Starting hypo

[InfernoST]

Need Help Starting hypo

Hi Guys
My LFS finally got a 20 gal long in and I picked it up, I'm going to start Hypo treatment and want to make doubly sure this is OK. I want to fill the QT tank with water from the main tank so I can get the fish out of the DT tank asap. Then I'm going to remove 2 gallons of water every 12 hours and replace it with straight RO until the salinity gets down to 1.009 from there I will maintain the salinity for the next 4 weeks then do the reverse until the QT water is equal to the DT water. I have 2 Perculas, 2 firefish gobies and 1 flame angel, unfortunately I lost my Blue caribbean tang to Ich. I know it's my fault and I should have set up a QT before hand, unfortunately a hard lesson learned. Please let me know if I have this right. Thanx

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Only thing that jumps out at me is that you want to raise the salinity much slower than you lower it. Jumping from normal salinity to 1.009 over the course of 3-4 days should be OK, but coming back up you want to bring that up only a point or so a day. Yeah... that means it's going to take 2 weeks, but hey - you're already 4+ weeks into the process anyway, right?!

Also, don't forget that the 4 week timer starts after you see the last white spot go away. If it comes back, the 4 week timer starts over again.

Good luck, and congrats for going this route!

 

[Flake]

Sorry to hear about the tang. Hope the boss isn't too upset. Sounds like you've got a good plan though. Best of luck

 

[InfernoST]

Only thing that jumps out at me is that you want to raise the salinity much slower than you lower it. Jumping from normal salinity to 1.009 over the course of 3-4 days should be OK, but coming back up you want to bring that up only a point or so a day. Yeah... that means it's going to take 2 weeks, but hey - you're already 4+ weeks into the process anyway, right?!

Also, don't forget that the 4 week timer starts after you see the last white spot go away. If it comes back, the 4 week timer starts over again.

Good luck, and congrats for going this route!

Thanks for the info Kurt. Do you think 2 gallons every 12 hours is to much in a 20 gallon volume, should it be 1 gallon every 12 hours? When you say bring up 1 point a day you mean from say 1.009 to 1.010 (day 2) to 1.011 (day 3) and so on?

Sorry to hear about the tang. Hope the boss isn't too upset. Sounds like you've got a good plan though. Best of luck

Thanks Flake, she is a little heart broken but understands what happened and is very angry at every whit spot that floats on by. She is helping me setup the QT tank and assisted me with the support frame I put together for it. You know what is really messed up, one day it looked like bubbles then they went away then a couple of days later the same thing (Each time it went away over night and no other fish in the tank had it or even has it now, but I'm not taking any chances), then I notice 2 white spots in the evening and planned on getting a tank and doing the QT in the AM only to wake up and find him looking like he went through WWIII, took a shower came back and he was gone. It was hard to tell the difference, I have to cure the little micro bubble leakage getting into the tank from the skimmer so it's easier to identify. Lesson learned, everything gets QT'd from now on.

 

[Flake]

I mentally picture her shaking a fist at anything that floats by. It's a tough way to learn, but this one lesson will help so many others.

 

[InfernoST]

I mentally picture her shaking a fist at anything that floats by. It's a tough way to learn, but this one lesson will help so many others.

She is shaking her fist, but was cheering me on with catching the fish. Yes it is tough way to learn, I hope this will show others what not to do and how to fix it. I'm going to put up a thread about don't let this happen to you

 

[severum mama]

What a bummer. I'm so sorry to hear about it.

I have never had to treat for marine ich, so have no advice to offer. But my fingers are crossed.

 

[InfernoST]

What a bummer. I'm so sorry to hear about it.

I have never had to treat for marine ich, so have no advice to offer. But my fingers are crossed.

Thanx SM. Hopefully this will be the 1st and last time, from now on everything goes into the QT. I'm happy that the Boss is handling it very well and is very supportive, Great qualities for a 5yr old.

 

[jessicasmarine]

Sorry to hear, kieth. First Ive heard you had a problem.

 

[InfernoST]

Sorry to hear, kieth. First Ive heard you had a problem.

Thanx Zack, I'll keep you all posted on the progress, I had to remove almost all of the rock to get them out of the tank(it took 3 hrs), they are in the QT (20 Gallon Long) right now and they all ate which relieved me a lot. I'm going to add 2 gallons of RO in 1 gallon increments then recheck the salinity to make sure I'm not dropping it too quickly(in about an hour). I'm a little nervous about this hypo thing, so like my father inlaw use to say slow and steady and everything should be OK. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Zer0]

Do you know what was the first fish to get the ich?

 

[InfernoST]

My Caribbean Blue Tang was the first and he died in less then a day, he probably had it longer but i couldn't tell if it was bubbles or spots, when I examined him after he passed he was covered with them and it looked like nothing when I went to bed the night before, so now everyone is in QT going thru HYPO. I just hope I do it right.

 

[Zer0]

darns that sucks bigtime. And thats why im never getting tangs. lol.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Thanks for the info Kurt. Do you think 2 gallons every 12 hours is to much in a 20 gallon volume, should it be 1 gallon every 12 hours? When you say bring up 1 point a day you mean from say 1.009 to 1.010 (day 2) to 1.011 (day 3) and so on?...

I went back and reread my favorite hypo article...

ATJ's Marine Aquarium Site - Reference - Hyposalinity Treatment

... and it looks like you're following it regarding the lowering of salinity. (Replace 20% of tank water with fresh water every 12 hours.) I think when I did hypo, I did the 20% every 24 hours. Either way, you should be fine.

Other articles I've read suggest the slooooooow raising of salinity - the article I linked to doesn't really spell it out very well. But yeah... that's what I meant about a point a day... 1.009 to 1.010, etc.

One thing to watch for that took me by surprise was testing for pH at lower levels to make sure they stay stable. (With less buffer naturally in the water, your pH may drop more than normal.) Using my SW pH test kit, the colors were waaaay different than I was used to. But then when I looked at the Freshwater color card that came with it, the colors looked closer to those. It made sense when I thought about it... at 1.009, I'm closer to FW than SW. So you have to do a little "creative interpretation" looking at both the FW and SW color cards to figure out where you really are. Kind of. Let's just say this is one instance when a pH meter would come in handy! Not a real big problem... just one that caught me by surprise. A little buffer now and then kept things fine for me. But you might not have a problem with a bigger quarantine tank. (Mine is 10g.)

 

[InfernoST]

Kurt, Thank you for your help and going back & researching Hypo for me and the heads up on the PH.

 

[InfernoST]

darns that sucks bigtime. And thats why im never getting tangs. lol.

Yeah it does suck. Hopefully we will make it through this HYPO treatment OK with the knowledge of what not to do. On the positive side this is a great learning experience and that it happened way before the tank became a reef.
Oh yeah, I was also able to get 50 GAL of RO water into the DT, so it is all working out for the best.

 

[Zer0]

Nice.Im glad its working out so far. Please keep us posted on how your fish are doing. Hope for the best!

 

[InfernoST]

Thanx man, I shall keep everyone posted.

 

[ccCapt]

When you bought your refractometer, did you also get a bottle of calibration fluid? FYI, our refractometers are made to measure the salinity of saltwater (brine/saline solution),not seawater...and there is a big difference. If you only calibrated your refracto with RO water, it's calibrated for saltwater. You need calibration fluid to calibrate it for seawater. When properly calibrated for seawater, when you put RO water on it, it will show as less than 0 ppt.
This might be vital for hypo.

 

[InfernoST]

When you bought your refractometer, did you also get a bottle of calibration fluid? FYI, our refractometers are made to measure the salinity of saltwater (brine/saline solution),not seawater...and there is a big difference. If you only calibrated your refracto with RO water, it's calibrated for saltwater. You need calibration fluid to calibrate it for seawater. When properly calibrated for seawater, when you put RO water on it, it will show as less than 0 ppt.
This might be vital for hypo.

Yes I did as per your direction when I was researching which one to get. I bought the Pinpoint Salinity calibration fluid. I calibrate before each use because the refractometer seems to drift between each usage. After calibrating with fluid I clean the unit and test with RO which is dead 0 ppt. I wish the unit didn't drift, but am extremely comfortable with it. Thanks once again Larry.