Hyposalinity to sterilize ich in a reef?

[acromike]

Hello all

I recently posted a question regarding how to best get rid of dreaded ich once and for all in a reef without removing all of the fish.

I think I am going to remove all of the corals and inverts and go hypo salinity for a good 8 weeks.

Do you think this will rid tank of flukes and ich?

My total volume is 450 gallon
The tank is 300 gallon seemless bow. I am trying not to remove all of the fish and rock.
Maybe hypo is the way to go??

 

[Paul B]

That is supposed to work. If it were my tank I would use the heat treatment method which is very old school (like me) and virtually no one on here has ever heard of it (except me)
I didn't invent it. It was Robert Straughn (The Father of Salt Water Fish Keeping) and my mentor.
If you are going to remove the fish and corals anyway. You can put some aquarium heaters in there and heat the water to about 125 degrees for a few hours. Then allow it to cool, put everything back and then have a nice glass of Merlot. The parasites (and any worms) will die and the bacteria will be fine. I have done this a few times but I can see the faces now of al the Noobs cringing.
It's just an idea if you want to try it.
If you do this (and I doubt you will) keep the water circulating.

 

[Humblefish]

Sometimes hypo works to eradicate ich, sometimes it doesn't. Yambot discovered two strains of ich in 2003 that he was able to successfully propagate in the laboratory at 1.007. (Source here) So, encountering one of those two strains will probably lead to hypo failure.

If you decide to try hypo in the DT: (1) Use a perfectly calibrated refractometer and keep the SG at 1.009 at all times. Some fish will tolerate 1.008, some won't. (2) Keep an eye on your ammonia in case too much bacteria die off. (3) You will probably need to continuously buffer the pH.

 

[Deinonych]

^^^
In addition to the above, an ATO is absolutely critical to maintaining the correct SG. The fact that you have a large tank will make maintaining SG much easier.

 

[acromike]

Hello humble fish

I have been doing hypo salinity now for about one week. The fish seem better. I still see some white dots but nowhere as many as they had before starting hypo salinity

My level is 1.009

I have no ammonia and my ph is stable

My total water volume is 450 gallons

So there is a lot of volume here

I was thinking of staying with hypo salinity for two months

I would the. Gradually bring water back up to
1.026 over a period of five days

I want to make sure I am ich free

From then on all new fish and coral will be qt

Do you think 8 weeks at hypo salinity will kill all ich

 

[Humblefish]

Do you think 8 weeks at hypo salinity will kill all ich

The odds are in your favour, assuming all your fish can survive 8 weeks in hypo conditions. Just like with copper, some fish can begin to have an adverse reaction to hypo the longer they're in it.

I would also bring up the SG more slowly by topping off with SW until you reach 1.026.

 

[acromike]

Ok so we really don't know the optimal duration for killing ich (assuming we do not have a hypo salinity resistant strain of ich). I am not really sure how long to go. I will monitor and if the fish tolerate it I will stay the course. Making sure they get optimal nutrition all along.

 

[Humblefish]

Ok so we really don't know the optimal duration for killing ich (assuming we do not have a hypo salinity resistant strain of ich).

72 days is the longest recorded time it took for all the theronts to be released from a group of tomonts (Colorni and Burgess 1997). Taking the other life stages into account, you would need to treat with hypo for 76 days to eradicate this particular strain. Assuming, of course, it is not hypo resistant.

 

[acromike]

Does anyone know how long our fish can tolerate hyposalinity. I lost blueheaded wrasse: it looked like a super healthy fish it just died. Not sure why maybe the hyposalinity? Ammonia is not an issue


Not sure what happened to it

 

[Humblefish]

Does anyone know how long our fish can tolerate hyposalinity.

Its the same as copper. Most fish handle 30 days just fine, but more than that can get dicey. However, some fish cannot handle hypo at all - same as copper. If you start seeing lethargy, appetite
suppression, etc. at any time then it's time to seek out an alternative treatment.

 

[acromike]

hmm my interruptus is a lot more lethargic than its baseline. it is used to be a fish that was out all of the time. now i see it hiding in rocks more. it comes out to feed but doesn't swim the tank as much.

my gem tang has some funky thing happening to the top of its dorsal fin. i think it could be related to hypo or to the diet. i am trying to feed fish very good.

fish seem to be free of spots now. i am day 13 of hypo salinity. i don't know if I can make 72 days though. i hope that 30 days will kill the ich in this tank

 

[acromike]

i think 30 days is going to be challenge. I am going to go for 30 days at a minimum. If the fish look good then I will press on. Oddly enough I have a hermit crab that is alive. I thought I got all of the inverts out. the hermit crab is moving around. It survived 13 days of hypo salinity

 

[Humblefish]

i think 30 days is going to be challenge. I am going to go for 30 days at a minimum. If the fish look good then I will press on. Oddly enough I have a hermit crab that is alive. I thought I got all of the inverts out. the hermit crab is moving around. It survived 13 days of hypo salinity

Hermits are pretty tough. Yes, 30 days of hypo is all most fish can seem to tolerate.