So having recently brought a fox face from a local lfs my tank has become riddled with ich. Despite the lfs's advice to just feed garlic and they'll be fine we all know this isn't the case. The only thing I have that could possibly be used as a qt is a fluvial edge 46ltr tank, far too small for the puffer, two fox faces, damsel, two scooters, clown wrasse and Mandarin to survive in. So having spent hours trying to figure this out this is my plan as I build it in my head. Remove all inverts, who I don't wanna lose, to the 46ltr tank with a little live rock from dt. remove the rest of the live rock into a bucket with power head n heater, place zoas in qt, and then treat my dt with hypo with just my fish and live sand in the tank. What I'd like to know is are there any angles I haven't covered, will my sand be okay after hypo, ie bring itself back to life, and generally any more advice that could be given
advice treating ich with hypo in dt?
- Thread starter thafreek
- Start date
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Deinonych
New member
You can keep the LR in the main display with hypo. You'll probably want to put some in the QT with the inverts for biofiltration, though.
ThRoewer is the resident expert on hypo. I'm sure he'll chime in with more details on successful hyposalinity treatment. Do you have an auto-topoff system on the DT?
ThRoewer is the resident expert on hypo. I'm sure he'll chime in with more details on successful hyposalinity treatment. Do you have an auto-topoff system on the DT?
ThRoewer
New member
I wouldn't say I'm the expert but I educated myself quite a bit on hyposalinity and treated some fish with it successfully.
Though I did it in a hospital tank.
Your plan seems to be OK, tough I would also remove the live sand, especially if you have anything living in it (you for sure have).
I would suggest to get a bunch of those red clay flower pots to create hiding places for your fish - otherwise they may start fighting. You get them cheap at any garden center, Home Depot, Low's, Orchard Supply Hardware,...
You can use them whole or break them to build some cover for smaller fish.
The other thing you need is a good salinity refractometer to check the salinity. For hyposalinity you should calibrate it to 1.000 with RO or distilled water.
After all you want to remove is out make a 30% water change with freshwater (preferably RO water).
Repeat this water change every day until you reach 1.010 to 1.009 kg/L
Check the salinity after every water change and adjust the last water change.
This is what you should see:
1.026 Salinity at start
~1.018 after 1. 30% water change
~1.013 after 2. 30% water change
~1.009 after 3. 30% water change
(someone correct my math if this is wrong)
This slow lowering of the salinity will keep your bacteria alive.
When you reach the target salinity the countdown starts: 3 weeks should be the minimum but I would recommend 4 just to be sure.
I would recommend to mark the water level in your sump to make it easy to keep the salinity at the correct level.
I would also recommend to check the salinity at least twice every day - morning and evening (or whenever it fits you schedule) and refill evaporated water. If you have an automatic refill system use that but don't skip on the salinity checks
After reaching the target salinity the fish shouldn't get any new spots and latest after one week the fish should look clean.
Additionally, if needed, you can treat your fish with an antibiotic against possible secondary bacterial infections.
You can let the skimmer running but due to the low salinity it may not do too much. I would also recommend to keep activated carbon filter running if present.
After 4 weeks at the low salinity you can start raising the salinity levels slowly - more slowly than you dropped them, about 15% each day.
I did it over the course of a week by slowly dosing highly concentrated salt solution into the tank. The fish handled this well.
For a larger tank I would remove a bucket of water and add salt until you reach nominal salinity and then let it slowly drip into the tank.
After you got your tank back up to nominal salinity you just have to wait the fallow period to return everything else to the tank.
Though I did it in a hospital tank.
Your plan seems to be OK, tough I would also remove the live sand, especially if you have anything living in it (you for sure have).
I would suggest to get a bunch of those red clay flower pots to create hiding places for your fish - otherwise they may start fighting. You get them cheap at any garden center, Home Depot, Low's, Orchard Supply Hardware,...
You can use them whole or break them to build some cover for smaller fish.
The other thing you need is a good salinity refractometer to check the salinity. For hyposalinity you should calibrate it to 1.000 with RO or distilled water.
After all you want to remove is out make a 30% water change with freshwater (preferably RO water).
Repeat this water change every day until you reach 1.010 to 1.009 kg/L
Check the salinity after every water change and adjust the last water change.
This is what you should see:
1.026 Salinity at start
~1.018 after 1. 30% water change
~1.013 after 2. 30% water change
~1.009 after 3. 30% water change
(someone correct my math if this is wrong)
This slow lowering of the salinity will keep your bacteria alive.
When you reach the target salinity the countdown starts: 3 weeks should be the minimum but I would recommend 4 just to be sure.
I would recommend to mark the water level in your sump to make it easy to keep the salinity at the correct level.
I would also recommend to check the salinity at least twice every day - morning and evening (or whenever it fits you schedule) and refill evaporated water. If you have an automatic refill system use that but don't skip on the salinity checks
After reaching the target salinity the fish shouldn't get any new spots and latest after one week the fish should look clean.
Additionally, if needed, you can treat your fish with an antibiotic against possible secondary bacterial infections.
You can let the skimmer running but due to the low salinity it may not do too much. I would also recommend to keep activated carbon filter running if present.
After 4 weeks at the low salinity you can start raising the salinity levels slowly - more slowly than you dropped them, about 15% each day.
I did it over the course of a week by slowly dosing highly concentrated salt solution into the tank. The fish handled this well.
For a larger tank I would remove a bucket of water and add salt until you reach nominal salinity and then let it slowly drip into the tank.
After you got your tank back up to nominal salinity you just have to wait the fallow period to return everything else to the tank.
