Hyposalinity: how-to; when-to; how-long-to

[kirsto71]

Just having a think about this process and how it may be more definitively applied I was wondering if people would comment on an idea I had (others have probably also thought this).

As the fish are transferred into the QT for hypo and you can generally get the fish to low salinity within 48 hours then the number of trophonts that drop off and form tomonts would be small(ish). Then assuming from that point the salinity is held at 1.009 then any further trophonts that fall off would die before forming tomonts due to the low salinity then we are only risking the small numbers that have formed tomonts in the first 48 hours that could survive for the maximum period of 72 days. During the next 4 weeks all the trophonts will have left the fish and died and then we are only left with the possibility of the remaining tomonts surviving past the 4 weeks when we lift the salinity back up.

Stay with me

At this point prior to lifting the salinity could you do a tank transfer and then lift the salinity in the new tank. This would mean that no tomont would be present in the new quarantine tank and therefore no risk of them releasing once the salinity was back up and infecting your fish again.

Just thoughts. Keen on some feedback.

marc

 

[lespaul339]

I'm running hypo right now at 1.008. I'm a week into treatment and already notice a big improvement on my fish. My Regal Tang was completely covered in spots and now there are almost none on him.

The only side effect I've noticed is that all my fish experienced a loss of appetite. I would say about half are eating normally now and half still aren't eating. Not freaking out since I'm sure it was very stressful to move them to a new tank. This could just be stressed related and not because of the hypo treatment at all. I just wanted to post my experience since I didn't see anyone in this thread talk about a loss of appetite with their fish when treating hypo.

 

[Spar]

I'm running hypo right now at 1.008. I'm a week into treatment and already notice a big improvement on my fish. My Regal Tang was completely covered in spots and now there are almost none on him.

The only side effect I've noticed is that all my fish experienced a loss of appetite. I would say about half are eating normally now and half still aren't eating. Not freaking out since I'm sure it was very stressful to move them to a new tank. This could just be stressed related and not because of the hypo treatment at all. I just wanted to post my experience since I didn't see anyone in this thread talk about a loss of appetite with their fish when treating hypo.

its been years since i have done Hypo, but i never personally noticed a lack of appetite. in theory though, a fish is having to use less energy in Hypo compared to regular salinity, so a somewhat less appetite isn't that unlikely... but I would still expect the fish to readily accept food.

the main issue i had with Hypo was crashing of KH/Alk. Measure that and see if it is looking excessively low.. probably not a good idea to let it drop below 4 dKH. that will in turn start to crash pH to too low of levels.

 

[lespaul339]

Like I said I didn't know if lack of appetite in my fish was necessarily from doing hypo or just my fish being stressed out from getting netted and moved to a new tank. Thanks for the heads up on ALK, I will test that later on tonight when I get home.

 

[alwmh4]

So what about water changes? Still do? And is it ok to add baked baking soda raising alk but not adding calcium?

 

[billsreef]

Yup, water changes are fine as is supplementing alk

 

[Johnb123]

so i recently got ich on my blue tang so instead of putting all my fish into quarantine i was thinking of just treating them in my main tank? i'll take out my 1 coral and 1 blood shrimp and just hypo my tank? is this really bad for my live rock? i read instead of hypo just raising the temp really high could work the same way is this true?

 

[Deinonych]

Raising the temperature will do nothing but stress the fish further, as well as lower the dissolved oxygen. Hyposalinity in the DT will likely cause some die-off of the microfauna in your live rock, so you will need to keep an eye on ammonia levels.

 

[cougaran]

Also agree that raising temperature does nothing for saltwater Ich. You probably read an article on freshwater Ich, which is different and speeds up the cycle when you raise temp. I would strongly advise against using your main tank with live rock because you may end up causing a high amount of ammonia released from the die off as well as possibly killing off some or all the nitrifying bacteria in the live rock.

 

[adamPL]

Anyone had any luck with Hyposalinity in their DT??

 

[ThRoewer]

I wouldn't even think about trying it in a DT - too much can go wrong.
In HT though it worked fine for me.

 

[Spar]

I wouldn't even think about trying it in a DT - too much can go wrong.

In HT though it worked fine for me.

+1

You will have a lot of die-off in your DT when you get the salinity lower which will cause problems.

I did Hypo for my first year of treating Ich and as far as I can tell it was successful.

I did have many more fish die in hypo than i did doing TTM, and ended up determining this was due to letting the Alkalinity of the hypo tank get too low. Most literature on hypo excludes any discussion about this. You really either need to dose alkalinity or do a lot of frequent and large WC's.

 

[alwmh4]

Hypo was completed in December. I did it for about 7 weeks as one day my salinity crept too high due to miscalculation in water change. Only fish that didn't make it was my sixline who disappeared into a rock and reemerged weeks later extremely thin. I didn't see him again after that. I feel he would have made it if treatment has been shorter. Yes I dosed alk everyday and changed filter sock everyday. Everyone else made it through and I've seen no evidence of ick to date.
My qt is now set properly and running so I'll only be buying fish that are ok to be in 40 ga tank for 8 weeks. It's limiting yes but once you go through all this once, you never want a dt desease issue again. ESP w 180 ga system.

 

[Chicago]

does hypo have side effect of dropsy? or something similar to that. im doing a hypo now and this is what occurred after four weeks to my pink margin.. all fish looking better and doing ok. and eating .

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[alwmh4]

I'm by no means an expert but my wrasse had that buldge on bottom to which I didn't even know there was a name for. The fish managed just fine but did end up disappearing into a rock. I did hypo for about 7-8 weeks. He reimerged when I started increasing salinity but was wafer thin. He didn't make it. But initially was fine for a few weeks and being a wrasse I think they are a bit more sensitive. I feel if I had stopped hypo at 4 weeks he would have lived. I didn't bc one day after water change I had slight spike above 1.009 and was told if that ever happened to start over

 

[Chicago]

is that from the fish inability to somehow regulate the lower salinity?

or dropsy

 

[alwmh4]

I think it has to do with regulating water inside the body. The drop at terminology might still apply bc I think that's all dropsy is... A symptom of a problem. Kinda like a fever would be. But it could be a parasite or desease or hypo causing the inability to regulate the water. I'd assume it's the hypo. Can you make a see hospital tank for the little guy? Use a different method of treatment rather than hypo? Then you could slowly bring him up to higher salinity and I bet he'd be ok

 

[Turbosreef]

I am sure I will stir the pot with this one.... with ich signs only on one fish and no others if that fish is qt and treated assuming no spots or stress is visible will the fish resist the ich or will it keep multipling until it kills everything In the tank?

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[Turbosreef]

In your DT sorry should have clarified that

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[alwmh4]

Well that's a big argument out there. Some say they creat a resistance with healthy living environment and good diet. Others say no you'll always have a problem. As far as I know, there are only two ways to address ick in DT.
1. Remove all fish for 72 days. Treat this fish with copper meds while in separate tank.
2. Hypo

Best option of you can do it is to remove fish and put into a qt tank.

Can't use copper in DT if you ever want corals or inverts in tank. They also can't survive hypo do have to remove.

I was forced to do hypo bc my fish would have died in qt. My qt is 40 ga and my fish required 180 ga in s couple cases. Plus I had a few fish that would have been impossible to catch without dismantling tank.

I did hypo back around December and so far haven't seen any spots on anyone. Keep in mind I feed great food and my tank is far from crowded with zero nitrates and phosphates with a giant UV filter now. Many factors to consider. You'll encounter some ver opinionated people on this topic.