Feedback ... Hyposalinity "survivors"

[eskymick]

I'm in the process of subjecting my reef fish to a 6 week hyposalinity treatment for ich. They are all now comfortably acclimated to the treatment salinity level of 1.009 in a quarantine tank. The display reef will remain fallow (of fish) for the duration of the treatment.

I do have enough biological filtration in the treatment tank to maintain the ammonia level at zero. I test daily.

In your experience, how effective was the hyposalinity treatment? Did it eradicate the ich in your system? Can you offer any tips or tricks to the process? Was a six week hyposalinity session adequate?

Any and all input is appreciated.

 

[Neptune777]

I have been 100% successful with the Hypo method when it comes to eradicating Ich. I did lose a few fish during treatment....root cause is anyone's guess (I had an Achilles go through the treatment perfectly and yet I lost a few other hardier fish).
6 weeks did the trick....you can shorten this by doing the tank swap method in conjunction with the Hypo.
My #1 recommendation is that folks have their QT set-up and stable before adding fish and doing the hypo. make sure they get plenty of oxygen (if you have a cheap spare skimmer to run on the QT tank I would suggest using it)...or perhaps an airstone and air pump.

#2...If you get new fish and if they are not already heavily infected with Ich try to fatten them up before doing any treatments...and feed well during treatment. Particularily for more sensitive fish like Achilles, Powder Blues etc.

#3...Ich can hitchhike on corals, rock etc. from infected tanks during a couple parts of their life cycle....QT everything that goes into your main system to make sure you do not re-introduce the pest.

 

[kevin2000]

My 02

There are some varieties of ich that are hypo resistant .. but thats kinda of unusual.

Tips for running a hypo tank.

Initially check alk level ... hypo tanks have less salt mixture and therefore less alk ... can have an adverse impact on PH.

Once your comfortable with the 1.009 SG then draw a line on the outside of the QT at the water level --- top off as necessary to maintain the proper SG.

Keep the QT tank clean -- siphon out uneatened food and fish poop about 1/2 after each feeding ... will make a big difference in water quality.

Monitor ammonia levels ... an inexpensive Seachem ammonia alert badge many come in handy.

 

[guardrail]

hypo seems to work well with me... got a yellow tang going through it now... i wouldnt trust the seachem ammonia alert badge tho... its a nice invention but mine didnt alert me of anything and i had ammonia like crazy.

 

[jimmyj7090]

I've done the hypo treatment twice in 3-4yrs. Both times very effective and no fish lost except for one that jumped. (ICK returned with a new fish I inadequately QT'd before introduction)

I lost a couple of sm fish not related to the hypo treatment in that time, but the following fish went through both treatments and I still have them; CBB, pair true percs, pair maroons.

The only new fish I added in this time are a chevron tang and a 6 line wrasse. Both went through Hypo as a preventive.

When I did the treatments (2003, 2005) I went with 1.008 for 8 wks, with about a week to transition down to hypo, and about 10 days to transition back to normal. SG tested daily with calibrated refractometer.

Not a single spot seen since 05

 

[Lotus99]

I'm currently dealing with ich that seems to be hypo resistant. I've now increased salinity and am treating with copper.

To be honest, it could be marine velvet that I'm dealing with, as the spots are very small, but hypo should theoretically treat both.

 

[zens]

hypo doesn't treat velvet. you have to use copper