hyposalinity

[tyrfing]

So if I treat velvet or ich on my fish using hyposalinity, I still have to transfer my 75 lbs of live rock and all my invertebrates to something? What? Won't whatever caused my fish to be sick be in any water I would transfer the rock and invertebrates to?
What happens if the rock dies off? Can I re-seed it somehow? If I risk transferring ich or some other problem back to my tank when I put the LR back, wouldn't it just be better to let everything die off and start over? I know that sounds harsh, but I'm trying to come to a point of comprehension. Thanks

 

[beth]

First, hypsosalinity only treats ick. It does not treat velvet or other types of protazoa.
Next: Why make things so complicated with moving the rocks out? Move the fish out. How many fish do you have?? Setup a hospital tank for the fish and move them. And, yes, you are right, you can transfer the ick from the rock to wherever you place them, so this is not something you want to do--unless you are going to place the rock in a strictly non-fish tank or in temporary buckets. Additionally, you can not expose LS to hyposalinity. Do you have Live Sand? How about inverts? Inverts can not tolerate hypo.
How much rock and how many fish are you talking about?? What type of system to you have now, and what is the problem you are experiencing??

 

[beth]

I just picked up on your other post from yesterday so I got the bigger picture, but you're not sure what you have? Ick or velvet? Probably not velvet, or all fish would be dead or dying by now.....
No, leave your reef tank alone. You need to move the fish in your tank to a hospital.
Good you have a hospital tank ready to set up. Now, do a complete water change in that hospital tank and, if the water quality from your main tank is good, use it for your hospital tank. What are you using for circulation and filtration on the hospital? How big is the hospital? Big enough for all your fish? You can do daily water changes in the hospital to keep it from cycling if necessary.
You need to give some specifics about the disease you are dealing with before a treatment course can be offered. What are the symptoms? Ick looks like white salt like dots sprinkled on fish body. Velvet has a powdery appearance with the “powder” having a dusted appearance on fish body. You can treat either disease with cooper, but if you are dealing with ick, it is better to treat it with hyposalinity. You can not treat your reef tank with either hyposalinity or copper. The fish MUST be removed to a hospital tank. In the absence of fish, the protozoa in the main tank will die off.
[ December 31, 2001: Message edited by: Beth ]

 

[tyrfing]

Beth, you are a goddess. Thanks, you answered nearly all of my questions. My original plan was to move the livestock to a hospital tank, but it isn't done cycling. I'll take out the present water and replace with big system water.
My concerns were with the protozoans, my thought was, why move everything if the PR's are still in the H2O, explaining that without a host, they will die helps.
Lost my antennatae Lion today. He had cloudy eye and yesterday started to labor in his breathing. Went to dip him and he just shocked out. Clowns and damsels and small lion handled everything fine.
Big Lion had a haze all around him today, like it just came on. clowns are showing black and white dots on their heads. Russells Lion looks fine. Neon damsel is fine. How did this get in to the tank? I haven't added livestock for 4 weeks, although I just put in some LS last week.
Thanks again for the info. Transferring the guys to the 20 gallon hospital tank seemed smarter, but I kind of got turned around with the LFS.
Happy New Year, and thanks!

 

[beth]

Which do you have, ick or velvet??? It must be ick because velvet would have killed off all your fish by now. Can you give some symptoms so that my advise here is not a stab in the dark?
Also, it sounds like the clowns may have black spot disease too? Black spot is treated with FW dips or formalin bathes.
Too bad about the lionfish. cloudy eyes is a common symptom of a disease going on, and not neceassily a bacterial infection either. You see this all the time as a prelude to parasites.
A new fish addition 4 wks ago could certainly have introduced ick into your system. Ick can also come in on your rock. That is why it is best to not only QT fish, but also QT LR as well.

 

[tyrfing]

Really the only symptoms I have are the white spots on the head of the clown with tiny black dots. Everyone is eating like crazy. The Antennatae Lion never did eat, although my hermit crabs and cleaner shrimp have disappeared. I figure he must have been pretty weak.
He looked terrible. Cloudy eyes, today looked like his scale were peeling. Had white blotches all over his body. That's really it. Haven't introduced any LR, but like I said, LS just a bit ago.
Whey I FW dipped the clown, he was okay, but the Lion shocked out right away and never recovered. Will move everyone tomorrow morning (tank is at the office).