My Hyposaline Adventure... (so far)

[tankyou]

Originally Posted by Tinyfish
I have been reading your posts with interest. I am 10 days into my adventure. Everything was going well until yesterday when I could not find my six line wrasse. It had wedged itself into the live rock. When it came out, it was almost dead (breathing but that is all). He did not float but sank to the bottom. I am wondering whether I got my salinity down too far. My eyes are not that great and the gradations on my refractometer a pretty close. I had thought to isolate it and add just a tiny bit of dissolved salt but by the time I got everything ready, it was dead.
My other fish are fine though. I would relate my parameters but by testing everyday all my tests had run out.
Sorry about your wrasse, but if you're down only one fish going on ten days you're doing better than I did. What troubles me is that if you're doing hypo with liverock in, its prolly deadrock already ('cept for the denitrifying bacteria)! Standby for an ammonia spike. Also, if you don't know already, your refractometers eyepiece should have an adjustment whereby you can focus the image. just rotate the eyepiece till your scale comes in focus.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Tinyfish
I have been reading your posts with interest. I am 10 days into my adventure. Everything was going well until yesterday when I could not find my six line wrasse. It had wedged itself into the live rock. When it came out, it was almost dead (breathing but that is all). He did not float but sank to the bottom. I am wondering whether I got my salinity down too far. My eyes are not that great and the gradations on my refractometer a pretty close. I had thought to isolate it and add just a tiny bit of dissolved salt but by the time I got everything ready, it was dead.
My other fish are fine though. I would relate my parameters but by testing everyday all my tests had run out.
Tiny, you left your rock in???? It is dead by now. Damn, I wish you had posted about this. We would have told you that all rock needs to be removed prior to bringing the salt down........

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Tankyou
Sorry about your wrasse, but if you're down only one fish going on ten days you're doing better than I did. What troubles me is that if you're doing hypo with liverock in, its prolly deadrock already ('cept for the denitrifying bacteria)! Standby for an ammonia spike. Also, if you don't know already, your refractometers eyepiece should have an adjustment whereby you can focus the image. just rotate the eyepiece till your scale comes in focus.
How are your fish doing?

 

[tankyou]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
How are your fish doing?
Fine as froghair! Getting itchy to get 'em back in the display though. :jumping:

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Tankyou
Fine as froghair! Getting itchy to get 'em back in the display though. :jumping:
lol I hear ya tank!!!!! I am glad things went so well for you. You had a few bumps in the road, but we all do!!!

 

[tankyou]

Started bringing up salinity today!
Removed 10 gals hypo water, replaced with 5 gal. fresh, and 5 gal. seawater. SG 1.011

 

[tankyou]

Removed 5 gals hypo, added 5 gals seawater. SG 1.014.
I was wondering, since my QT should be (theoretically) free of ich now, is it okay to add the discarded water from it, to my DT to get used to the bioload? :notsure:

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Tankyou
Removed 5 gals hypo, added 5 gals seawater. SG 1.014.
I was wondering, since my QT should be (theoretically) free of ich now, is it okay to add the discarded water from it, to my DT to get used to the bioload? :notsure:
No because the disgarded water is very low in salinity. Have you been spot feeding your display to keep all of your biological bacteria alive? Also, has it been 6 weeks already for your display?

 

[tankyou]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
No because the disgarded water is very low in salinity.
I realize the salinity is lower, but we all add freshwater to counter evaporation ne 'est ce pas? I figure I can do the same with the discarded water making allowances for and monitoring salinity. :thinking:
Originally Posted by sepulatian
Have you been spot feeding your display to keep all of your biological bacteria alive?
Yes
Originally Posted by sepulatian
Also, has it been 6 weeks already for your display?
No, but close. Why would that matter? I'm not planning on reintroducing the fish for another couple of weeks, should be seven weeks by then.
Whadaya think?
Also, (and unrelated) what is the buddy list function for? What does it do?

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Tankyou
I realize the salinity is lower, but we all add freshwater to counter evaporation ne 'est ce pas? I figure I can do the same with the discarded water making allowances for and monitoring salinity. :thinking:
Yes
No, but close. Why would that matter? I'm not planning on reintroducing the fish for another couple of weeks, should be seven weeks by then.
Whadaya think?
Also, (and unrelated) what is the buddy list function for? What does it do?
Ok, why use your old hypo water for top offs, use fresh. It does matter if the tank has been fishless because ich can survive in a system without fish for 5 weeks, better to let it run fishless for 6. If it is going to be 7 then that is even better, but you posted that you are raising salinity. I was wondering if you were going to put the fish back in after the salinity was back to normal.

 

[tankyou]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
Ok, why use your old hypo water for top offs, use fresh.
Because I want to gradually increase the bioload on the tank, so I don't get a cycle when the fish are reintroduced.
Originally Posted by sepulatian
It does matter if the tank has been fishless because ich can survive in a system without fish for 5 weeks, better to let it run fishless for 6. If it is going to be 7 then that is even better, but you posted that you are raising salinity.
Yes, but the DT is gonna remain fishless for 7 weeks regardless..
Originally Posted by sepulatian
I was wondering if you were going to put the fish back in after the salinity was back to normal.
No. According to Beth, the fish are to remain in the QT for one week after salinity reaches norm. Why I don't know, but i was in the military so I'm good at following instructions.

Swapped out 5 gals. SG 1.018. Fish are acting a little logy, hope I'm not bringing up the salinity too fast!

 

[sepulatian]

When you raise it do a series of changes each day, bringing it up a point or two each time. If the water in your qt is good then you can scoop out some of the water. Add some saltier water (already prepared) and add it back in. Have a batch of water made up and disolved already. Take a little of it and add some qt water to dillute it as desired. You don't want to drop 1.020 water into 1.014 water. You want it to be just a little higher as you raise it.

 

[tankyou]

Oh crap, now i find this out!

I've been siphoning in 5 gallons of full strength 1.028 seawater into the QT via an air tube once daily over about a three hour period. What I've read about the reacclimation process has been none to specific; 'just spread it out over 4-7 days'. Guess I should have researched a little better. Oh well, I'm gonna be philisophical, this is a learning process right?
Just hope I haven't killed my fish already.
BTW, I don't make up seawater, I get mine from the ocean... thus the 1.028 SG
Thanks for all the help sepulation don't know how many other bone-headed moves I'd have made otherwise.

 

[tankyou]

Gramma gasping on surface. Brought salinity back down to 1.016. Hope the lowering of salinity didn't do more harm than good.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Tankyou
Gramma gasping on surface. Brought salinity back down to 1.016. Hope the lowering of salinity didn't do more harm than good.
He should be ok. Fish don't adjust as well to the salinity being raised as they do to it being lowered. Just go slow, everything should be alright. You have made it this far into the process!

 

[tankyou]

Gramma is dead; down to three survivors now. SG 1.022

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Tankyou
Gramma is dead; down to three survivors now. SG 1.022
I am so very sorry that you lost him.

 

[tankyou]

SG Has been back to normal since last Saturday. Since I only have three survivors, I broke down the 30 gallon bin and moved them to an old 15 gallon hex I had sitting around so I can better observe them before returning them to the DT.
Here's the thing; my DTs been fallow for seven weeks. I've had a juvenile Imperator Angel in a seperate qt for a month. During that time his appearance had been pristeen and his appetite and behavior normal. I put him in the display last Monday (1/15) and all of a sudden he didn't look so good, we thought we saw a couple of spots! Next morning he was covered w/ ultra tiny spots, smaller than what I had previously observed as ich, and the funny thing is they all or mostly disappeared within a few hours. I'm thinking it might be air bubbles trapped against his skin. Figuring that if it is ich, my DT has already been reinfected, so I left him in place for observation. Same pattern has reoccured a couple of times, spots in the morning disappearing as the day progresses till he appears flawless. But that alone is not what worries me, he has also been obsessively soliciting my cleaner shrimps, which have been very dutiful in accommodating him, especially giving his mouth and gills thorough goings over. I also saw him flash a couple of times. I finally had enough yesterday and removed him to quarrantine (seperate of course from my other fish), giving him a half hour F/W dip with methylene blue in the process, with an eye towards whatever might be infesting his mouth and gills. I did note a few black specks in the bottom of the dipping bowl once I removed the patient. Since removal to his QT the Imperator has evidenced no spots, he's eating greedily, and appears in all respects normal.
Question is, what should I do now? :thinking:
I'm thinking that if he continues to appear normal after a few more days, I might return him to the DT along with my other fish, and if they do become reinfected, just treating them all with copper as I must admit, I'm fairly disenchanted with the hypo-salinity method.

 

[molly05]

I don't know you remember my thread "ich come back" which I posted about 2 weeks ago or not. Here is my thread https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=246709. Anyway, after discussing with Beth, Sep, and Lion, I decided to low my SG to 10ppm or 1.006 instead of using the copper and it worked this time. My fish have no sign of ich for 2 weeks already. Next week I will start to raise the SG up a little bit and maybe I will keep the SG at 1.010 for a while. Be patient with hypo process. It will take longer than 6 weeks, I guarantee. If you want the treatment quick, go with copper.

 

[tankyou]

Had fish back in DT for four days now. Nevertheless hypotreatment has taken its toll. My flame angel & YW goby quit eating weeks ago pulled the flame out tonight back to qt to die as he has entered his death spiral and I don't want him dying in the rockwork.
YW still seems pretty spry despite not eating, but I'm not gonna get my hopes up.
Sole healthy survivor is one percula, who pretty much seems unfazed by the whole ordeal.
I'm wondering if I should have just quarantined those fish who were unaffected by ich (which was most of them), and hypo'd only those who were.
If I ever have another ich outbreak I'm going to try massive water changes within a qt, and failing that I'll try copper.
I now have 3 fish occupying my DT, the percula, the goby, and the imperator I had in a seperate qt.
The FW dip I performed on the imperator seems to have worked wonders.
Lesson learned; always quarantine your new fish
At least I cured my ich