opinions on hypo

[maxweljames]

Just wondering if there are any experimenters out there. Does anybody know the effects of hyposalinity on corals, anemonies, and other reef items(non-fish)? How low of salt levels can they handle, or on the opposite end how high of levels? Just a question. What have you guys heard, what do you know from experience, etc.
On a side note, I got another small clump of polyps from my father-in-law, and ended up with a small bit of substrate, I just found a baby conch that must have been with it. A nice little bonus crawing up my tank glass.

 

[ryebread]

Hyposalinity can not be performed with invertebrates of any kind in the tank. Inverts will die during such a rapid change in levels.
I don't know about the experimenting part.......I try to keep my levels where they should be.

 

[the claw]

Kind of an illogical experiment if you ask me, and darn right expensive. If you have spare cash though, or have corals you really don't want.....

 

[maxweljames]

Well, how about if you didn't drop the level like you would if you were treating ICK? What would happen if you dropped the levels over a period of say a couple of months. could anything in a reef survive. I agree, I tend to keep all my tanks riding in the green zone for anything I can test for. I guess this question stems from my love of nanos, the small nanos that is. The evaporation rate in small tanks with cooling fans, as most of them have, is huge. could a tank be brought down slow enough not to harm it's inhabitants. My father-in-law had his tang down to 1.004. during an ICK treatment and he said he thinks he could have gone all the way down to fresh water the fish was that heathy. If it could be done to a small reef tank, evaporation would not effect salinity or if it did it would be a tiny change. If I'm not careful with mine it will jump from 1.020 to 1.026 in a days time. Done rambling for now.

 

[nm reef]

That is one of the major problems with keeping a nano...evaporation can radically alter the SG and thats not good for inverts of any kind. Any rapid change in salinity can cause serious problems and unless you are specifically treating via hypo-salinity I'd suggest all steps be taken to mainatin a stable level.Its my understanding that even when using hypo-salinity for treatment purposes the changes up & down should be gradual and carefully monitored. Even for marine fish any sudden changes can be problematic.

 

[stacyt]

I've had a few hermits that went through hypo without any problems. I hypoed a 55 gallon tank, and missed a few items such as hermits, an emerald, and a couple of snails. The hermits survived, but the emerald, and snails diudn't last very long. I also did hypo on a couple of peices of LR that had aptasia on them. Didn't take long for them to die off. Since they are a form of anemone I would say the result would be the same for any anemone.