Hyposalinity

[fittiger]

Dropping the salinity slowly, over several days, and then raising it again, even more slowly, will require a lot of water changes in a 180 plus all the sizeable water changes that will be needed every 2 - 3 days since your main biological filtration source will not be functioning. You would be better off transferring the fish to a smaller QT or stock tank to do this if you are removing the rock anyway. Plus if you still have sand in the tank it can kill off many bethnic organisms there and cause a spike.

Amquel+ you need to be very careful with as it can cause a drop in dissolved oxygen.

 

[yukonblizzard]

Alright Thanks, Maybe I will just QT them. Might take a while to catch but I guess I am better off.

 

[StayPuft]

Yes, this is what I was thinking too. I did hypo on my 38gal QT and it was such a pain that I will never do it again. The amount of water changes in order to lower the SG slowly, then raise it, is greater than you imagine. Plus when you lower SG, the pH drops and to raise it on such a large tank is a lot of work.

It's doable on a small tank but more work than it's worth on a large tank.

 

[jpccusa]

Here is my piece of advice... QUARANTINE ALL THE NEW ADDITIONS!
And quarantine really means 40 to 50 days in a separate tank.
In case of an outbrake of something, the QT can be transformed into a HT (hospital tank).
I keep a 10 gallons tank empty and my biowheel filtration working on the main tank. Whenever I buy a fish, I use the shipping water to start the acclimation process. I drip water from the display tank and RO water simultaneously for about 2 days, checking the salinity every 12 hours or so. I transfer the Biowheel filtration as soon as it reaches the water level in the QT. I adjust to 1.009 using a floating hydrometer. Arm hydrometers are just not accurate enough.
After 45 days (if everything goes as expected), I drain the 10 gallons tank to just enough water to cover the entire fish. Then I drip water from the display tank again for another 2 days. The hypo water as well as the water being dripped from the DT can be re-used, UNLESS you used medication to treat a disease. Again, QT water is reusable. HT water is not!!!

 

[squealy]

Is there any concern with taking the biowheel filter, which had been in the QT under hypo for presumed ich, and then immediately reintroducing it back into the DT sump? Or do you assume since it's safe to take the fish out of QT it is also safe to put the biowheel into the DT?

 

[jpccusa]

If you are concerned about the shock due to salinity diferencial, you can aclimate the biowheel along with the fish from hypo to normal salinity.
If you are concerned about the ich, 45 days in the QT would eliminate any risk of introducing it to your DT, through the new addition fish or through the biowheel.
If you are not planning in adding another fish right away to the QT, you don't need to worry about killing the bioload on the wheel. Just put it back on the DT and a new bioload will develop.

 

[squealy]

Thanks. That all makes sense. Just wanted to be sure.

As an aside, while I was doing a water change in my hypo QT, raising the specific gravity in another QT, taking water out of my DT to fill a QT, and cleaning the skimmate from another DT, it became obvious that it is quite easy to inadvertantly introduce ich into tanks. Do people have separate droppers for their refractometers, tubes to drain water out of tanks, separate buckets for different tanks, clean their vinyl gloves, etc?

 

[customdusty]

Is there any list or guidelines as to what type of fish can be treated with hyposalinity?

I'm sure some handle it much better than others.

 

[StayPuft]

You should have a complete set of accessories (hose, net, dropper, etc) that you only use for the QT. This way you don't spread any parasites to your DT.

I don't know of any fish that have problems with hypo.

 

[unbreakable]

i want to do hypo but as you guys said, the qt has to have a filter.

do you do hypo with the filters still attached???

 

[jpccusa]

Squealy, I don't have a separate set of tools to the QT tank. All I do is rinse everything VERY WELL with tap water after using it.

Nietzsche, I did not understand the question...

 

[squealy]

I just thought of this. Since it seems that the bio filter temporarily suffers after going down to 1.009 rather quickly, causing an ammonia spike, would it make sense to have a separate sponge or bio-wheel, perhaps kept in a small bucket of hypo water, available if you know you will be QT'ing fish? I am in the process of stocking a DT so I have 2 QT's going full-time, so I am always either going down to hypo or coming out of it. The water changes during the initial phases of hypo are wearing me down.

 

[jpccusa]

Since you are alternating QTs, I guess it's ok to keep the biowheel in hypo salinity in a separate bucket while the second QT is acclimated to hypo. The fish can survive without it for a few days while they go back to normal salinity.

Regarding being wore down by the water changes, my best investiment was a system of RO... No more carrying of heavy containers of water. Now if you prefer to buy pre-mixed/natural water, there is no way around it....