Quarentine Tank Setup / Hyposalinity

[mmaglione]

All,
i have a bad outbreak of ich and i am told that the absolute best treatment and very effective is hyposalinity. I set up my QT tank have bare bottem, filter, air pump, heater and Ammonia Alert. The purpose of this tank is to never have it cycle which im told is possible if i just keep on water changes. My problem is that i just put new saltwater in the tank (10gallon) last night and i tested for ammonia and for some strange reason the ammonia reads at .50 with the api liquid test kit. I did a 50% water change thinking on a 10gallon tank this would effectively get rid of the ammonia, tested again after an hour and still at .5. I replaced it with brand new salt mixed water. I was puzzled so i tested my main Display tank and got a reading of 0 ppm which is where it should be so thats ive verified that the test kit is fine. Why on earth is my QT tank holding so much ammonia? The PH was low so i added buffer but im lost with the ammonia, ive added prime , everything , the kicker is THERE ARE N"o FISH OR ANYTHING to produce ammonia in the tank yet. Where is it comming from ? My carbon is brand new! i cant put my fish in yet to the tank they need to be in the tank and quick!

The plan is to aclimate to a simlar salinity, temp, ph then through water changes slowly decrease the salinity. Any others been successfull with this ? Help on the ammonia is the big thing though !

 

[melosu58]

If you are using tap water then that`s where it`s coming from.

 

[mmaglione]

ammonia

im using RO water

 

[brian242pa]

I use to use ro water through a britta filter and for christmas i got a ro/di syestem with a thing to see the disolved parts per mil in the water you are putting into the tank and my britta was around 40+ my tap was 50+ and my ro/di water is 0. This goes to say i had terrable elgea growth in the beginning when i set up tank from tap water,but my britta made a little change, but ro/di kicked everythings butt!! i hav barly algea or never had and ich since with britta i had ich break out often. ro/di is the cheapest in the long run trust me no dead fish or anything and they are very easy to make water with. soory for long post im writing watever comes into my mind this isnt school

 

[PrettyFishies]

Treating a CBB in QT with hypo. Keep in mind that at such low salinity, the bacteria go into a state of suspension and don't effectively metabolize the ammonia and nitrites. You bio filter becomes impaired and you must test 2-3 times a day to keep in top if it. I don't have a solution and my fish us suffering from nitrite poisoning because the nitrites won't stay down. I've given up in hypo and started raising the sg so that the biofilter will be effective. Will also add bio spira once I get it back up to 1.020. I then plan on getting him to eat again and treating with cupramine. I tried, but the nitrite just won't dissipate.