Flamefish acting weird in hypo

[Wael El-Dasher]

It's been 24hrs now and I dropped salinity from 1.020 to 1.012 but all the fish started acting weird so I raised it up to 1.015 and kept playing with Ph to bring it to 8.1. All seem to feel better except the flame fish. He keeps tilting sideways and looking loopy. Should I pull him out of QT and use drip method from DT to bring him back to normal salinity? He acts normal then gets loopy and so on in a cycle. I'd hate to have him die on me. He was from the LFS owner personal tank and he doesn't nip at corals or clams.

 

[Jarrett]

im no expert but that seems really low for salinity

 

[Crepe]

1.015 is a bit low.... for hypo still. I think (I may be wrong as I haven't been a saltie in about 4 years) it was 1.018 for hyposalinity. Don't take my word though.

 

[Krypt]

In order for Hyposalinity to be effective, the salinity must get down between 1.008 and 1.009. The stress your seeing is probably due to ph shock rather than salinity shock. When your adding water to drop the salinity, try to keep the ph the of the new water the same as the old.

As for the Flame Angel, hypo is actually the only way to treat ich that I know of for them. They are very sensitive to copper.

Edit: The time frame your looking at for dropping salinity is over 48 hours. Drop it about .002 every 4 hours or so, that should help relieve any stress if it is salinity related.

 

[Wael El-Dasher]

Thanks, I finally got the salinity down to 0.009 last night. It seems that the baking soda was the problem. I pulled all the fish out and placed the in a bucket, emptied the entire QT, washed it and disinfected it with white vinegar, rinsed all the filters in DT water, made a new batch of salt mix at 1.025 and slowly added some of that water to the bucket. Once the salinity was about 1.020 in the bucket I switched them over to the QT.

Immediately all the fish felt good and acted normal. I gave them a day or so break and followed a 5 step salinity drop schedule over 48 hrs. Steps worked out this way:
1.025->1.022
1.022->1.019
1.019->1.014
1.014->1.011
1.011->1.009

All was well. I didn't add anything for Ph. I gave up on that. Several members told me there isnt much I can do about it. Any recommendations are welcomed.

Unfortunately at 1.014 salinity stage the flame started acting up again. I moved him to a hospital tank. I tried increasing the salinity a bit but there was no hope. He passed away a few hours later. Flamey, as we named him, was really normal one minute then started looking disoriented the next. He will be missed. I plan on getting another.

Cheers

W.