?Hypo in a display ?? Relocate coral?

[johnnyblaze313]

I have ick in my 180, I have it hooked to 150 gal sump in the basement, I was planning on setting up a xtra100 gal tank to treat all the fish with hypo. While planning to move all the rock to the basement sump to catch all the fish I thought y not just move the remaining invents n coral to the sump separate the 2 and just perform hypo in the display?

So my question if I pull all the rock, coral and invents from the display can I perform the hypo in there?

Also what about the sand bed? The sand is fairly new since I just moved the tank about 3 months ago I used all new sand about 2-3 inches

 

[bucky1168]

I am in the process of doing exactly what you are wanting to do. I never had an ich outbreak till I made the fatal mistake of introducing a fish without QT. Never had before for 4 years and had great luck. I have a FOWLR without any inverts attached to the rock. I removed the hermit crabs and snails and over the process of 3 days, lowered the salinity to 1.009. I was wanting to leave a buffer but get close to the recommended level. Some say I will get an ammonia spike but I have a good biological filter so if I do, it should not be to bad. Also,my sand bed is also about 2 inches. I am on day 6 since I started and I have not had any changes in ammonia, nitrates, or nitrites. My ph changed from 8.0 to 7.9. All my fish are doing great and show no signs of stress. There are a lot of opinions on this and my suggestion to you is to listen to all, do some research on ich and Hyposalinity, and see if it fits your needs. Also, monitor your water parameters consistently. Good luck. I am going to follow the thread to see what experience you have.

 

[Jacob D]

Some say I will get an ammonia spike but I have a good biological filter so if I do, it should not be to bad.

Opinions vary on this quite a bit. IME hypo does seem to impact biological filtration negatively to an extent. I don't know exactly what the process is, but it seems as if they bacteria are in shock temporarily from the change in SG. I think this depends very much on all of the variables involved (size of bacteria population, die-off of other organisms, size of fish population, etc...)

I would advise use of an ammonia alert badge (by Seachem) for easy monitoring and if you do see the level elevate don't rely on your biofilter to handle it, do a water change immediately. Ammonia can be very damaging to fish so don't chance anything. Other than that warning, you should be able to hypo your display tank as you have planned.

Also remember, you can initially drop the salinity fairly quickly (a few days sounds good) but you want to come back up much more slowly.

 

[bucky1168]

Jacob D, affirm on your response. The reason it took so long to drop the salinity for me is because it is a 250 gal system. That took alot of rodi water. I do monitor the ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and PH daily. I will look into ammonia alert. So far, at day 7, no ammonia but I am expecting a change soon.

 

[johnnyblaze313]

Thanks fellas for the advice...

The more I think about this I think this is going to b the path I choose, I think its going to b less stressful on me and the fish...

I ll keep it updated

 

[johnnyblaze313]

Does my dart fish stay in for the hypo or shud I put him in the sump? Also what about my watchman goby??

 

[Myka]

Yes you could do that, but after doing hypo on the display you need to leave the rock, coral, and inverts in quarantine for 8 weeks so the Ich will die off. If you put the rock back in right away you will be reintroducing the Ich. Basically anything not getting hypo'ed has to be away from the fish for 8 weeks, much like leaving the tank fallow for 8 weeks.

Personally, I would just remove corals and inverts and hypo the tank with the rock in it. Albeit you'd have fun catching the inverts with the rock in the tank! Keep some Prime on hand and a salicylate ammonia test kit like API (not a Nessler type) and you should be good to go. You shouldn't need to fight ammonia with the Prime though because hypo shouldn't affect the biological filter much.

 

[bucky1168]

Yes on the watchman goby. I have one and he is doing good in hypo. I would suspect the dart fish would do fine. I left my rock in the tank and took the inverts out. I just had coraline algae on my rock.

 

[johnnyblaze313]

Started last night , had to empty the sump to catch a few damsels that were in there. Put them in the display n started moving what invents I cud catch and some of the rock to the sump.

Plan on moving the rest down there tonight and starting hypo first thing in the mornin, I'm thinking about a 30 gal water change with fresh water to start and repeat every day or so till I reach 1.009, 30 gal is what my brute holds so... Sound about right ? Maybe to much?

Anyone know if gsp can survive hypo? I got a patch I would love to merc

It's gonna b along 8 weeks ahead but I hope it pays off... Hard lesson learned but learned nun the less.

 

[jrcastro]

I'm in the same situation and I am doing hypo in my 24og DT. I removed most of my LR and had some mini ammonia spikes but have been doing water changes. just watch your ammonia and ph levels. Im also keeping my salinity at 1.008 in case evaporation causes it to raise above 1.009. good luck and keep us posted on status of fish.

BTW: my 10 fish are happy and healthy and still eating like pigs!

 

[Myka]

Anyone know if gsp can survive hypo? I got a patch I would love to merc

The GSP should survive.

 

[bucky1168]

That's what I used. It is about 32 gal filled up the the top. Its 30 if it is about 2 in from the top. It took me about 225 gal of rodi water to bring mine down to 1.008. I have about a 230 gal system. The closer you get to 1.008, the more water it takes because it is more diluted. It took me about three days to bring it down.

 

[johnnyblaze313]

Its official put everything except the fish in the sump, let it take as much of the tank water as it could handle and topped the tank off with fresh ro water.. Barley brought the salt down to .020 so looks like its gonna take me a minute to get down to .009.

All in all it was fairly easy now hopefully maintaining good water quality and kepping the fish eating will be to...

 

[bucky1168]

My fish never had an issue with it. They ate like normal and they seemed just fine. I read somewhere that certain clowns have issues with Hyposalinity but mine did not. They are Perculas. Maybe they are not affected like other clown species.

 

[bucky1168]

" Keep some Prime on hand and a salicylate ammonia test kit like API (not a Nessler type) and you should be good to go. You shouldn't need to fight ammonia with the Prime though because hypo shouldn't affect the biological filter much. "

Well, I tested my ammonia and it was about .25 which is higher than I like. I did read in a book that acceptable range of ammonia is between 0-1.0. I am not sure if I trust that so I got some Prime and put it in. I will check to see where it is at tomorrow. How is yours going so far johnnyblaze313?

 

[johnnyblaze313]

Over the last 7 days Ive changed out 30 gallons of salt for 30 gallons of fresh once a day with one big waterchange yesterday of around 75 gallons finally got my salt @.009. The fish all have all taken this well and the 2 that where the worst are definitely showing signs of improvement.. Now Im just waiting to not c anymore white spots

 

[bucky1168]

Good to hear they are doing well. It will take a couple of days for the white spots (ich) to fall off the fish. Mine took about 3 days for it all to be gone off my fish.

 

[scubasteve06]

Are you noticing any die off in your sand bed? I'm guessing hypo will kill any and all pods that were in the tank...?

 

[bucky1168]

Are you noticing any die off in your sand bed? I'm guessing hypo will kill any and all pods that were in the tank...?

Not sure about johnnyblaze313, but I have. Not so much in my sand bed but I use to have a bunch in my sump but they are not there now. I only went through a small cycle but all my parameters are back to normal.

 

[scubasteve06]

Ok I was just wondering. I have a friend with a 110g system(75g tank 40g sump) that has a pretty bad case of ich in his display. He has about 4k in SPS and acans in his tank and doesn't have a tank that he can keep them in while doing hypo in his display. He is trying to get a cheap 40g or 55g tank off craigslist right now to transfer them to so he can treat the tank, but doesn't want to lose all his pods since he has a pair of mandarins. I've been trying to tell him that the pods will be the least of his worries if he doesn't do something soon. I told him he could buy a bottle or two of tigger pods and replenish what he had.

When I first got in this hobby I didn't have a QT tank and had a bad case of ich in my tank. I learned the hard way(3 fish died) that a QT is absolutely necessary with a reef tank. I got a 29g tank from Petco and I use that to qt all new additions for a 4 week minimum period.