hyposalinity

[mudpy]

please i need help. i just purchased a chevron tang with i belive its ich and made the mistake to put him in the main tank along with the other fish. about a few days later all my fish are covered with the same stuff . i proceeded to try the hyposalinity lowering the salt to 1.09 and i don't see any improvement its been 2 days i think its actually getting worse. all the fish are swiming and eating but i'm afraid to loose them. any sujestions how long should i see improvements after lowering the salt content?
thanks

 

[stevensun]

What instrument do you use to test the salinity? The readings from a hydrometer might be off considerably. A refractometer is usually recommended.

 

[mudpy]

hyposalinity

i do measure with a refractometer

 

[paulamrein]

just to be sure, it's 1.009. secondly it really needs to be done in a seperate tank if you have live rock or live sand or any invertebrates. The ich has to go through it's cycle. It won't be effected by the change of salinity till it is off of the fish. The have a mucus layer that protects them while on the fish. If the above advice is followed you should see results within a week or two. Once you see that no fish have ich, your countdown than starts and needs to stay in hypo at 1.009 for at least 6 weeks.

 

[mudpy]

thanks it is at 1.009 i have 25 fish in total and i don't have means of treating them in a separate tank. the tank does have live rock but no corals or invertebrates and i don't really want to use copper yet the fish are still very active and eating well hopefully they will recover fully thanks again

 

[Kevin1000]

My 02

You should note that hypo may kill off alot of the micro critters in your live rock/live sand - thats why hypo is only recommended for QT's. The dead critters may eventually create water quality issues and you should be prepared to do major water changes while keeping the salinity levels at the appropriate levels.

 

[Kevin1000]

Double post

 

[spike78]

You have 25 total fish in the tank and no QT? That sounds like a big disaster waiting to happen. I would get a QT set up as soon as possible.

 

[paulamrein]

What size is the display tank? What are the sizes of the big fish?

 

[mudpy]

the display tank is 300 gallons the biggest fish (grouper) is about 12 inches. i've been changing the water twice a day about 10 gallons each time the fish are still eating and swiming normal i keep my fingers crossed. it will definatelly be a bad experience. my main concern right now is for the fish