blue hippo ich...continued.

[Grnorton]

ok so im sure some of you have been following my many posts about my display tank with my hippo that got ich. i treated the display with ich shield (chloroquine phosphate) to no avail. the spots are still there. my tank is still invert free so instead of getting a big enough hospital tank to house all my fish i think I am going to try to hypo the display tank. Now, i did this before a few years back and lost a few fish, i think the hypo killed them but could be wrong. who has pointers on successfully completing this? ive calculated my refractometer using rodi water with a tds of 0. and i have an ATO. my plan is to drop the salinity from 1.025 to 1.009 from saturday mornging 8am until sunday night around midnight. and hold it at 1.009 for 4 weeks after the last spot disappears. i have some wrasses and a magnificent foxface that I would really hate to lose. Do you guys think I will be ok with this? what advice do you have for me from those of you who have successfully completetd this before?

 

[jmm]

Following.

 

[SNAKEMANVET]

I did hypo on my display tank about 4 years ago.It was a 240 and I dropped the sg of 1.025 to 1.009, It took me 5 days to drop.I didn't loose any fish and never seen any signs of Ich afterwards.I didn't have any wrasses or a fox face so I cannot answer that part.It took me about two weeks to get it back to 1.025.All my live rock and corals and anemones were removed during hypo for 120 days.I know I went a little longer than required,but I wasn't takeing chances.

 

[lmforbis]

I'd go much slower. I usually go 5 days to a week to go down and at least 2 weeks to go back up after the 4 weeks at 1.009. It worked well. Be sure to check your salinity frequently.

 

[Grnorton]

I read once that going slower can let the ich adapt to the change and won't get rid of it?

 

[mattcoug]

Dropping the salinity fast is not a problem for fish. Raising it fast, is.

 

[SNAKEMANVET]

+1 with mattcoug, I would had dropped mine faster,but didn't have a lot ro/di water ready.

 

[Spar]

i used to drip acclimate my fish over 2 hours from 1.025 to 1.009 and didn't have issues (except as noted below). the way back up was a much slower process which I did over 5 days.

i'd still recommend going a little slower than I did on the way down though.

i switched to TTM for treatment due to losing way too many fish during Hypo, almost always at the very end of the 4 weeks (before I started increasing). i am pretty sure it had to do with Alkalinity and not monitoring it well enough. It would start at around 3-4dKH after dilution of the saltwater with RO/DI (to get to 1.009), and end at around 2 dKH or so, way too low to maintain a proper pH balance. took me forever to realize i should have been dosing alk during Hypo.