Fish in hyposalinity

[sfaloha]

My 3 fish (1) heniochus (2) clownfish are in hypo right now. I just ended my first week. I add amquel + for ammonia control and have a slow drip cooked baking soda/ro mixture dripping to control pH. They are in a 30 gallon tank.
Sometimes the heni's colors would fade. When I turn the lights on his colors come back to normal. He also twitches every now and then but he still swims and eats really good.
I bought my clowns from 2 different places and they are not mated and one is a lot smaller than the other.
The smaller clown (nemo) hides but swims around every now and then and eats a little bit.
As for the larger clown (marlin) he always hides in the PVC pipe and occasionally goes to the top of the tank. His breathing seems to be a lil fast and has not really eaten. He use to eat a lot when I first got him but it's obvious he's sick and stressed.
The larger clown showed this same symptoms in the DT before I moved them into QT. Only difference was that she did not have any ich spots like the heni and the smaller clown.
I soak their food in garlic extrat and zoecon but the larger clown goes up to the food and turns away. The smaller clown will eat a small amount and the heni eats everything in its path.
I do 50% water changes on Tuesdays and Fridays and siphon the left over food and poop the days in between to keep the ammonia low.
I will be very surprised if the larger clown pulls through during 4 week + hypo treatment.

I'm not too sure what to do here.

 

[beth]

What are your current water readings, including pH?
What size is your QT?
What, and how often are you feeding?
What are you using for water movement in the QT?

 

[sfaloha]

Originally Posted by Beth
http:///forum/post/3178336
What are your current water readings, including pH?
What size is your QT?
What, and how often are you feeding?
What are you using for water movement in the QT?
Ack my current readings are HIGH! I've only been checking pH and ammonia. I kinda had a feeling it would be high which is why I use Amquel+ every 24 hours. I better start doing 50% water changes every other day. QT is a 30 gallon.
pH 8.4
Nitrite 1.0
Ammonia .25
Nitrate 40
I feed twice a day. Spectrum A+ pellets in the morning and mysis shrimp in the evening. I soak both with selcon and garlic extract.
As far as water movement goes I only have a HOB filter. Should I add a powerhead? I have a maxijet 1200 not being used right now.

 

[reefjunkiee]

Originally Posted by sfaloha
http:///forum/post/3178506
Ack my current readings are HIGH! I've only been checking pH and ammonia. I kinda had a feeling it would be high which is why I use Amquel+ every 24 hours. I better start doing 50% water changes every other day. QT is a 30 gallon.
pH 8.4
Nitrite 1.0
Ammonia .25
Nitrate 40
I feed twice a day. Spectrum A+ pellets in the morning and mysis shrimp in the evening. I soak both with selcon and garlic extract.
As far as water movement goes I only have a HOB filter. Should I add a powerhead? I have a maxijet 1200 not being used right now.
ammonia at .25 is the total ammonia which is not high, the free ammonia is probably undetectable. trites are a little high, but should not be toxic with what you are dosing with. i do a large water change every day to every other day. i can;t wait until my fish can go back in the display.

 

[deejeff442]

definitly add the ph.you really dont need to feed twice a day this will add to the ammonia problem..25 although being low will still affect stress on the fish.the trick is to get the fish through the first week of hypo when the ich is visible.usually once the ich drops and the hypo kills it off the fish recover.its the water quality that needs to be kept in check.i've had fish tangs especially covered head to tail with ick and got them through the weeks and they were fine.i always keep a qt running.
good luck fish are pretty tough just need some help sometimes.

 

[sfaloha]

Originally Posted by deejeff442
http:///forum/post/3178697
definitly add the ph.you really dont need to feed twice a day this will add to the ammonia problem..25 although being low will still affect stress on the fish.the trick is to get the fish through the first week of hypo when the ich is visible.usually once the ich drops and the hypo kills it off the fish recover.its the water quality that needs to be kept in check.i've had fish tangs especially covered head to tail with ick and got them through the weeks and they were fine.i always keep a qt running.
good luck fish are pretty tough just need some help sometimes.
The ich spots went away as I started to drop salinity. I'd say after day 2 at 1.009 SG the ich spots were totally gone. Should I feed them day or night.
Also looks like the heni's right eye is cloudy now.

Any additives I should add to treat that or just keep on feeding soaked (selcon and garlic) food?

 

[deejeff442]

i feed my fish when ever i get the chance everyday.i work construction so its a different time everyday.
good that the ich dropped.i like to keep hypo at 1.008 instead of 1.009 .its too hard to keep an eye on evaporation at that level and dont seem to harm the fish at all at 1.008.as long as the ich is not visible give it 4 more weeks and you should be good to go.the dt needs 5 weeks empty of fish anyway.
i like to feed my fish once a day with food and evey other with nori.
i add zoe to the food .i dont change thier diet if they are healthy or sick.
if the fish are eating i dont bother with the garlic.

 

[sfaloha]

My salinity is at the lower side of 1.009 . Good news is that I bought a K1 black friday deal at my LFS and marlin came out of hiding. Looks like marlin is eating 1 or 2 pellets so that looks to be good. As far as heni he's eating still and swimming around despite the faded colors and pop eye.
I bought some melafix for heni's eye. Is it ok to use this stuff when using amquel +? I plan to add when I do a 50% water change tomorrow.

 

[reefjunkiee]

Originally Posted by sfaloha
http:///forum/post/3179196
My salinity is at the lower side of 1.009 . Good news is that I bought a K1 black friday deal at my LFS and marlin came out of hiding. Looks like marlin is eating 1 or 2 pellets so that looks to be good. As far as heni he's eating still and swimming around despite the faded colors and pop eye.
I bought some melafix for heni's eye. Is it ok to use this stuff when using amquel +? I plan to add when I do a 50% water change tomorrow.
you need to get a free ammonia test, or buy a seachem ammonia badge that reads free ammonia. that is the toxic form of ammonia. at .25 of total ammonia it's doubtful you will have detectable free ammonia, and will not harm the fish. yes you can use amquel, i perfer prime, but they both do that basic thing turn nh3 to nh4 which is a non toxic form of ammonium.

 

[sfaloha]

I think I screwed up. When I woke up this morning heni was breathing fast and he did not want to eat. He's moving slow now and not swimming around like normal. He also has 1 white dot by his eye which looks like it may be ich again. I left the window open last night to air out the room. The IV drip of baking soda mixture was also slow dripping. I'm thinking that the fish OD'd of pH. I did a 50% water change and added melafix for heni's cloudy eye. Not sure what to do now.

 

[sfaloha]

UPDATE: heni looks better now and he's swimming and eating like usual. I think the big water changes are getting to him. I have opted to do 5 gallon water changes everyday so there are no big swings. The melafix took the cloudy eye away for 1 day but it appears to have come back. I'll continue to treat with melafix.
I also bought the seachem ammonia alert and it's in the safe levels so that's good news.