hyposalinity

[h2oski]

Hi- I have a bit of an ick problem right now on my regal tang and copperband B/F. I am interested in trying to lower the salinity but need to know how low to take it, over what period of time and for how long. I also have a ocellaris clown, a lemonpeel angel,a cleaner shrimp, and 10 snails. My UV ster. has thus far prevented any noticable spread.
Thanks

 

[rob 10737]

If it's a FO bring it down to 1.009 for 2 weeks. This should kill all the parasites, then bring it back up. You might want to keep it around 1.011 to avoid any futher outbreak. Your fish will be fine at that level.

 

[jacrmill]

from what ive read you are supposed to lower it slowly to 1.009. you would leave it there for a little over 3 weeks. since you have a UV sterilizer and a cleaner shrimp mayber they could take care of it themselves. you could try feeding them garlic too. maybe someone else can help you more, ive never had ich just telling you what ive read.
[ May 20, 2001: Message edited by: jacrmill ]

 

[kdlbem]

We're using hyposalinity righ now because of SUPER-ICK that have been resistant to Rid-Ich(garbage ) and copper(Don't even understand that ). So I dropped the salinity by doing 5gal. water changes, 3 times a day(on a 75 gal tank with 15or20gal in the sump, 5gal. dropped it 1 to 1-1/2 pts each time). It took 4 or 5 days to get it to 1.009, but it's been there a week exactly, and the flame angel is back to normal. The powder blue tang still has "bumps" around the back of his eye, but they look different now. The raised bumps look more like the fish's flesh than the little white bumps it had before . All the other fish are doing just fine with the sal. drop. I will leave it at 1.009 for two more weeks, and bring it back up over a couple of weeks to 1.021- 1.022. If you do use hyposalinity, get the inverts out FIRST.
HTH,
B
[ May 20, 2001: Message edited by: KDLBEM ]
[ May 20, 2001: Message edited by: KDLBEM ]

 

[pufferlover]

I have done hypo 3 times over the last few months and it has worked every time. Trey had a step by step he posted me that was easy to follow (Trey hope you kept it for the possible archives). In my case tho .1009 did not work but at .1007 bango ick fireworks. I did find that you have to go at least 3 weeks and 4 is better. I am doing it now on my stars and stripes puffer who resisted the med I tried but the hypo has him happy go lucky again. I have found that on smooth skinned fish such as Dogs the hypo works better then any med out there (and frankly better then garlic, but thats another story).

 

[paulytee]

My run-ins with ich(tangs,esp.) was cured by a quarantine tank along with a copper treatment(main tank)and a freshwater dip for each fish. I didnt have to worry about inverts and killing them with copper since it was a FO tank, but now I started a reef tank, so I need to do more research! My reading(education-books,etc.) taught me quite a bit and I tried all the 'healing' combinations!
Trey-if you get some time to post, I'm interested in how the garlic oil treatment is done and how it works. Thx!