Beth - Hypo Question

[soccer4life94]

I agree with you that performing hypo on incoming fish can only further reduce your ick risk. Im going to run a 10g Qt tank. Im going to use tank water and i have the filter floating in my sump until im ready to fill the 10g. I thought this would help "seed" the filter. Once the tank is cycled and up and going. How do i know the amounts to swap our with fresh water in order to lower the Salinity slowly. is it one gallon for one gallon a day or do i have to test...swap more...test til i find out how much lowers it by how much? Am I making any type sense at all? lol

 

[beth]

Basically, I say do small, but frequesnt increments. More than 1 gal a day. Try empting 4 gals for your size tank, then replacing it with fresh water that is declorinated and buffered, 1/2-gal at a time. Once you have replaced the 4 gals with the fresh water, then see how you are with the salinity level and proceed with removing more water as necessary. You want the whole process to take around 48 hrs.

 

[soccer4life94]

The process of lowering it over 48 hours? how long do you need to give them before lower the salinity again to the next level?

 

[beth]

I usually do a change, give it 20-30 mins, then, if the fish are doing fine, then do some more change out. Remember that fresh water is not as alkaline as salt, so you must be sure that the water you are adding is at the same pH that your fish are used to in the display.