Hyposalinity in a Display, A Terrible Idea?

[Hugh Mann]

While I was on the phone with my lfs discussing urchins, I had what is best described as a 'Shower Thought' to maybe solve my ich problem. Why don't I just hyposalinity my display tank to eradicate the ich? Yeah, I'd have to pull my two frags along with all my inverts, which may be tricky in the case of the nassarius snails, and put them in quarantine for 80ish days, which would suck and likely kill most of them. But then I would have an ich free display.

Some immediate things that came to mind, in addition to the removal of inverts.

Mass die off of bristle worms. I don't know how many are in there, but I know they are there. Enough die fast enough could lead to ammonia spike.

Extinction of copepod population. Not that big a deal as I don't have mandarins, but I'm guessing I'd have to buy cultures to rebuild the population.

Would hyposalinity eliminate or reduce the biofilter? I only have 4 fish, but still might be an issue.

How would the algae be affected? Coralline, green, film, hair, bryopsis, bubble. Would it reduce or kill it all off?

Would hypo also kill all the aiptasia in there? Could that add to a potential ammonia spike or them spewing junk into the water as they die?

How hard is maintaining, I believe it is 1.009sg for a month? Never done hypo before.

Is hyposalinity harmful to eels? I haven't read anything about it being dangerous, and is probably a great deal safer than copper.

I'm certain there is a reason people don't do it over going fallow, but I don't know enough to know why.

And to head off questions of why not do TTM or other treatment and fallow. Because of Canada's stupid laws I can't get any of the good medications. The only thing I have is copper, which will kill my eel. I don't trust myself not to botch TTM again. Nowhere to keep my fish comfortable and happy while my display waits out the fallow period. I have read far too many threads about 80+ day fallow failing.

My only other option, which is what I am currently planning is manage the ich until I set up my 230 Gallon. Hypo the fish in some sort of set up, and once done move them into the 230. Pray there was no cross contamination.

 

[josephxsxn]

I'm certain there is a reason people don't do it over going fallow, but I don't know enough to know why.

Only reason I wouldn't have tried somthing in my display tank is I have far to many corals and inverts to move into another tank. It was simpler to catch all the fish by removing my liverock quickly, catching them into a QT tank, and putting the rock back. Of course I have alot of dosing etc so at this point the display tank is really my only suitable coral biome.

 

[Hugh Mann]

I've got two small frag of star polyp, 5 nassarius, 1 margarita snail, 2 bumblebee snails, a tuxedo urchin and 7 hermit crabs. Hard part would be keeping all that alive. Currently having a 20 gallon cycling, but probably not enough, especially with the urchin, and not being anywhere near a mature tank.

 

[vetteguy53081]

In a seperate tank, yes. In display - no

 

[ThRoewer]

Very bad idea! I tried it in a jawfish tank after coming home from vacation and finding everyone with Ick. I removed the inverts and algae but didn't think about worms and all those other critters living in the thick sand bed. The ammonia spike killed everyone before I even realized what was happening.

Hypo needs to be done in a dedicated tank, ideally one that had been cycled at the target salinity.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

While I was on the phone with my lfs discussing urchins, I had what is best described as a 'Shower Thought' to maybe solve my ich problem. Why don't I just hyposalinity my display tank to eradicate the ich? Yeah, I'd have to pull my two frags along with all my inverts, which may be tricky in the case of the nassarius snails, and put them in quarantine for 80ish days, which would suck and likely kill most of them. But then I would have an ich free display.

Some immediate things that came to mind, in addition to the removal of inverts.

Mass die off of bristle worms. I don't know how many are in there, but I know they are there. Enough die fast enough could lead to ammonia spike.

Extinction of copepod population. Not that big a deal as I don't have mandarins, but I'm guessing I'd have to buy cultures to rebuild the population.

Would hyposalinity eliminate or reduce the biofilter? I only have 4 fish, but still might be an issue.

How would the algae be affected? Coralline, green, film, hair, bryopsis, bubble. Would it reduce or kill it all off?

Would hypo also kill all the aiptasia in there? Could that add to a potential ammonia spike or them spewing junk into the water as they die?

How hard is maintaining, I believe it is 1.009sg for a month? Never done hypo before.

Is hyposalinity harmful to eels? I haven't read anything about it being dangerous, and is probably a great deal safer than copper.

I'm certain there is a reason people don't do it over going fallow, but I don't know enough to know why.

And to head off questions of why not do TTM or other treatment and fallow. Because of Canada's stupid laws I can't get any of the good medications. The only thing I have is copper, which will kill my eel. I don't trust myself not to botch TTM again. Nowhere to keep my fish comfortable and happy while my display waits out the fallow period. I have read far too many threads about 80+ day fallow failing.

My only other option, which is what I am currently planning is manage the ich until I set up my 230 Gallon. Hypo the fish in some sort of set up, and once done move them into the 230. Pray there was no cross contamination.

What you are describing is “damaging the tank’s microbiome”. If the tank has been set up for a long time, the permutations would be pretty serious. Adding chloroquine to an old tank has the same effect, I’ve done it and it wasn’t pretty.
If you drop the SG slowly, over weeks, the die off would be in stages and not overwhelm the nitrifying bacteria. I think Aiptasia can survive hypo. What species of eel do you have? Some can be run through copper and others just go off their feed for a bit.
Jay

 

[ThRoewer]

... Because of Canada's stupid laws I can't get any of the good medications. ...

Once things are back to "normal", make a day trip to or longer vacation in the US to stock up on the "good stuff" to bring home (unless they search you at the border).
Alternatively, find a doctor or better veterinarian that will prescribe you the Rx medications you need for your fish.

 

[Hugh Mann]

It's a greyfaced moray, also known as a white eyed. Pretty uncommon, I have found hardly any information on them. Only seen one other person with one on R2R.

Sounds like I got the information I was looking for. I figured it wouldn't work. By the sounds of it, if I went this route I'd either kill everything or take so long I might as well stick with my current plan. Or divert resources from the 230 build to set up an inbetween. I'm sure I could just use rubbermaids like I did with my eel back when I had velvet, but that was a giant pain in the butt.

I have called every vet in the province asking about prescriptions for fish. 50% of them actually laughed at me, 49% said no, and one I talked to said I'd have to bring the fish in for examination. Pretty sure they were joking. Even my lfs is having a hard time and are digging into their old stockpile.

Interesting idea about a US visit to totally not smuggle fish Meds into the country. Might have to wait until 2025 the way things are going, but not a terrible idea. I saw on a different thread about a fellow ordering and shipping from a US site and it making it through. My coppersafe was shipped from the US via Amazon, but took almost 3 months.