Help! Fish breathing heavy, loss of appetite

[S0K]

Salinity is 1.009 now after water change, I'm using a Refractometer. I said 1.009-10 because it fluctuates due to water evaporation

Lights are off still so can't see how the fish are doing this morning

I thought last night about moving them all to another tank and treating with cupramine but I thought first I'd have to get the salinity back up which will take about a week and if they're already breathing heavy and not eating then the raise in salinity plus added stress from moving the fish will just promote more ich growth and the fish will die before I even get to use the cupramine...

[George]

Originally Posted by S0K

Salinity is 1.009 now after water change, I'm using a Refractometer. I said 1.009-10 because it fluctuates due to water evaporation
...

yeah...I don't know if you have an ATO but usually when people do hypo, they set the ATO to a tight range so that salinity doesn't change. 1.010 is not going to work against most strains of marine ich. Heck, even 1.009 is high for some strains.

[Cujo#31]

My 2 bits....if ich is in display, it is there forever as long as there are hosts. Display has to run fallow for as long as u do hypo. In the end even Hypo isnt the esaiest route, and odds are good u will lose one or two in the process. Yes monitor salinity very carefully. The larger the volume of water u can run during hypo greatly decreases saline level swings with evap. As the restof the good folks here have said watch alk and ph closely. At the expense of redundant, raise alk levels slowly.
good luck on ur long and painful road. I feel ur pain brother.