How fast to lower salinity for hyposalinty?

[ILikeFish!]

I’m about to start hyposalinity treatment on my 55-gallon tank. I’d like to know how fast I should lower the salinity and how much water to remove daily to reach the target level. My fish aren’t doing to good so the faster the better.

In case it helps my fish are cleaner wrasse, damsel, royal gramma, and fire goby

Additionally, I have a few questions about using praziquantel during hyposalinity treatment. It’s been about 4 weeks of dosing, so I doubt there’s much left in the water. Should I remove any remaining praziquantel before starting the hyposalinity, or is it safe to proceed with both?

 

[ILikeFish!]

@ILikeFish!
Only you know what you have in your tank. How long has the tank been running? Do you have a sand bed?
If no sand bed, consider move all the rock out and put them into a Plastic container with a bubbler or PH and get a few PVC angles and tubes in the tank for the fishes to hide in.
Get a 35 gal trash can at Home Depo and you can put everything you don't want to treat with hypo salinity in it. Don't even have to put a heater in it, just an air pump or PH pointing at the surface.

I would if I could but i dont have anything and my parents wont take me anywhere to get stuff, the tanks been running for 1 and half years and i do have a sand bed but when i first got the live rock i had a bunch of die of and ive only seen 1 bristle worm, 3, star fish, and 2 spaghetti worms so i dont think i have that many worms and i took out a little less than half my rock because it had the most live things from what i could see. I also dont have a light on my tank so i dont have that much algae.

 

[vetteguy53081]

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 what do you think about this? Honestly I would just do the hyposalinty, i think you would probably have to have a ton of worms to to cause an ammonia spike, but i don’t know I’ve never dont that before.

1.024 - 1.026 is typical industry range. Many LFS will keep it lower to reduce disease although not low enough to accomplish this. I will say, back in the day, we ran tanks at 1.021 but have moved closer to seawater levels

 

[ILikeFish!]

Welp i lost one of my fish and my inverts died in the other tank i was keeping them in, thank you all for the help. But im giving up and taking all my fish to the fish store tomorrow. If anyone is interested i have 40 pounds of kp rock im giving away for free.

 

[ILikeFish!]

Thanks!

My head hurts just looking at this! I'm going to need to sit down and run some trials on this, perhaps after a couple of beers. Can I add this info to my hyposalinity thread?

@Tamberav @Jay Hemdal @OrionN im doing the hypo salinity in a 10 gallon qt tank now and based on the equation this is what i came up with-


1. 1st step: 6 gallons in the 55-gallon tank becomes 6 \times 0.1818 = 1.09 gallon.
2. 2nd step: 6.8 gallons becomes 6.8 \times 0.1818 = 1.24 gallons.
3. 3rd step: 7.8 gallons becomes 7.8 \times 0.1818 = 1.42 gallons
4. 4th step: 8.9 gallons becomes 8.9 \times 0.1818 = 1.62 gallons.
5. 5th step: 10.7 gallons becomes 10.7 \times 0.1818 = 1.95 gallons.
6. 6th step: 13.2 gallons becomes 13.2 \times 0.1818 = 2.40 gallons.

Does this sound right for a 10 gallon tank? Im not the best at math.

 

[OrionN]

@Tamberav @Jay Hemdal @OrionN im doing the hypo salinity in a 10 gallon qt tank now and based on the equation this is what i came up with-


1. 1st step: 6 gallons in the 55-gallon tank becomes 6 \times 0.1818 = 1.09 gallon.
2. 2nd step: 6.8 gallons becomes 6.8 \times 0.1818 = 1.24 gallons.
3. 3rd step: 7.8 gallons becomes 7.8 \times 0.1818 = 1.42 gallons
4. 4th step: 8.9 gallons becomes 8.9 \times 0.1818 = 1.62 gallons.
5. 5th step: 10.7 gallons becomes 10.7 \times 0.1818 = 1.95 gallons.
6. 6th step: 13.2 gallons becomes 13.2 \times 0.1818 = 2.40 gallons.

Does this sound right for a 10 gallon tank? Im not the best at math.

That is about right

 

[OrionN]

5 water changes use equation #2
TV=10 gal
Sal=30.6 (for SG of 1.023)
Decrease to Salinity of 12 with 5 changes of water
Change in salinity each time should be about 3.7 (Delta Sal =3.72)
1st water change X=1.2 gal, Salinity change to 26.9
2nd water change X=1.4 Gal, Salinity change to 23.2
3rd water change X=1.6 gal, Salinity change to 19.5
4th water change X=1.9 gal, Salinity change to 15.8
5th water change X= 2.4 gal, Salinity change to 12.1

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

@Tamberav @Jay Hemdal @OrionN im doing the hypo salinity in a 10 gallon qt tank now and based on the equation this is what i came up with-


1. 1st step: 6 gallons in the 55-gallon tank becomes 6 \times 0.1818 = 1.09 gallon.
2. 2nd step: 6.8 gallons becomes 6.8 \times 0.1818 = 1.24 gallons.
3. 3rd step: 7.8 gallons becomes 7.8 \times 0.1818 = 1.42 gallons
4. 4th step: 8.9 gallons becomes 8.9 \times 0.1818 = 1.62 gallons.
5. 5th step: 10.7 gallons becomes 10.7 \times 0.1818 = 1.95 gallons.
6. 6th step: 13.2 gallons becomes 13.2 \times 0.1818 = 2.40 gallons.

Does this sound right for a 10 gallon tank? Im not the best at math.

That looks o.k., but math isn’t my forte either. Of course, you measure the salinity/specific gravity as you go to ensure you don’t over shoot the mark.

 

[ILikeFish!]

5 water changes use equation #2
TV=10 gal
Sal=30.6 (for SG of 1.023)
Decrease to Salinity of 12 with 5 changes of water
Change in salinity each time should be about 3.7 (Delta Sal =3.72)
1st water change X=1.2 gal, Salinity change to 26.9
2nd water change X=1.4 Gal, Salinity change to 23.2
3rd water change X=1.6 gal, Salinity change to 19.5
4th water change X=1.9 gal, Salinity change to 15.8
5th water change X= 2.4 gal, Salinity change to 12.1

So, I guess the salinity in my QT tank was a little higher than in my main tank, and I’ve already added 1.2 gallons and 1.4 gallons of fresh water, bringing the salinity down to around 24-25 ppt. Do you know how much more water I should add to reach 1.012 or 15ppt?

 

[ILikeFish!]

That looks o.k., but math isn’t my forte either. Of course, you measure the salinity/specific gravity as you go to ensure you don’t over shoot the mark.

What happens if i overshoot the mark and get to like 1.008 or 1.007?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So, I guess the salinity in my QT tank was a little higher than in my main tank, and I’ve already added 1.2 gallons and 1.4 gallons of fresh water, bringing the salinity down to around 24-25 ppt. Do you know how much more water I should add to reach 1.012? Sorry, I don’t remember what is 1.012 in ppt?

I don’t have access to my conversion charts, but 1.012 is equal to about 16 ppt

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

What happens if i overshoot the mark and get to like 1.008 or 1.007?

You do NOT want to go below 1.009. It is a fine line between controlling ich and seeing reactions in the fish to low salinity.

 

[ILikeFish!]

5 water changes use equation #2
TV=10 gal
Sal=30.6 (for SG of 1.023)
Decrease to Salinity of 12 with 5 changes of water
Change in salinity each time should be about 3.7 (Delta Sal =3.72)
1st water change X=1.2 gal, Salinity change to 26.9
2nd water change X=1.4 Gal, Salinity change to 23.2
3rd water change X=1.6 gal, Salinity change to 19.5
4th water change X=1.9 gal, Salinity change to 15.8
5th water change X= 2.4 gal, Salinity change to 12.1

Never mind I figured it out