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

[bulletsworld]

Originally Posted by Red Coral Aquariums

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.

+1

[howdy20012002]

i have dropped salinity over a very short period of time without any problems..(over a 1 hour period.)
i have been told that going down in salinity isn't a problem.
going back up is should be down much slower. (i myself have done it over a few hours without a problem)
just what I have heard and praticed.
for medications, I swear that I have lost more fish trying to treat ich with meds that the ich itself would have killed.
from the reading that I have done, Hyposalinity is the recommended way for quarantining fish and is proven to reduce death and stress on the fish

hope this helps
Neal

[Bob]

I pesonally have taken mine down in two days...in a 70 gallon tank
I did the medications first....for over two months...nothing worked for me
lowering the salinity did.....just to let you know...one of the lfs here actually kept there tanks at a very low salinity.....very low...

[Delphinus]

Ok thanks all. The water is now down to 1.020. I guess I'll take the rock when I get home. Although it's there mainly just for aesthetics and to give the fish some caves and whatnot to hang out in. Just thought it would be nicer than plant pots and PVC, or empty, the usual look of a QT tank. It's also rock out of a cooking tank anyhow so it's all white to begin with. I don't mind to reseed it down the road. BUt yeah if it's gonna be a problem then I guess it has to come out.

The QT tank is a 30g and the only other filtration on there is an aquaclear 110 which I don't think is enough on its own so I guess I have to find something bigger and get it going before going much further.

Lee, the fish are 2 small tangs and a butterfly.

[bulletsworld]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Lee, the fish are 2 small tangs and a butterfly.

They will be fine in Hyposalintiy. Just checking they are not scale less fish.

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I guess I'll take the rock when I get home. Although it's there mainly just for aesthetics and to give the fish some caves and whatnot to hang out in. Just thought it would be nicer than plant pots and PVC, or empty, the usual look of a QT tank. It's also rock out of a cooking tank anyhow so it's all white to begin with. I don't mind to reseed it down the road. BUt yeah if it's gonna be a problem then I guess it has to come out.

You know… I assumed you wanted to use live rock. Then it would spike for sure once it dropped to low. However, I’ve never tried using completely cooked rock, if its white, with no algae or anything on it. It might be o.k. Hmm…. I wonder myself actually. Has anyone ever tried it? If in doubt, take it out, use PVC for tunnels and caves.

Just to note… Hyposalinity doesn’t always work. I have read cases of ick being able to live in low salinity. But it still hands down beats using chemicals to treat. If it doesn’t work I will give you my recipe for Transfer & Darkness Method. I warn you though, it’s a lot of work, but it’s completely natural and has worked for me every time with treating marine velvet and ich.

[Delphinus]

Doing QT is new ground for me. You'd think after 12 years of SW maybe a guy would know better. I've always just rolled the dice and yeah, fish (and tangs in particular) always got spots in the first few weeks, but they always got over it. One bout, that was it, never to return. I figure sooner or later that gig will be up. Now that I have an Acanthurus in my care I thought I should step it up and yeah, for sure, he's looking pretty spotty. He eats with great gusto though, so I'm really hoping I'm doing the right thing here.

[midgetwaiter]

What you are worried about when dropping the salinity in a QT is the bio filter, the fish don't mind. You can move fish into hypo without acclimation provided the pH is steady.

Watch for bacterial blooms and ammonia levels, have some prime handy, etc. 72 hours would be a good time frame although 48 is possible.

Going back up plan to take at least a week.

[Delphinus]

What do people use for adjusting pH if necessary?

QT tank is now down to 1.017. I guess I need to keep going, the spots are worse than ever and quickly approaching among the worst I've ever seen for ich. Certainly the worst for any fish in my care anyhow.

Water is starting to get a slight cloudy look to it, too. I wish I had a bigger aquaclear. I'm torn between continuing to lower the salinity or holding it here for a couple days while I go out and buy a bigger aquaclear. (Bearing in mind I'm not sure how best to to adjust pH, if need be, and that I'm not sure my aquaclear is adequately keeping up with the cycle - I don't have an ammonia test kit but I do have a nitrite test kit and it is measuring 0.1 --- however for what it's worth, anytime I've used it, it's always told me 0.1 so I'm not sure what to make of that).

I feel really bad for these fish. I'm not sure whether I've done them a favour by putting them into QT first or not. I've always just let them go into the main tank and let it be, and while spots usually would appear, never quite so bad as this, and always went away after the first week.

These fish are at about 1.5 weeks in QT. I thought things were going really well as they ate with gusto and showed no signs of spots until this week.

Especially after the cuke nuke incident in my cube tank this week, the stress of this is starting to take its toll. Why do we do this again? This is fun, right? I'm really starting to wonder about this..

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Don't forget to raise the temp of your QT tank also for Ich.

Only time we use any meds or copper is if its a very severe case.

Either than that we add Immuno-Vital, and use Ich attack.

Ken - BWA

[marie]

I found hyposalinity a bit slow in killing ich on the fish, that's why I decided to go with cupramine instead when I treated my potters angels. I ended up doing 50% daily water changes to keep the ammonia levels down but the fish pulled through and I haven't seen ich on them since