Hypo Salinity Display Tank?

Akrite

Akrite

New member
I have a 250 gallon SPS tank with over 40 sps corals and recently lost my Achilles to ick after 2 years. I have tried treating my fish with hypo in a separate tank for 60 days the first time and 90 days the second time and within 2 months of reintroducing the back to my display tank ick continues to returns. After having my tank empty of fish for almost half a year I no longer want to remove them.

So my question is if I remove all my SPS and LPS corals and snails and hermit crabs and only keep 1 inch of sand a live rocks in my tank, can I treat my tank with hypo salinity for 90 days to kill th ick in my tank?

Will this affect the bacteria in my tank to a point that my fish will die?
 
You will have an enormous amount of die off and ammonia will be very difficult to control. I lost all faith in hypo even working anymore. My personal experiences and many other peoples failed attempts. Copper is the only cure I truly trust.
 
I find that the most common reason in Hyposalinity Failure is an improperly calibrated Refractometer.
I'm probably not too far fetched when I say 99.9% of us have our Refractos Calibrated to 35ppt when it should be calibrated to 0 for Hyposalinity use.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-12/rhf/index.php

It's something that I would say is horrendously important for Hypo that is actually missing from the sticky.
As for doing Hypo in the display, I would highly advise against it and if you choose to do so regardless, make sure you keep your substrate stirred due to ich cyst potentially staying embedded deep in the sand and not being exposed to the proper salinity to kill them.
 
My problem isn't the hypo treatment its self as I believe that it works in my QT as my fish show no signs of ick or stress. They stop scratching, gain weight and appear happier. It is my display tank the continues to have ick as it reappears a month or two after the fish are reintroduced. I was told that the ick in my display tank would die off if their where no fish for them to live off of. That is the reason I treated my fish for 60 days then 90 days on the 2nd treatment. Copper treating my display tank is not an option. I used Cupramine in a QT but it was hard to test for.
 
After your treatments was any coral, crabs, snails, macro algae, live rock added to the display? If you really want a hypo display tank I'd suggest removing all the rock and re-cure in hypo conditions in a separate tub. You are positive this is ich?
 
Akrite said:
My problem isn't the hypo treatment its self as I believe that it works in my QT as my fish show no signs of ick or stress. They stop scratching, gain weight and appear happier. It is my display tank the continues to have ick as it reappears a month or two after the fish are reintroduced. I was told that the ick in my display tank would die off if their where no fish for them to live off of. That is the reason I treated my fish for 60 days then 90 days on the 2nd treatment. Copper treating my display tank is not an option. I used Cupramine in a QT but it was hard to test for.
Click to expand...

I have seen reports of some types of cryptocaryon reproducing without a host inside the tank. It supposed to be very rare. I will see if I can find the paper on it and post it.
 
I found it, but I had misremembered the specifics. I remembered what I took away as the result given our normal practices for fighting it.

Essentially, there is a stage at which the following happens:

"A more recent study demonstrated that two life stages of one strain of Cryptocaryon (trophonts, i.e., the feeding stage during which the parasite can be found on the fish, and tomonts) survived dormant for 4–5 months at 12°C (53.6°F), and, after the water temperature increased to 27°C (80.6°F), developed and infected fish (Dan et al. 2009)."

My brain just added that number to normal time we quarantine for or run tanks fallow and it basically decided that that would be tantamount to breeding without host, though this is per say not the fact. It would however render most of our normal treatments useless:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa164
 
Yes I'm sure this is ich. I've had saltwater tanks for 8 or more years and have experienced Ich, Brook, Velvet and Flukes and I know the difference between them. For what ever reason I have had a harder time controlling ich out brakes since upgrading to a larger tank. Nothing was added to the tank before ich reappeared.

Would it work if I remove all of the live rock and only kept the sand in Hypo with the fish?

I'm to the point of starting over.
 
I've ended up bleaching entire systems with great success, but would be best to remove the sand. Just be prepared for ammonia if you leave the sand in.
 
Mrscribbled said:
I've ended up bleaching entire systems with great success, but would be best to remove the sand. Just be prepared for ammonia if you leave the sand in.
Click to expand...

Can you explain bleaching the entire system? Are you using bleach to clean your tank, sand and live rock?
 
I've basically removed all livestock into proper treatment tanks, then poured a gallon of bleach directly into the system. Left pumps running for 24 hours, stir sand and move rock around. Then drain, rinse, air dry, replace with fresh sand, refill, restart with Dr. Tims One and Only and have the fish back in within 30 days. I
 
My guess is that you accidentally cross-contaminated between your DT and QT, so the fallow period didn't truly eradicate the ich present. There are reports of strains of ich that are resistant to hypo, but as mentioned above, it is somewhat difficult to do properly. If your refractometer is not perfectly calibrated or you have too much evaporation and the salinity rises a bit too much.

If you are properly applying a fallow period, you should be good. Moving your coral to another tank and trying another method to rid the DT of ich won't be successful if cysts persist in the coral tank and are then transferred back into the DT. It's will be true for hypo, copper, bleach, or whatever method you choose.
 
To the OP's point, would hyposalinity (I don't use it) have an effect on the disease such that the fish got better while in it but then go worse in the tank? This actually seems reasonable to me, but I am not a proponent of hypo so I don't know.

It could be that with this variant hyposalinity allows it to go dormant (not causing any issues for the fish), then when it is reintroduced in to normal salinity, it is no longer dormant. I think before I gave up and bleached everything, I would attempt Cupramine under normal tank water conditions.

In the study I show above, it was temperature that caused the is exact same condition. It is likely that a variant has evolved to take advantage of this condition either in the wild which is unlikely or within the aquatics industry which is very likely.

As a side note and more of personal opinion, there is a reason many LFS's run lower salinity (1.016 to 1.019) and it isn't because it cures anything, its because it keeps the symptoms from showing up in the tanks.
 
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I have to wonder if a LFS running SG at 1.016 contributes to hypo-resistant strains of ich?

Also wonder if they do it to save on salt. Perhaps a bit of both?
 
sleepydoc said:
I have to wonder if a LFS running SG at 1.016 contributes to hypo-resistant strains of ich?

Also wonder if they do it to save on salt. Perhaps a bit of both?
Click to expand...

Years ago, many folks kept their FOWLR tanks at about 1.017. The theory was that the "lighter" water was easier on the fish. Less inward pressure and less resistance to the fish's swimming. I kept fish at this SG for years with no ill effects. (That I knew of). I can't remember the reason; but something came along and most folks stopped doing it. I know a couple of members of this forum who still do this and swear their fish are more active at the lower SG. Sounds silly at first, but makes sense.
 
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