Hypo in a DT?

[Amazon4]

We will be moving our current 30g and 46g residents to the 180g soon. The 180g has been fallow for 2 months. Just added a mandarin on Sunday.

We want to put the fish through hypo in their respective tanks prior to the move. Will there be a problem if I leave the live rock and sand beds intact? Inverts and coral will be removed. I'm just wondering about the die off from all the living things in there. Will this be a problem?

TIA

 

[StayPuft]

You need to remove all the live rock and inverts. Then you can do hypo in the DT.

 

[Amazon4]

ok, thanks! I planned on removing the rock & inverts. I thought the die off from the sand bed may cause a nitrate or ammonia spike.

 

[StayPuft]

The dieoff from the live rock would have been much worst. Do you have a regular or deep sand bed?

 

[jpccusa]

I would recomend a lot more of research!
I don't want to be rude, but because you lack knowledge/experience, you are putting the life of your tank and inhabitants in risk.
Mandarins (the first fish you put in the tank) have a really specific diet, eating live animals from the sand bed. They usually starve to death in new systems.
Also, removing the macro inverts and live rock of your DT will not be enough. You will leave behind micro inverts and other animals that will die under hypo salinity... Your system may crash.

Read more about hypo salinity and hospital tanks.

Also, research about the fish diet and behaviour before purchasing one... You will save a lot of money this way.

 

[kevin2000]

Hypo tends to kill the micro critters within the live rock and substrate ... and this creates water quality issues.

You might be better off setting up a small QT and running that with hypo ... if you have a lot of fish then just move a couple of fish at a time through the hypo quarantine tank ... just take a bit of patience.

 

[Amazon4]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12864891#post12864891 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by StayPuft
The die off from the live rock would have been much worst. Do you have a regular or deep sand bed?

Between 1" and 2". We had wanted to leave some sand since there's a yellow canaray wrasse and dragon goby. But it looks to me like we should remove the sand.

 

[Amazon4]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12865416#post12865416 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jpccusa
I would recomend a lot more of research!
I don't want to be rude, but because you lack knowledge/experience, you are putting the life of your tank and inhabitants in risk.
Mandarins (the first fish you put in the tank) have a really specific diet, eating live animals from the sand bed. They usually starve to death in new systems.
Also, removing the macro inverts and live rock of your DT will not be enough. You will leave behind micro inverts and other animals that will die under hypo salinity... Your system may crash.

Read more about hypo salinity and hospital tanks.

Also, research about the fish diet and behaviour before purchasing one... You will save a lot of money this way.

I'm glad to say you're jumping to the wrong conclusion here. Although not evident in my OP, you can see my other posts in Reef Fishes about adding the mandarin and you'd see that the 180g has been up and running with a 150g sump/refugium for 5 months without fish and is teaming with pod life. For nearly 2 years a goal has been to support a mandarin. I am fully aware of their dietary needs and suitable tank mates.

I do research things (internet/fish clubs/books/forums). The result was my post. I was questioning people's advise to hypo a DT. It didn't make sense to me. I can't tell you how many ich threads that say "if it's FOWLR you can perform hypo in your DT". Seems to me that's bad advice.

I do have a 20L QT that I'm using to hypo another addition. I wanted to make use of the current tanks that are stocked (30 & 46) and concurrently hypo those fish. I'm trying to find the best way to do that with causing as little stress to the fish as possible.

I understand that this takes time. I'd just like to get my fish moved in to the 180g, ich free, in a reasonable amount of time and shut down the extra tanks (and save some $$ on the electric bill :eek2: ).

It all takes planning, patience, and lots of research. I want to do it right, but not have it drag on longer than necessary.