HypoSalinity Works

[drperetz]

Sorry no pics but I have began a large tank which will have only fish.....
Some corals that can with stand lower salinity.

I went through a cycle fast(100- lb of rock, shallow sand bed )...Which I though was great. Tested every day until I was sure that I can begin stocking.

First fish was a sailfin tang.. (still dont know which 1 red sea or indo, darj, or regular).

Second fish was a kole tang. Little beat up and fin blackening but was recovered after a week.

Third I added a LARGE Godzilla looking hippo tang, which looked healthy with a little white spec on the joint of a side fin which I ignored.

Great additions to the tank. Stupid me not having a space to quarantine the hippo put him in after acclimation.
In a week every got sick with ick, flucks, some worms that hang out from the skin, and other parasitic damages.

This was a devastation. For all the years in this hobby I never had sick fish. And now I began a tank that caused some serious out brakes. For about 1.5 weeks I have been using hypo salinity where I started with 1.022 to a 1.013.
The only loss that I have experienced are the turbo snails that couldnt handle the salinity. Nasaures snails survived. I did do a major fresh cut garlic feedings, dosing "rally ruby reef" ( copper free meds), and all the food is soaked in garlic guard. I know I o d on the garlic but if they eat it, I love it.

Any way after a week and a half every 1 who looked like they are gonna die, looks like they could eat a horse.

More updates on hypo salinity.

 

[crox99]

Did you do the hypo treatment in your DT? Also to be successfull you have to bring the SG to 1.009. How long did you keep your tank at 1.013?

 

[drperetz]

...

Croxx, tell me something....

Have you ever done this method to rid your fish of parasites?

 

[reefman]

5 yrs ago i have tried it in a 29 gal quar tank n drop to 1.015. the y tang n hippo recovered within a few days. no sign of ick anywhere n eats like a pig. back in tank they go after 4 weeks.

1 months later, ick came back n worse. may they rip.

btw: hypo only fish or bone creatures. otherwise u r killing them.

 

[badkarma44]

hey , i had my lionfish tank down to 1.007 and it killed all the ick on them both , just slow started to add salt back to it , the **** works !!

 

[drperetz]

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reefman u know better than a tang in a 30 gallon.:splitspin:biggrin:
how big was the display?

 

[drperetz]

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Reefman do u think that the ick came back cause the fish was no longer in quarentine or because of the unorthodox water quality? :knockedou

 

[tosiek]

Parasites won't attack unstressed healthy fish (unless the outbreak is really bad) but thats just speculation because a bad outbreak can cause other fish tog et stressed and contract the parasites. Hyposalinity helps but unless your running it for a complete life cycle of the parasites its not going to stop or prevent it from happening again.

 

[drperetz]

...

u r surly right...I am planning to keep the tank at about 1.013-1.015 for at least a month. I am going to use my 13 nano as a quarantine for new fish...(not tangs:lol.. Planning to have lots of smaller fish...
Hope to start stocking soon..

 

[marrone]

u r surly right...I am planning to keep the tank at about 1.013-1.015 for at least a month. I am going to use my 13 nano as a quarantine for new fish...(not tangs:lol.. Planning to have lots of smaller fish...
Hope to start stocking soon..

In order for Hypo to work you need to bring the SG down to 1.007-1.009 for about 4 - 6 weeks. Also you need to make sure you have ich as Hypo doesn't work on other parasites.

The fishes maybe looking better, after 1 - 1.5 weeks, but that doesn't mean they're free of ich and Hypo is working. It can also mean the ich is just going through the cycle, has fallen off the fish and is now working it way through the fish body again.

 

[marrone]

Parasites won't attack unstressed healthy fish (unless the outbreak is really bad) but thats just speculation because a bad outbreak can cause other fish tog et stressed and contract the parasites. Hyposalinity helps but unless your running it for a complete life cycle of the parasites its not going to stop or prevent it from happening again.

I'm not sure this is true, the part about parasites not attacking unstressed and healthy fish. Parasites will attack the fish regardless of how healthy the fish is. The fish being health and unstressed will have a better chance of fighting it off then a weak or unhealthy fish, which may die from the attack.

 

[Deanos]

In order for Hypo to work you need to bring the SG down to 1.007-1.009 for about 4 - 6 weeks. Also you need to make sure you have ich as Hypo doesn't work on other parasites.

I don't know how many times this has been posted here, but some people still ignore it.

My fish look great & recovered after 1 week of treatment! Hypo works!

No need to go as low as 1.009, I stopped at 1.013 and my fish love me for it!

My fish are displaying other complications/symptoms, but Hypo is working on all of them.

I hope this thread doesn't become one of those that new members use as a basis for treating fish illnesses. :grumpy:

 

[ireefny]

I have a main display tank at 1.009 for 4 weeks & intend to keep it at that for 2-4 more weeks all my inverts that I was not able to give away in the begining died the 2nd-3rd week. keep the temperature stable & watch your Ph level. as things in the live rock & sand die, you will have nitrite/nitrate & amonia spikes, I used Amquel (the stinky stuff). again, raise your temp to increase ick cycle.when you see the last sign of ick gone wait 4 weeks then start to SLOWLY increase your salinity.

Good Luck!


I didnt set up a QT since I figure the 180 is the biggest QT tank now that its under hypo.

 

[crox99]

Croxx, tell me something....

Have you ever done this method to rid your fish of parasites?

Yes I have in a qt.

 

[drperetz]

...

Dean I agree that this post shouldnt be a resolution for noobs to rid themselves of parisitic infections and treatment of ick....

The reason y I dont want to lower the salinity even lower is because I dont want to stress out my fish.....That simple..They are already stressed, y stress them more? Also The ick went through 2 cycles already and is absent from all the fish. I am not saying that hypo helped but all other parasites have desapeared from all the fish...

If having the salinity at 1.013 helped me rid of ick, Y should I lower it to 1.009?
Or is the standard for this procedure?

Croxx, If u have done the hypo salinity in ur tank, tell me did the fish become more stressed or they were as happy as before? If u did hypo, than u fish were obviously sick, if they were sick, than u were doing something wrong...No?

 

[drperetz]

In order for Hypo to work you need to bring the SG down to 1.007-1.009 for about 4 - 6 weeks. Also you need to make sure you have ich as Hypo doesn't work on other parasites.

The fishes maybe looking better, after 1 - 1.5 weeks, but that doesn't mean they're free of ich and Hypo is working. It can also mean the ich is just going through the cycle, has fallen off the fish and is now working it way through the fish body again.

Also thank you for ur knoledgble advice...
If ick does comback after 1+ weeks I will drop the salinity to 1.008. I am just really hesitant of lowering it too low... Just fearing for my fishies.....:redface::frown:

 

[KathyC]

Dean I agree that this post shouldnt be a resolution for noobs to rid themselves of parisitic infections and treatment of ick....

The reason y I dont want to lower the salinity even lower is because I dont want to stress out my fish.....That simple..They are already stressed, y stress them more? Also The ick went through 2 cycles already and is absent from all the fish. I am not saying that hypo helped but all other parasites have desapeared from all the fish...

If having the salinity at 1.013 helped me rid of ick, Y should I lower it to 1.009?
Or is the standard for this procedure?

I think you may be missing the point that even though your fish may not appear to have ich, they still do, it's just not where you can actually see it.
It IS standard procedure to hypo a fish for 4 to 6 weeks at 1.007 - 1.009 in order to be truly rid of ich becuase that is how long it takes for ich to go through the entire cycle and to have died off.
Having ich will stress your fish more than lowering the salinity to the proper level to combat the parasite.

 

[marrone]

You're not going to stress your fish out if you drop the SG from 1.013 to 1.008, as long as you do it slowly. The fish will be fine at 1.008 the problem you will have is with your inverts. Most, except maybe Hermits, can't take that low of a SG level.

Also as Ireefny stated, you need to watch your Ph. Because you're dropping the SG you're increasing the amount of fresh water in the tank. Since for the most part the water coming out of our faucets is closer to neutral than 8.0 the Ph can drop far below 8.0. So you may need to buffer the water to bring the Ph back up.

 

[drperetz]

....

I do buffer the water and I do monitor it very causiosly...
Thank you again for participation.:grouphug:

I will drop the salinity to 1.008 in a .5 a week to make sure that every1 stays healthy......

Thanx for all the advice.

All inverts are out except my nasaures snails. I cant catch them but do still see them sometimes slither by in the rockwork. I will make sure they are out before the SG drop...

 

[crox99]

Croxx, If u have done the hypo salinity in ur tank, tell me did the fish become more stressed or they were as happy as before? If u did hypo, than u fish were obviously sick, if they were sick, than u were doing something wrong...No?

Last year I bought some fishes from SWF.com and I didn't want to take a chance so I put them in my qt (like everyone should do with any new purchase) and did the hypo just to be safe. Also at 1.009 the fishes were happy and they can survive at a lower salinity.