Hyposalinity in reef tank

[Reefer08]

Can I do hyposalinity in my main reef tank that currently has a few corals and live rock? I can easily remove the corals but my main concern is the live rock and running a lower salinity. Whats the best process to running hyposalinity to treat ich? Thanks for the help.

 

[Chris27]

Ideally you want to perform any treatment in a QT, it can be something as simple as a large rubbermaid with a hang on filter. Dropping the salinity down that much in a reef tank will have some consequences, while it may not affect the bio-filter much, it will ensure that every invert in the tank will die. Just because you don't have any snails, corals, or crabs, doesn't mean you don't have inverts....most likely you have thousands living in your sand and rock that you don't know about. When they die, there could be an ammonia spike that you're not ready for.

Hyposalinity is really quite simple, drop the sg down to 1.009 / salinity of 12ppt, and maintain it there for a few weeks. After that you just slowly bring the salinity back up to 35ppt and you're good to go.

 

[Reefer08]

Thanks for the reply. What if I removed all live rock (kept them in a curing bin) and did hyposalinity? The tank is about 5 months old so im not sure if the sand has a lot of life in it. Thanks for the help

 

[johnnyblaze313]

Check that thread out below reefer, Im treating my display with hypo right now I removed all the rock, inverts and coral. So far its working out great. I left a few pieces of rock in ther with like 2 texas trash polyps and they only survives to about week 2 and almost all the coraline on the rock I left in is gone also..



http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1934547