Hyposalinity question - QT tank - how fast can you lower SG?

[Delphinus]

I've got 3 fish in a QT tank right now (newcomers). I can see ich on them, enough so that I'm a little worried.

So .. dumb question here. I've never actually run a QT tank before and I've never ran a hyposalinity treatment.

I'm doing some reading but one piece of information I don't seem to see touched on in great detail (I might be overlooking so I'll keep reading but I'll ask it here anyhow), is how fast can you safely lower SG in a QT tank? There's nothing else in the tank (ie. no snails or inverts .. just some live rock and an aquaclear), so no worries there - it's just the fish.

And wow, SG at 1.008 for the target SG. Did I say "wow" yet? Yikes.

How much of a drop is too much for one day?

[Red Coral Aquariums]

If they are in a Q-Tank why not use medication?? I found it to be hit and miss with hypo treatment.

To answer your question though drip FW slowly.

Kevin

[Delphinus]

I'm reading opinions all over the map on hyposalinity versus medications. On the one hand I read things like "copper or hyposalinity are the only things that work" others are like "product X worked for me".

Comes down to this for me right now: I can start hyposalinity right now at midnight, if I wanted to meds I can't start until at least tomorrow. I have live rock in the tank and was sorta hoping to not use copper in it, if it can be avoided at all, but .. I want whatever's best for the fish. Today is the first day the spots really showed up, so I don't know when to press the panic button. Now? Later? Yesterday?

What meds do you recommend?

Also any opinions on how fast the SG can be lowered? This article (wetwebmedia.com) seems to suggest it can be done over the course of several hours, but using several water changes (with a rest period in between, I presume, although it's not touched upon).

It's a 30gal tank so if I take out 3 gallons and replace with FW, it lowers it about 0.002. Ie., 1.023 to 1.021. When can I do my next changeout, in a couple hours or is it better to wait until tomorrow?

[PuffLuv]

I went from 1.025 to about 1.008 in about 3.5 days and it didn't seem to bother the fish at all. I've read people have dropped it faster without any problems as well. From what I've read, increasing the salinity at a slower rate (ie. 7 days) is more important. Here's a link I found helpful:
http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/hyposalinity.html
Best of luck!

[Delphinus]

FWIW, the fish are all eating everything up as fast I can give it to them. Flake, pellet, nori, mysis. In fact, one of them is a butterfly (pyramid) and even he is chasing down flake and eating it like no tomorrow (first butterfly to eat flake for me). But they all have spots, including the butterfly. So definitely I need to do "something", hopefully I don't need to panic or despair that I'm "starting this too late" at this point, but .. argh, I dunno.

[marie]

Every time I've used hyposalinity in the quarantine tank I've taken 48hrs as the guide line to lower SG from 1.026 to 1.009 . The fish aren't too affected by lowering the SG, it's the climb back up that takes forever

[Delphinus]

Perfect, thanks all. Just the info (and reassurance in a way) that I was looking for! So I've done my first change, taking it down to 1.021 from 1.023, I'll wait until the morning to do the next one. And then after work for the one after that. And so on, and so on ("and they told two friends, and they told two friends, ...")

Anyhow thanks once again..

[Red Coral Aquariums]

What is your salinity at now??

If it is around the 1.021 mark I would take out about 10 gallons of water out of your tank and and using an old 10 gal you have sitting around (I"m sure you do) do a drip of fresh water into your tank. When you wake up tomorrow it should be around the 1.015 mark. Repeat the procedure and go to work when you come home it should be at the mark where you need to keep an eye on it.

I would take the Rock out as how alive is the rock going to be with a salinity of 1.008 which might cause a mini cycle stressing your fish out worse.

Medication: To effectively kill marine ich you will need medication that will kill ALL single celled organisms hence you should take your live rock out of that tank.

So really whether you use Hyposalinity or medication you are not effectively battling ich till late tomorrow anyways.

Call me at work tomorrow if you want Tony.
Best of luck
Kevin

[bulletsworld]

Tony, what kind of fish are you treating? Are they scale-less fish? It helps for treatment advice.

Hyposalinity I like better than Copper any day. More natural is better. However I would use the darkness & transfer method also with Hyposalinity treatment to be the most effective. Let me know if you want more info on how I do that.

to answer your question on Hyposalinity....here's steps

In Hyposalinity the normal salt content of the tank is reduced by over half, that is from normal 35 ppt to 16 ppt, which corresponds to a specific gravity of 1.009. The treatment is done in stages. On day one RO/DI is used to replace hospital tank water till specific gravity falls to 1.022, day two it is reduced to 1.018, day three 1.014, day four to 1.009.

I will warn you, once you hit 1.018, you might see a nitrate/ammonia spike. That's why its important to adjust the salinity down slowly. Also by lowering the salinity this way it will prevent your fish going into osmosic shock. Like a invert would do if you didn't match the salinity when first introducing it to your system. I have dropped it faster with no shown effects to the fish.

Hope that helps.

[bulletsworld]

Originally Posted by PuffLuv

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

I was looking for this website too! This is an excellent link and a must all bookmark.