Hyposalinity: how-to; when-to; how-long-to
- Thread starter Sk8r
- Start date
Chicago
New member
hypo has been working great in my DT.. a word of caution in DT. make sure you do not have a lot of algea growth .. death to algea in DT result in ammonia spike..
thought I would clarify.. I am wondering still in the above pics...
perhaps a separate thread on side effects of hypo?
thought I would clarify.. I am wondering still in the above pics...
perhaps a separate thread on side effects of hypo?
Chicago
New member
ok so let me do a quick post so who ever reads this does not make the same mistake I have..
here is the background.. the Display tank is about 600 gallons was ten years up and running. 40 fish and plently of large 40 lbs pieces of rock.. in other words not really movable. I had a lot of corals sps and problems with bubble and turf algea., more about algea later. ick arrived in the spring as usual. I usually just let it run it course but this time got a little worried. more than usual so I did the hypo treatment. I was aggressive and did it in the DT. here are the rules I found on that. Note I had three types of algea growing in the tank. bubble, turf the hard to remove impossible turf.. and a third that was almost like fluffly . hard to describe but could be brushed off.. had a lot of it and caused problems during the hypo as described below. it covered my rock.
NOTE. I REMOVED ALL CORALS AND INHABITANTS EXCEPT THE FISH AND ROCK AND SAND. CALIBRATE YOUR REFRACTOMETER WITH 35PPT SOLUTION. NOTE RODI
1. You can hypo a DT. but certain cautions must be met.
2. expect ammonia spikes if you do not remove the rock if covered in algea.
3. I had ammonia spikes and found it was the die off of the algea.
4. After ammonia spike I decided to do the heavy lifting and I removed half the rock with the help of fellow reefer. put rock outside and let dry to get rid of turf bubble and fluffy algae. Should have done this in the beginning. Note I had biological bed in my sump to handle the tank.
5. I lost fish because I should have removed the rock first that was coated in fluffy algae. the fluffy algae dies right away. bubble takes a few days.. and turf that is anther story. I think if the rock is not covered in fluffy algae you are ok.. but watch for ammonia spikes
6. you can control ammonia spikes but only for 24 hours with use of prime or similar product.. but
7. Ammonia spikes I controlled with seacheme product called prime and MUST do and did large water changes to control the ammonia spikes.. talking 250 gallons.
8. I think again,, could have avoided the ammonia spikes if I had taken the rock covered in algae out first. NOTE, I have a large sump that has live rock and sand that was NOT covered in algae so that could maintain the biological .
9. The spikes in the ammonia ended when I removed half of the live rock with algae from the tank.
10. the ick cleared up in days of dropping the tank to 1.009. IT did not work at anything above 1.010. Some have said 1.014 is workable to kill ick. that is not correct in my opinion.
11. Bubble algae does not live through hypo, hypo kills bubble algae. Good news there.
12. Turf algae is weakened and Hypo does appear to kill it but it takes much longer. Two weeks in hypo and the turf is still living. But appears to be vanishing.. but then again.. tank is not fully lighted anymore.
13. Finally,, make sure all your refractometers are calibrated properly. Mine was not. I actually had the hypo at 1.006 and lost a fish or two because of it.
My Milwaukee was showing 1.009 dead on. Then I purchased two BRS handheld with calibration solution of 35ppt. Discovered the issue and am correcting it.
14. Display tank at two weeks looks good, actually really good. no bubble algae, and the fish look good. My fox face I never use to see the iris in his eyes due to them being cloudy ..
Just my observations..
here is the background.. the Display tank is about 600 gallons was ten years up and running. 40 fish and plently of large 40 lbs pieces of rock.. in other words not really movable. I had a lot of corals sps and problems with bubble and turf algea., more about algea later. ick arrived in the spring as usual. I usually just let it run it course but this time got a little worried. more than usual so I did the hypo treatment. I was aggressive and did it in the DT. here are the rules I found on that. Note I had three types of algea growing in the tank. bubble, turf the hard to remove impossible turf.. and a third that was almost like fluffly . hard to describe but could be brushed off.. had a lot of it and caused problems during the hypo as described below. it covered my rock.
NOTE. I REMOVED ALL CORALS AND INHABITANTS EXCEPT THE FISH AND ROCK AND SAND. CALIBRATE YOUR REFRACTOMETER WITH 35PPT SOLUTION. NOTE RODI
1. You can hypo a DT. but certain cautions must be met.
2. expect ammonia spikes if you do not remove the rock if covered in algea.
3. I had ammonia spikes and found it was the die off of the algea.
4. After ammonia spike I decided to do the heavy lifting and I removed half the rock with the help of fellow reefer. put rock outside and let dry to get rid of turf bubble and fluffy algae. Should have done this in the beginning. Note I had biological bed in my sump to handle the tank.
5. I lost fish because I should have removed the rock first that was coated in fluffy algae. the fluffy algae dies right away. bubble takes a few days.. and turf that is anther story. I think if the rock is not covered in fluffy algae you are ok.. but watch for ammonia spikes
6. you can control ammonia spikes but only for 24 hours with use of prime or similar product.. but
7. Ammonia spikes I controlled with seacheme product called prime and MUST do and did large water changes to control the ammonia spikes.. talking 250 gallons.
8. I think again,, could have avoided the ammonia spikes if I had taken the rock covered in algae out first. NOTE, I have a large sump that has live rock and sand that was NOT covered in algae so that could maintain the biological .
9. The spikes in the ammonia ended when I removed half of the live rock with algae from the tank.
10. the ick cleared up in days of dropping the tank to 1.009. IT did not work at anything above 1.010. Some have said 1.014 is workable to kill ick. that is not correct in my opinion.
11. Bubble algae does not live through hypo, hypo kills bubble algae. Good news there.
12. Turf algae is weakened and Hypo does appear to kill it but it takes much longer. Two weeks in hypo and the turf is still living. But appears to be vanishing.. but then again.. tank is not fully lighted anymore.
13. Finally,, make sure all your refractometers are calibrated properly. Mine was not. I actually had the hypo at 1.006 and lost a fish or two because of it.
My Milwaukee was showing 1.009 dead on. Then I purchased two BRS handheld with calibration solution of 35ppt. Discovered the issue and am correcting it.
14. Display tank at two weeks looks good, actually really good. no bubble algae, and the fish look good. My fox face I never use to see the iris in his eyes due to them being cloudy ..
Just my observations..
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Great post. Sums it up pretty thoroughly and straight forward. Hypo is labor intensive as far as monitoring but I was able to do it. I'm pretty new to hobby (about 2 years) and was able to do this. My tank is about 200 ga total volume.
Is it possible that the ich leave the fish for over 12 hour under 1.009sg? 2 days ago I bought a fish they called lipstick tang. I put the fish on Qt to inspect. I saw white dot like 10 on both sides so I research and ended on hypo. Can I start counting 4 weeks now and start raising my sg back to 1.025? Thanks in advance
The hypo will cause the white spots to go away... Also as a general part of ich lifecycle the spots will go away (they fall off to sand). It is my understanding that you start clock from last time you see white spots on fish. Someone will chime in and confirm or deny this.
If fish is in qt... You could do a copper treatment instead. It's slightly easier to do in my opinion than hypo is (hypo can be labor intensive depending on set up,... )
If fish is in qt... You could do a copper treatment instead. It's slightly easier to do in my opinion than hypo is (hypo can be labor intensive depending on set up,... )
From first post in this thread
"Observe your fish daily, and when you have seen the last ich gone from the fish [remember to change that filter medium daily!] and it's breathing well [no ich in the gills] then you start a 4-week countdown. That's one full month of continued hypo counting FROM THE LAST OBSERVED CYST."
A cyst being a white spot
"Observe your fish daily, and when you have seen the last ich gone from the fish [remember to change that filter medium daily!] and it's breathing well [no ich in the gills] then you start a 4-week countdown. That's one full month of continued hypo counting FROM THE LAST OBSERVED CYST."
A cyst being a white spot
ThRoewer
New member
While this is most likely what was meant, the white spots are not the cysts of Cryptocaryon.
The multiplying tomont stage is what correctly is referred to as cyst.
The white spots you see on the fish are not even the feeding parasites but just the fish's to those. For this reason the spots may look different on different fish species or sometimes even on different individuals of the same species.
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