lovelylinda
Premium Member
I've had my salinity down to 15 ppt or 1.010 for 20 days, and my pb tang is still covered in ich. All of the other fish are ich free. Yes, I'm using a refractometer. Is this level low enough?
Ich still present in hyposaline.
- Thread starter lovelylinda
- Start date
PallidSilversky
New member
maybe try usuing some copper along with the hyposalinity?
lovelylinda
Premium Member
My reason for using hyposaline is to avoid copper. From What I've read, you can't combine the two treatments.
Jerry W
Active member
Go a tad lower. Shoot for a salinity of 14 ppt. It sounds like you're splitting hairs but there's a reason the recommended level is 14 ppt (or 1.009 sg.)
There are also some strains of crypto that are resistant to hyposalinity. Essentially you'll be starting over but this may turn the tide for you.
There are also some strains of crypto that are resistant to hyposalinity. Essentially you'll be starting over but this may turn the tide for you.
jimmyj7090
aka John K
Yea, hypo needs to be 1.009 or lower. I've treated at 1.008 and the fish do fine as long as you make the transitions slow.
Also, the new one I've been hearing about is refractometers not calibrating accurately on RODI or distilled water. Some people are making up calibration solutions - see randy holmes farley's chemistry fourm, there should be a link there somewhere.
Also, the new one I've been hearing about is refractometers not calibrating accurately on RODI or distilled water. Some people are making up calibration solutions - see randy holmes farley's chemistry fourm, there should be a link there somewhere.
lovelylinda
Premium Member
I'm not afraid of copper. I've used it on a friend's tang. He developed HLLE while on the copper, and it took 6 months to resolve that. Also, he re-developed ich after he was introduced to her tank. So she hypo-salined all her fish in my QT and all has been well since. I'll go lower on the salinity. The fish don't seem to mind low salinity at all.
jimmyj7090
aka John K
IIRC copper is very effective, but may cause some kind of internal organ damage which may impact fish's long term health long after ick is just a memory.
I may be wrong, but I beleive that I've read that somewhere.
Personally I've used both treatments at different times and found both to be %100 effective, but there are a lot of potential variables (different strains of the parasite with different tolerences, refractometer calibration issues, frequency of testing SG or copper concentration, target levels when testing both for SG or copper levels....)
After about 11 yrs of saltwater keeping, I have reccently learned the best kept secret of fishkeeping - QT everything, and treat all fish visable Ick or no visable Ick
Current protocol for me - all fish get acclimated to QT tank, then transitioned to 1.008 max SG for 6 weeks, then transitioned back to normal SG and observed for 2 weeks. All corals get a 6-8 week QT period to be sure any pests/predetors show up, and to allow enough fallow time for any ICK to die off.
It's a bit of a PITA, but I now keep a 40B system with sump, Skimmer, heater, good circ and a 150W HQI light. I have a garama and a damsel that live in the QT when nothing is being treated or QT'd, when I get a new fish or coral the garama and damsel go into my fuge and the new livestock goes into the QT. That may sound like a lot of effort, but it's way better than constantly dealing with Ick, flatworms, nudi's exct.....
I may be wrong, but I beleive that I've read that somewhere.
Personally I've used both treatments at different times and found both to be %100 effective, but there are a lot of potential variables (different strains of the parasite with different tolerences, refractometer calibration issues, frequency of testing SG or copper concentration, target levels when testing both for SG or copper levels....)
After about 11 yrs of saltwater keeping, I have reccently learned the best kept secret of fishkeeping - QT everything, and treat all fish visable Ick or no visable Ick
Current protocol for me - all fish get acclimated to QT tank, then transitioned to 1.008 max SG for 6 weeks, then transitioned back to normal SG and observed for 2 weeks. All corals get a 6-8 week QT period to be sure any pests/predetors show up, and to allow enough fallow time for any ICK to die off.
It's a bit of a PITA, but I now keep a 40B system with sump, Skimmer, heater, good circ and a 150W HQI light. I have a garama and a damsel that live in the QT when nothing is being treated or QT'd, when I get a new fish or coral the garama and damsel go into my fuge and the new livestock goes into the QT. That may sound like a lot of effort, but it's way better than constantly dealing with Ick, flatworms, nudi's exct.....
lovelylinda
Premium Member
Yeah, I have a 35 gallon QT with 25 lb of rock,and have used it faithfully until this time. The dealer thought QT would stress the pb tang too much. What a lesson! Never again.
