Hypo treatement

[scarface]

Ok ive read enough about hypo so much that im confident ill be able to do this and suceed. My only problem with this is i have a mandarin and dont know what to do about it with its food source? I cant leave it in the tank cause I need the dt to be fishless for 6 weeks, any suggestions??? :thinking: :help:

 

[aw2x3]

You'll have to set up a separate tank, for the Mandarin, if it's not eating frozen. Pods will die off, during a hypo treatment.

 

[beth]

Mandarins don't really need to be hypo-ed. What are you doing exactly?

 

[scarface]

i plan on taking all the fish out of my display tank and put them in a qt tank but by doing that im taking away the mandarin's food source. I could ask the lfs if I can leave him there while i Hypo since my display tank is full of the ich parasite

 

[beth]

I'm assuming your display tank has LR? Just leave the mandarin in the display, and hypo the other fish in the QT.

 

[scarface]

what about the ich in the display tank, I thought that it needs a host to live and wouldnt the mandarin be the host? So when i reintroduce my fish from the qt back to my display there is a possiblity that ich will still be lurking and reattach itself to my fish?

 

[beth]

No, mandarins have a natural immunity to this parasite. Leave him in the display. It is very unlikely that this species of fish will host ich.

 

[scarface]

ok beth thanks alot...I would like to ask you a question about hypo---is it normal for the fish just to hover and hide while reducing the salinity? The fish is still eating but seems tired, I guess from the salt drop?

 

[scarface]

also another question that I was thinking about. Before I performed the hypo treatement, a week ago my regal angel was put in the qt with copper treatment. My question is that since I am not doing a copper treatment this time around for the rest of the fish and doing hypo will there be copper in the equipment? I know it stays in the silicone of the tank but like when I use the tubes to test the qt water, can I use the same test tube to use in my dt or will copper leak to my dt via the test tube, as with buckets, hoses and such? Just curious because after treatment I would like to put back the power head into my dt but not too sure if copper will say in the p/h?

 

[beth]

Rinse them out well. It should be ok.

 

[mbrennan]

Based on what I've read and experienced, certain species of copepods can withstand a wide range of salinity. The population may be thinned, but should return rapidly.

 

[scarface]

ok im into my 2nd day of hypo treatment (excluding the other 2 days it took take down the salinity) and my nitrities is .7 and my ph keeps falling, and ive use the seachem ph buffer to bring it back up. I've read that u would have to conitue monitoring the ph during hypo but how frequent is the ph suppose to drop? Also since this qt is about a week old am I going to have to battle with a cycle? I've used the water from my dt, 2 cups of ls and some rubble from my lr method to hopefully kick start the bio filtration but im afraid I might lose the battle of the nitrites and my fish will die?!!? Ive also been changing out about 1 gallon from the 10 qt gallon tank and replacing it half of the water from my dt and half r/o water to keep the salinity at 1.009. Also re: the salinity ive read conflicting information to keep it at 1.009 and 1.008 which one would be correct, because currently i have it at 1.009. Sorry for all the rambiling and questions but I need my fish to make it through! Thanks for the help

 

[milomlo]

I am no expert at all. However I just finished hypo w/ a coral beauty that I bought with ich. I found that doing daily water changes it kept the ammonia and such down and I personally had no issues w/ PH. The one time it was a little low I added a small amount of buffer.

 

[scarface]

Thanks for the response milomlo. Was ure qt tank cycled or did u have to do an emergency setup due to your coral beauty having ich? I had to set mine up on an emergency basis about a week and 2 days ago, so it hasnt fully cycled yet im assuming even with my dt water and the lr rubble and ls, but i know anything that was in the sand or rocks is probably dead now due to the salinity being so low, speaking of that what did you keep it at? 1.009 or 1.008?

 

[milomlo]

No it wasn't an already cycled tank. When I set it up I did use some DT water to initially set it up. I lowered the salinity to 1.009 and it was there or at 1.008 the whole time. I used AmQuel to help keep ammonia down if I wasn't around to do water changes and I also used ammonia reducer in the filter w/ carbon as well.
I suggest you just do water changes daily or every other day if possible to help keep the tank from shooting into a cycle. I also had soaked a sponge in my sump to get some bacteria there but who knows if it works or not.
I got to where I only did water changes once or twice a week. You can also use a product called cycle if you want. Not sure how well it works but I did use some. But again I tried to do frequent water changes to keep ammonia, trites, and trates down as much as possible. Every time I did a 5 gallon water change on the 10 gallon tank.