hypo salinity question

[Grizlbits]

I have ich. The tank would fit in the thread "My tank and fish are too huge for QT", so I am going hypo. Tank is 360 plus 40 in sump, fowlr. I removed all the rocks, crushed coral and inverts (that sucked big time). Replaced with a ton of PVC elbows. I have been changing 20% with RO water, I have gone from salinity 1.020, to 1.017, to 1.014 in about 24 hours. I plan on another 20% which should put me at 1.011. I will fine tune the last water change to 1.0095. My question is how much time should I be waiting between changing salinity. 12 hours enough between .003 drops? I loose 20% of the water and then pump the 80 gallons back in over 2-3 hours or so. The water is pumped from the RO system downstairs by flipping a switch. I have noticed no stress with any fish yet. Too aggressive / not aggressive enough timing?

I plan on leaving the miracle mud and mangroves in the refugium, but have removed the snails (that I could find). I run a good skimmer, and filtration. Tank has good circulation. I have auto top off with RO water, so holding salinity looks pretty easy with this big of a tank. I am running 2 different digital (Milwaukee and Neptune ) salinity probes and have calibrated both.

I am also going to run carbon in the filter bag to keep any problems at bay. Anything else that I am missing?

Thanks,

Chris

 

[Spar]

re: amount of time to reduce. plenty of people just drip from 1.025 to 1.009 over a 2 hour period, so you are taking it very cautiously with the slow .003 drops. fish take the decreasing very easy, while they take the increasing harsher. so just keep up with your current schedule and the fish should take it well.

with hypo, more simple the better. note that your skimmer won't skim well, but it is worth keeping setup for the oxygen value. just make sure to keep an eye on the salinity level for the first while until you get used to it. ensure your refract is calibrated as well.

also watch your KH and pH levels to ensure as consistent as possible. I feel like KH was my bane of hypo... you should be at around 3dKH or so, just make sure it doesn't go down too much from that.

 

[Hal]

Read this. It's the hypo salinity bible, IMO. I've followed its recommendations for years with very good results.

http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/hyposalinity.html