Hypo and tank transfer together?

[Louis Z]

Just checking to see if anyone has combined the two methods. I will do so with 4 newly acquired fish that are in a 29g QT. I would like to see quick results so as to minimize the stress I have on a flame angel not eating. The angel has some heft to him. He probably got ick from the lfs. He was eating to begin with but I don't want him to go too long without appetite so I was thinking that the tank transfer method has a shorter time frame than the hypo and might produce results. But I am in the process of lowering SG down to 1.009 in48 hours. He is not scratching as much but is still shimmiing some and hiding. Just seeing if anyone has tried this or was it too stressful to apply both methods at the same time or is this idea not going to work?
NGO

 

[sleepydoc]

I suppose you could, but why? TT works well on its own, so there'd be no benefit to doing hypo but it would added risk and complexity.

 

[Louis Z]

Sleepydoc thanks for responding, I was just trying to save the flame angel. When I saw him come out from his hidey hole. I started to panic because if I had not intervened -he would be dead. The hypo seems to have relieved some of his severe symptoms but he still looks pretty beat up. I am still not quite to 1.009 but I think I will be there by tomorrow AM. I was going to do both so that I would not get reinfection. I think if he gets anymore on him it will do him in.

 

[sleepydoc]

TT works fairly quickly, if it is indeed ich. If it is velvet, neither will do a thing and you need to use copper.

IME, hypo is not as easy to do properly as one would first think - there is a narrow range of salinity that is toxic to the ich and not toxic to the fish and keeping it there can be tricky. pH becomes and issue, too, as the concentrations of the normal buffers present in salt water are reduced with the hypo.

There are reported failures with hypo. I'm not sure if this is from some stores/suppliers running 'moderate' hypo to suppress ich and causing hypo-tolerant strains to form, of from improper application of the technique. Regardless, many don't recommend hypo because of it.

If the fish has some heft to it, not eating for a few days shouldn't be a huge problem. The parasite load in the gills could be, however.

 

[MrTuskfish]

You can't rush the life cycle of ich.

 

[Louis Z]

as for the pH i added Kent pro buffer dkh and some Kent marine liquid calcium. I have read a lot of posts and I dont remember where I saw that someone added some Na bicabonate. I dont know how to dose that and how often to stabilize the pH. And Mrtuskfish, I wasnt trying to rush the lifecycle but trying to avoid reinfection. It took me until today to reach 1.009 so I will transfer them to another tank with same SG. I have read about the small window and also about failures so I figure if I do both then maybe I can save him.

 

[lucky_snapper]

as for the pH i added Kent pro buffer dkh and some Kent marine liquid calcium. I have read a lot of posts and I dont remember where I saw that someone added some Na bicabonate. I dont know how to dose that and how often to stabilize the pH. And Mrtuskfish, I wasnt trying to rush the lifecycle but trying to avoid reinfection. It took me until today to reach 1.009 so I will transfer them to another tank with same SG. I have read about the small window and also about failures so I figure if I do both then maybe I can save him.

When ever I have had an ICH outbreak I have just run HYPO. To me it is very easy. Just lower the salinity with RO water and then let the ICH die off. Just keep the salinity at .009 and u will have no problems. You may lose your CUC and if you have corals or inverts u will need to move them but it sure beats taking the tank apart to try to catch all the fish and then move them to an uncycled tank.. When U have a large system like I do (300 total gal) Its just not practice to do it any other way.

 

[Louis Z]

Thanks lucky snapper, luckily this was in a 29gal QT with a small amt of sand bed and 4 chunks of dead rock. I cycled it with one live rock from Lfs and bio spira. I thought that I needed it to quarantine with all of this so as to make all newcomers feel at home and not so stressed out as in a bare tank. It's a catch 22. When all this was done , I kept thinking I can't use copper with this simple setup or risk screwing up the now live dead rock. What a waste but then it did make the flame angel not fearful when I brought it home. But today brought me good news as when I fed the fellow banggai tank mates (they seemed totally unaffected) the flame angel actually started to eat. Whereas before it was shimmiing and hiding. So I think I will leave it alone in hypo even though I had the other bare tank setup and ready to start the transfer. I thought to feed them before the transfer so as not to do so immediately in the bare tank. So I don't know if both methods will work but I might try this in another situation if I have too. In other news I had ordered some yasha gobies which went in a bare tank to quarantine . These guys are on the thin side and not eating yet so I will have to add sand and some rubble with PVC pipe to help them feel at home. I will have to do this with multiple setups in order to begin with the tank transfer method. Funny, my 6yo son said " these saltwater tanks are a lot of work ,dad" . I thought to myself, yeah if I keep buying from crappy dealers.