf]

Do I just use tap water? Deionized water? RO/DI water? Let the fish in there for how long? Will this really be alright for the fish? Will this cause stress which could even lead to other illnesses or death?

Any instructions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Sadielynn]

Fresh water dips are fairly easy but hard on fish . They should last no more than 5 minutes .. you will want to match your PH , temp to what he is in now . RO/DI or distilled would be the best water . But this could potentially cause more stress to the fish opening them up to more diseases . HypOsalinity may be something to try in a QT tank with the lowered salinity the ich cant live in it and die off . Be sure to lower it slowly so as to not shock the fish to much .. I have done both fresh H20 dips and hypOsalinity both had postive effects for me . The fish will usually sink to the bottom during a fresh water dip .. I am not sure if this is effective on black ich or not

 

[weekf]

I don't have a QT tank and hypo is definitely out. If fish will open for more diseases from stress cause by fresh water dip I don't think I want to try it since that could lead to its death faster than it having ich on his body.

 

[EJS4]

Why is hypo out? you can do it in the main tank. Each day take out small amount of salt water and replace it with fw. forgot to mention i used this in other post on copper in tank thread.

 

[weekf]

I see I see. Because I thought since other fishes has got no sign of ich why should they subject to hypo as this couls stress them out unnecessarily. But who knows they also already have ich on them just not obvious I guess.

I will do this when I go home from work today. How much to reduce to any idea? Currently my salinity at 1.026 Will hypo create any problem with inhabitants on live rocks??? I am worry it might cause die off then the ammonia spike that will even cause my fish to die faster.

Thanks EJS4.

 

[Sadielynn]

I would lower it no more than 1 point per every 2 days so ....
Today = 1.026
tonite = 1.025
wait a couple days 1.024
wait a couple days 1.023 ect till you reach 1.018 (double check that I think that is the number you are aiming for )
you do NOT need a qt tank for this just remove inverts , star fish , crabs, snails ect as they will NOT tolorate the HypOsalinity at all
There should not be major die off if done slowly

 

[EJS4]

Actually the fish will be less stressed and the hypo will kill the free swimming stage of ich.

 

[melosu58]

EJ is right but you`ll need to remove all inverts and LR as all will not survive. I`m just not much of a fan of hypo the whole tank.

 

[FishFrik]

IMO/E, never try to treat diseases in the main tank

 

[SeeDemTails]

Why is hypo out?.....for $40 you could buy a 10 gal tank and a heater and small hob to move the water.

$40...thats probably less than what you spent on the fish!