Hyposalinity

[ryshark]

I'm setting up my hospital tank for hyposalinity to rid my tang of ich. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Sadielynn]

It really is easy but do so slooowly so as to not shock the fish .... I would say drop down from 1.026 -.024 or so per day ... anything much more will shock the already weakened/stressed fish . Feed foods with garlic and another type of food enhanser such as selcon to boost the immunity of the fish ,.. The garlic triggers a fishes feeding response . Also keep the water perameters in check....Measure salinity through out the day morning and evning to make sure not a masive swing

 

[melosu58]

I agree with Sadie. Go slowly and you`ll need to go as low as 1.009 on the salinity. Read treatment option 4 on this link.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

 

[ryshark]

Does the PH become harder to manage when the salt level drops?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Does the PH become harder to manage when the salt level drops?

I didn't really find that to be so. I did mine in a 10g, bare bottom, only PVC and a fake coral. I was ready for it to plummet once I got around 1.009 but it didn't. However, I was doing 20% water changes every 3 days or so, and I added a little buffer at some of the water changes. Think I only added it four times over the course of five weeks. I tried to keep my alkalinity stable, thinking that would help out my pH. I think the water changes are what kept things OK for me. Doing 2g water changes with 1.009 water uses hardly any salt, so it costs nearly nothing!

I followed the routine in this writeup...

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

... and didn't have any issues at all. As Sadielynn mentioned though, keep good tabs on the salinity and don't let it wander much over 1.009 from evaporation.

 

[ryshark]

Great articles thanks, I will definitely use those. Unfortunately I had to take practically all of my LR out of the tank in order to catch my 2" sgt. major damsel. Im thinking about not putting him back in the main tank. He is very nice now but I have heard they can become mean with age, and I never ever want to have to do what I did tonight (take all rocks out) again.
I also got my refractometer delivered to my house today. According to my refractometer the SG in my main tank is 1.026 and my coralife hydrometer reads 1.023.
I'm a little worried about my blue tang I took out (the fish that had signs of ich) She became very stressed out with the move to the hospital tank. The dorsal fins got a little stuck in my net (I should have used a bigger net) and then when released she swam to the bottom of the tank underneath the small powerhead and is just laying there flat, not moving at all. It is too dark to tell if she is dead or alive, but I will just leave it be until morning.
My other concern is the size of my hospital tank. It is 10gallons and I have the 3" hippo tang, 2" damsel and 2x 1"ocellaris clowns. I will do the best I can and hope all is well in the end. Lots of water tests and water changes Im assuming. Thanks again

 

[Sadielynn]

Go to walmart and get a tote bin (Like you use for storage) You can get them in some pretty good sizes ....It is opaque so that will help with the stress of the fishes ... or get a couple more 10s I think you are going to have problems with that much fish in a 10 ......totes are only a few bucks ,,,and since you are not medicating them it would work nicely....You should even beable to fit a filter if you wish ...

 

[ryshark]

All the fish look ok this morning after the move from the main into the hospital tank. The tote from Walmart is a good idea, but how will I be able to see when the last spot goes away? The articles say to go 4-weeks after the last white spot disappears and if you happen to see one come back you must start the 4-weeks over again after it is gone. However, if the 10gallon I have is going to kill all of my fish before I finish hyposalinity, then of course I would rather get a 20+gallon tote, leave them in there for 6-weeks and hope for the best.

 

[Sadielynn]

You can just blast some light over it and hope that you can see they are gone , usually 4 weeks is enough for them to go through thier stages . However I recommend 6-8 weeks as this is more than enough to let it go through its life cycle

 

[ryshark]

I picked up a 15-gallon opaque tote yesterday. I haven't made the transition out of my 10-gallon hospital tank yet because I am thinking about catching the Sgt. Mjr. and returning him to the LFS to help out with the bio load in my hospital tank. I don't think I really want a 6" damsel in my main tank down the road anyway(its only 2" now). If I do that I will have a 3" blue tang and 2x 1" ocellaris clowns. Do you guys think even with those 3 fish I should still use my 15-gallon tote. By the way, I am struggling a little with the bio filter right now with ammonia around .25
Thanks.

 

[Sadielynn]

I certianly would use the larger tote bin more space = less stress , throw some pvc pipe in there for them to hide as well ... I would set up to do some small 15%-25% water changes to compensate for the high ammonia ( there is a cycle going on now ) but you should beable to guard it with a few water changes , I have even heard to use birospeara (refridgerated ) not sure if it really works it is expensive but some folks swear by it , I have only used it once and really have no opinion on it other than it did no harm ,water changes are IME/IMO just as good , also run some carbon changing it out every few days or so

 

[cmor1701d]

PWC's are your friend here. Prepare enough to do 2 - 20% changes a day for a week. You probably won't need to, but it helps keep the water parameters in check until a biofilter gets established.

Remeber to lower the SG no more than a couple of points per day. It must remain at at the 1.009 for 4 weeks (minimum). Returning the SG at the end must also be done slowly.

 

[ryshark]

Thanks for your help guys.