Hyposalinity for ich

jkreefer

Premium Member
Has anyone ever tried it, or have any good links or threads about it. I cant find much specific info. I have 2 pep shrimp, a bunch of hermits, snails, and a chonch. (and of course my 3 Tangs, coral beauty, and 3 bangei cards).
 
works well; seems alot of reefers feel its safer and more friendly on fish than medicating (though copper, etc. does work too, but may be harsher on more delicate fish like anthias, etc.).. but you may want to move your fish to a separate qt tank, as i'm not sure any of your inverts will like the salinity shift very much..

make sure you have a decent way to measure salinity too, you should be aiming for around 1.009 with 1.012 being the highest, as around 1.010 is where the ich really start dying off. using a claibarated cheaper refractometer may be best, bc hydrometeres aren't too reliable. need to keep in for at least 2 weeks, as that is the approximate lifespan of the ich parasite. slowly drop salinity down over a day, bring up salinity even slower, over 2-3 days (for some reason bringing salinity back up seems tougher on fish than going down..).

do a search on google or wait until later in the evening, then search here on rc.. there should be alot of info (maybe check on the 'fish' forum here for a sticky?
 
Here you go:

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=282934

Just got done treating a yellow tang.

I've used hypo successfully for frogfishes and puffers too.

Treat in a separate quarantine tank. Use a heater and a simple filter. Cycled sponge filter on a powerhead is fine.

I used some live rock in the tank for biological filtration, though usually it's recommended to just use a sponge filter alone.

You might want to buffer with baking soda or Kent buffer as the salinity drops. Less buffering capacity at lower salinities, and you don't want the pH to get too low.

Don't do a whole tank treatment if you have inverts. They can't handle it.
 
I do it every time I get a new fish.

1.009 as measured by a refractometer for 6 weeks. Don't adjust SG more than .002 per day.

Works great. All fish, ich free.

The QT has to be free of live rock and inverts at that SG.

Best of luck,

Roy
 
Yep, 5 weeks hypo QT here for new fish. Instead of LR, I use large diameter PVC couplings for the fish to hide in.
 
Yah, PVC pipe is best. I started the last one with live rock because I wasn't sure if the sponge filter was fully cycled yet.

Side benefit is that the rocks came out pretty clean after the hypo :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9679335#post9679335 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by racrumrine
Don't adjust SG more than .002 per day.

At that rate it'll take more than a week to drop it down to the correct level. The fish could die of Crypto by then. :D

Most fish can tolerate getting dropped down to 1.009 SG fairly quickly, like 24-48 hours. I agree that raising it back up to full strength SG should be done very slowly.
 
Is it 2 weeks or 6 weeks? Someone on here just said 2 so I wasn't sure. Also, if you had live rock in there at 1.009, do you think it would kill off any nuicance creatures like aiptasia or majano?
 
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