hyposalinity to treat ick in reef

[dawn]

After 1.5 years of no disease, I have ick in my tank. My tank is 90 gallons with a heniochus, 2 genicanthus angels, and 2 clowns. The clowns appear unaffected. As well I also have half a dozen corals, shrimp, crabs, and snails.

To treat the fish with the lowered salinity, I have two choices: put the fish in my 20 gallon mixing bucket (I could put the clowns in a different 10 gallon bucket they've done fine in before) or remove the corals and other inverts to different holding tanks while I lower the main tank. Except for a toadstool that's grown onto
the base rock, the inverts would be a lot easier to get out. Catching the two angels would be one
hell of a job.

What do people recommend?
thanks
Dawn

BTW, I had a quarantine tank setup but it's only a 10 gallon. I've stopped using it because I've lost more fish in it due to the size and problems keeping the water quality good enough. For the future I'm going to have to rethink my plans.

[billsreef]

Hi Dawn,

It is usually best to move the fish into a seperate tank for treatment. This tank can be as simple as a large rubbermaid vat with a sponge filter and heater. Do a search on quarantine tanks and you'll come up with several good threads with various ideas on set up.

[dawn]

I broke down and bought a 20 gallon yesterday. The three sick fish are in it with antiobiodics to treat the secondary infections. I did a fresh water dip which seemed to help and am lowering the salinity. Unfortuneatly my meter only goes as low as 1.010 and I can't find a more accurate one in Vancouver. I ordered one from Premium Aquatics to be sent to my american PO box (I'm in Canada) and am hoping I can get it Wednesday by taking the day off work (what we'll do for the friends in our care..). Until then, I can't lower it any more than 1.011 to be sure I haven't gone too low.

Of course this is all costing me more than the fish did but I really would hate to lose them and it's equipment I needed to buy anyways.

Wish my fish luck. My tank was looking so nice with them in there...
Dawn

[Aquamans Reef]

Get ozone and a uv sterilizer you'll never have to worry again. I should know. ;)

[stagedperformance]

There is this stuff called NO-ICH made by Fish- Vet Inc that works great! It is reef safe (all corals and inverts) and also will not affect you bacteria colonies in the tank. I have had great luck with this stuff and it works so incredibly fast!

Hope this helps :)

Steve

[billsreef]

Hi Steve,

Glad to hear No-Ich worked for you. Unfortunately it does not seem to work reliably for everyone though.