Hyposalinity make ich worse, fish is now bloated

[addiction]

I am quaranting two new fish in a 20 gal QT tank. One is a coral beauty angel and the other is a flamehawk fish. I bought them to add to my reef at some point, but wanted to QT them first. I have done lots and lots of reading on this web site and others, and it seems QT is the way to go.
The fish have been in the tank for seven days. The QT tank has been up and running with two mollies for a little over one month. I used water from my main tank to set this QT tank up. Current water readings are normal as I tested them tonight and two days ago as well. Temp is a consistent 77 degrees.
However, four days ago I moved a couple of rocks around so the flamehawk would have a place to perch away from the coral beauty's rocks. Well, this moving of the rocks must have stressed the coral beauty, because by the end of the night, he was showing signs of ich. As the week progressed, I slowly lowered my specific gravity down to begin hyposalinity. Each day I lowered it a bit from its original reading of 1.019. Tonight I made the final lowering 1.013 to hair under 1.010.
Well, the ich looks worse now than it did six hours ago and the flame hawk is getting those nasty white dots as well. The dots are small, like the tip of pinhead. From what I have read, I am very confident they have ich.
What concerns me the most is that my coral beauty is not eating at all tonight, but is beginning to appear bloated. Both pectoral fins strange too. Other than be covered with ich, the point where the pectoral fins attach to the body looks extremely red. Unless this is the normal coloration of coral beauty, I think something else is going wrong with this fish. It just does not seem like it should be that red in color.
What should I do? Wait it out for the hyposalinity to do its job? I am very concerned about the coral beauty. The
flamehawk is still eating well, but I fear he will soon progress to a point where he won't eat either (Yesterday the coral beauty was eating, today he is not and looks bloated).
Please help, I will do anything. I don't want to see the fish die. I am very discouraged because I thought I was doing the right thing by QT the fish.
Thanks in advance.

 

[beth]

Hyposalinity will not work until you have it down to 1.009...1.010 will not do. Also, hyposalinity and copper as well, will not work until the ick is in the free-swimming stage. Ick will not become free-swiming at this point [since you can still see them on your fishes' bodies].
Drop the SG down to 1.009. In the meantime, feed your fish food soaked in garlic. Additionally, visit our Disease Forum and read the 2 "stickies" at the top of that forum.
In fact, to better help you, I'm going to go ahead and move your thread over to the Disease Forum.

 

[addiction]

Thanks everyone. I treated my QT with copper and slower raised the SG to 1.014 as I believe my hydometer is just not accurate enough. I was afraid the bloating was coming from the SG being much too low (below 1.009) for the coral beauty and the fish was retaining water, causing the bloat. The coral beauty is still bloated quite a bit today, but now swimming around the tank and taking some small portions of food.
The white spots on both fish seem to have gone down. I am thinking the ich is at the stage where it now drops off the fish, and tries to cycle even stronger again. I hope the copper in the water will knock it out now.
I used a Seatest copper kit and while it is hard to read, I believe levels are somewhere between .15 and .20.
The flame hawk is doing much better than the coral beauty. He never seemed to come down with a full blown case of ich like the coral beauty did. The flame hawk also does not have any bloating.
Should I continue to bring my SG up? Why do you think my coral beauty is still bloated?
Maybe it is a internal baterial infection like you suggested TerryB. Could I use Melafix with the copper treatment I already began? I ask because my LFS is now closed and I already have Melafix at home with me?
Please respond.

 

[jlem]

Hey terry. why is it that you can't give advice without ripping on somebody. You and your buddy ripped on me when I made a joking comment,and here you are once again calling somebody a moron in different words. If you choose to moderate then do it with some professionalism, or don't do it at all. I don't care how old or how much of a expert you are. yes I am moderating you, one adult to another