hypo-salinity in my FOWLR.

[crazinezz978]

so, my tank came down with ich. it is a 75g w/30g sump. stocklist is:

4" niger trigger
4" clarkii clown
4" green bird wrasse
4" yellow tang
4" blue tang
4" juv blueface angel

the blueface and and blue tang have the white dots on them and the bird wrasse has some dots on his fins. so, i was wondering that if i take out all my inverts, would it be a good idea to drop my tanks salinity slowly down to say 1.018 and keep it there for a few weeks?.

thanks.

[crazinezz978]

also, will this kill my live rock?

thanks

[wshive]

You shouldn't do hypo in your main tank. It will kill all your inverts, including beneficial worms, pods, etc. in your live rock. Unless that's what you want. (Keep in mind if you do that, you will start a massive nitrogen cycle b/c of all the dead stuff.)

I suggest you read more about hypo salinity as an ich treatment. Yes, it is the most complete and effective treatment and is probably the least dangerous to your fish, but you need to understand the process and the disease before you do anything this drastic. I can tell you haven't done nearly enough research yet (not trying to be mean, promise! ) because a specific gravity of 1.010 is more in line with an appropriate level for ich treatment. 1.018 will probably do nothing. Probably.

I'll give you some basics guidelines, but it's no substitute for more thorough reading done on your part:

1. If you don't already have one, get a refractometer. At 1.010 (some say up to 1.012-3 will still work, which is probably true) you're really skirting the line. You're taking your SW fish beyond halfway to pure freshwater and you need to be accurate.

2. For the same reason above, do it slowly, .002 points per day, tops.

3. Raise your tank temp to the higher end of an acceptable range. 82 degrees would be good. This increases the life cycle speed of the ich and it will thus cycle through and die off more quickly.

4. Leaving your main tank devoid of FISH only will cause ich to die off b/c it ONLY hosts on fish. I've read research that says it takes 4-6 weeks for ich to be completely eradicated. Personally, I've reintroduced my fish in about two and half weeks and haven't had problems since, but understand that I knowingly took that risk. If you do what I did, make sure your fish are eating and healthy before potentially re-exposing them. It will help them survive if it turns out you jumped the gun too soon.

You should check wetwebmedia.com as there is some great information there as well as google "hyposalinity" and "ich life cycle" to study up on the procedure and disease. Good luck!

[Puffer Queen]

3. Raise your tank temp to the higher end of an acceptable range. 82 degrees would be good. This increases the life cycle speed of the ich and it will thus cycle through and die off more quickly.

[/B]

Higher tank temperatures have lower oxygen levels. Fish with ich have parasites in the gills which impair the fish's ability to breath/oxygenate. This is the reason the fish is breathing faster and is often found at the surface (higher oxygen at the surface) or near powerheads. Breathing faster (natural response), will cause an increase in the fish's metabolism rate which also increase the oxygen demand. Stress of the parasite increases the metabolic rate as well.....all this leads to further oxygen demand and need.

If you raise the temperature it will only spead up the life cycle a couple of days but at the expense of possibly causing the hypoxia (low oxygen in the fish) which could kill the fish.

You should leave the treatment tank at normal or slightly lower temperatures. The fallow or fishless tank temperature can be raised.

[billsreef]

Read some of the info from this sticky thread in the disease forum. In particular the first couple of links in that thread will be the most useful

Hypo needs to be maintained at 1.009-1.010 to be effective, some strains of cryptocaryon can survive 1.011. 1.018 will have no effect.