Keeping my LR alive through plague

[tankyou]

Suffering my first outbreak of ich. Have a 125 gal aquarium 55 gal fuge and tons of LR I wish to keep alive while I hypo the fuge and DT.
Think the rock will fill 2 to 3 30 gal trashcans. Will they survive with just airstones and water changes? What size air pump and how many airstones etc. does anyone think is required?
:help:

 

[tankyou]

I could remove my fish to a QT for hypo, but my QT is only 10 gal.
Fish are:
1 longnose butterfly
1 Flame Angel
2 Perculas
1 Potters Angel
1 Yellow Watchman
1 Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse
1 Royal Gramma
How large a QT is needed and since it would be uncycled how do I go about maintaining water quality, continuous changes?
Any ideas which option is best? :help:
Wouldn't you know i have to go to work in the morning. So far only my my butterfly has spots, but some of the others are flicking and rubbing. How fast do I need to act?

 

[chipmaker]

Use a QT tank to hypo the fish, not the fuge and DT. Leave fish in QT for 6 weeks and the cycle ofich will be broken and whats in the tank will fail to survive since there is not any hosts. No need to break entire tank down..

 

[lion_crazz]

You have so many fish that moving them to the display would be a very bad idea. You are going to have to do hypo in the display as you originally thought.
Your rock will survive fine in a trashcan. I would get a powerhead instead of an airstone, and possibly a heater or two to make sure the temp does not fluctuate.

 

[beth]

Absolutely do not hypo your Live rock. Its a simple solution. Get a large square rubbermaid container, fill it with 25% DT water and rest new SW and place your rock and inverts in this container along with enough PHs to keep water circulation movement throughout.
Then hypo your DT using a refractometer.
This sounds extreme, but its not as daunting as it sounds. You can't sacrifice hundreds of dollars by hypoing LR.

 

[tankyou]

Thanks Beth, LC, & chipmaker for your input and help.
Anyone know if my skimmer will work at the lower salinity? What about my LS (only about a 1" layer in the DT for aesthetics) should it go too? Just trying to avoid a cycle here when everything goes back together.

 

[kleener]

skimmers will even work in freshwater. all a skimmer does is foam fractionation. that is it dissolves solid organic waste BEFORE it becomes toxic ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite. In nature this accomplished by waves, wakes, reefs, and waterfalls

 

[lion_crazz]

A protein skimmer may not work as well in hypo, but it will still work.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by lion_crazz
A protein skimmer may not work as well in hypo, but it will still work.
Actually when I did hypo it did not produce foam, but still created an oxygen source.

 

[kleener]

if your bio load is lower during hypo (inverts, corals or any livestock, including live rock) removed, then your organic waste will be less therefor less skimming produced. same goes for less food offered and less waste produced by any corals including mucus discharge. so it os not the salinity it is the envioirment. remember a skimmer will not pull anything out of a new setup either because there is no bio-load present.

 

[tankyou]

Thanks for your help kleener, and I know you're well meaning, but I kinda think thats wrong.
I think bubble size (for lack of a better description) has more to do with physics and the SG of a fluid, than do other factors. I've seen that mentioned though not in so many words elsewhere in skimmer discussions, which is why I asked the question in the first place... sort of anticipating reduced skimmer efficiency, but not knowing to what degree.
From my own personal experience I can attest that when testing my new system with freshwater my skimmer only gurgled huge bubbles at me. I thought it was no good, until I was advised otherwise. Sure enough, as soon as I filled my outfit with saltwater, my skimmer started producing marvelously fine bubbles, in a

[hr]
system no less!
Not trying to argue, just thought you might want to know.

 

[kleener]

keep in mind what a skimmer is meant to do, it's sole purpose was designed to remove organic waste. depending on what type of skimmer (venturi, berlin, airlift etc.)you have they will all produce bubbles when enough air is introduced through them. the idea is to have this waste ride or hitchhike upon these bubbles or foam and be removed to an external collectin cup. my point being if there is limited waste being produced in your system then only a limited ampunt of waste can be removed. Boilogically speaking "foam fractioning" is a natural occurance in all live water enviorments. So back to the original question posted is will a skimmer still work in a hypo setting and the answer is yes it will however its efficciancy will be greatly dependant upon waste produced within that enclosed system. I admit that I have no proof that the salinity will or will not affect the effeciany of the skimmer, but does lower SG promote less waste? or does the removal of the inhabitants lower the waste? Either way I wish ouly luck in solving the ich issue which has plagued us all at one time or another.

 

[tankyou]

Thanks for the input and well-wishes Kleener.

 

[sepulatian]

Actually the reason the skimmer only works in salt and not fresh is that saltwater with a higher sg is heavier than the organic compounds. When the bubbles are going in a circular motion within a chamber it pushes all lighter materials to the top which are "skimmed" out in the overflow of the skimmer. When salinity is lower the water is less dense and particles sink, therefore not rising with the acumulation of bubbles. Skimmers (no matter what brand) do not skim in fresh, or brackish water.