trying hyposalinity for ick

[Vegas RN]

Well to make a long story short I didnt qt my last addition to my already established tank. It was a powder blue tang and looked good in the store for the last 2 weeks.
Well I tried to treat the whole reef tank with the reef safe kick ick or somthing like that. Good news is it didnt kill any corals the bad news it didnt kill the ick either. Sooooo I bit the bullet and tore down the tank to catch all the fish (what a PITA). I have them in a qt/ hospital tank and before trying copper type medications that could cause harm to my fish I decided to try HS treatment. Has anyone had good results with this? Im slowly bringing down my salinity from 1.025 down to 1.010 for apx 1 month then slowly bringing it back.
My main tank will be farlow for around 6 weeks to give the ick enough time to go thru life cycle and die. Does anyone see a problem with this? Any pointers will be appreciated. Thanks


Chris

 

[lakelanson]

Hi There,

The attached makes great reading:

http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/hyposalinity.html

 

[jnc914]

I kept my fish in 1.009 salinity for 6 weeks and it got rid of the ich. As I later found out the fish also had velvet that was introduced from a Regal Angel that I did not QT long enough. Needless to say hypo is not effective against velvet. You may be against it, but copper is the most effective treatment for these parasites. Why not try Cupramine? It is easy to dose and test, plus it is not harsh on the more delicate of fish like the Powder Blue, angels, butterflys, etc.

 

[dones20]

USE COPPER!!! hypo is somtimes not very efective on ick i would not risk letting the situation worsen a lose a few fish to something like this especialy if youve got everyone in a qt id go for the copper safe by mardel i have overdosed this med before and didnt do anything to my livestock i curenttly had an ick out break in my 210 reef and removed a black tang hippo tang and powder blue tang that i have had for 5 years now and for the last 3 weeks hes been in qt with copper safe continuosly running his ick fell off 2 days after i added copper safe it really is an amazing ick cure... good luck

 

[Vegas RN]

Thanks for the recommendations everyone. Now Im in a bind. If I treat with copper I know I shouldnt do it while its hs because it makes the coppper too strong. so do I slowly bring it back up then treat with copper? I have read in many places that hs is a good treatment for ick but not much else. I'll investigate further.

 

[paulamrein]

Chloriquine Phosphate is a very effective cure for most parasites. Unfortunately it's rather difficult to find. There are sites that price them, but when you buy, you have to be affiliated with an LFS. I am trying my local vet to see if they can write a prescription for it. It's a cure for malayria, I believe common name is Arlen. There are dosing instructions on the net if you can get a hold of it.

 

[biger]

And yes, I would slowly bring salinity back up before using cupramine for copper treatment.