Hyposalinity

[shanek]

Ich has taken the lives of every inhabitant in my tank. It is now empty other than 17lbs of live rock. My question now is what is the best way to undergo Hyposalinity treatment on this tank. I understand that anything below 1.010 will kill the small invertibrates on the live rock, so I'm going to run it at 1.012. I'm going to do this for 4 weeks. The tank will be running fallow during this time. After the term, I will introduce a damsel or two to see how the ich is in the tank at this point. Any pointers I can get would be great. Thanks.

 

[BrianH]

If you do not have any fish in your tank you can just run it fishless for 6 to 8 weeks without reducing the SG. ICH can not reproduce without a fish host, so without fish any ich left in your tank will die off. I would not reduce the SG since inverts are much more sensitive to low SG and chances are that you will kill them off too.

Brian

 

[wayne]

I agree totally with Brian - after 8 weeks without fish, the only way you'll get ich in is with new fish. You don't need to worry about that. Get a walmart 10 gallon kit and use it as a QT tank and QT EVERYTHING. I would say that the most likely way to get ich in your tank is to put in a few damsels straight from the lfs 'to see how things are'.

 

[shanek]

Ok...the tank is now running at 1.015 salinity...all chemicals seem to be within normal range. I agree with the QT. I have had one for quite some time and use it with every new fish. Keep them in there for one week, then introduce them into the display. It's always the same story though...they are fine in QT, but once they hit the display they contract ich in a day or two. I am convinced it's in the display. So you think I need to run it 8 weeks to get rid of the ich? I thought the life span was 21 days? I was going to run it fallow for 4 weeks JUST to make sure. Thanks for the help. LOTS better info than my LFS could give me. Also about the QT, I have been trying to run it constant even without fish...not easy since the chemicals tend to change drastically. Wouldn't it be simpler to just fire it up when new stock is coming...say a day or two before. Use water from the display to fill it and keep the filter media floating in the display for a few days before it's used? Thanks again!!

 

[wayne]

I tihnk you need to run it fallow for 6 weeks to be sure. I wouldn't bother fooling around with hyposalinity in the main display, just get it to ideal and keep it there for your inverts.
Keep fish in quarantine for a month to 6 weeks, to make sure nothing is wrong - a week is too short for much too show up, inc. ich. Try to keep conditions good in QT, with some pipes or flowerpots to give the fish somewhere to hide. I don't like to dose the QT with chemicals myself, I like to make QT as relaxingfor the fish as possible - less stress, more immune system. You can use whatever filter you want, like a small internal, but be aware that if anything gets sick the meds will trash the filter likely (esp copper) and you'll need to do water changes to keep things ok.
Treat all lfs fish as risky , no matter how good they look