Hyposalinity treatment help

[great_joe]

currently have a 170g fish only tank, residents are a sailfin tang, clown tang , lipstick tang, powder brown, 4 bannerfishes, porcupine fish, sharpnose puffer, clown trigger and a maroon clown......... the porcupine, bnnerfishes and the clown trigger have signs of ick on thier fins , i decided to gradualy lower sg to 1.010. Its been 4 days now and i noticed the spots on the bannershishes and porcupine seem to be speading.

Is there somthing wrong with the treatment? or is it just normal for this to happen? will uv lights help?.... What should i do.. any suggestion will be of great help.

[sw-addict]

I think you have to do something with the temp also try checking wetwebmedia plus ich plus hyposalinity

[cisco]

Hy
You have to drop it to 1.009, 1,010 is still to high. Yes the ich parasite does not like the cold and dies but so will your fish so lowering the temp is not a good idea, it will still take over 4 weeks for it to work some times 8 weeks, its a slow processand keep your eye on the PH.
all the best cisco

[rayjay]

Well, I'd have to recommend going even lower.
I've experimented and found that for my situation, I had to eventually lower it to 1.0075 and leave it for 5 weeks to be successful.
I had initially tried 1.010 and dropped to 1.0085 but still had a tank reoccurance after a couple months.
Now, after the 1.0075, I have apparent success.
______________________
ICQ #30079114
RAY'S REEF (http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/index.html)

[appellativo]

i had success dropping it down to 1.009 for six weeks (you could probably go slightly lower), temp at 78 (lowering temp slows the life cycle of ich and also allows more oxygen in the water, helping the fish). I also noticed that when I fed food soaked in freshly minced garlic, the ich would subside, and when I slacked off the garlic for a couple days, ich would seem more apparent. it is said that the garlic helps disguise the scent of the fish, making it harder for the parasite to locate the fish. i dont know if its true, but it sounds correct, and it worked for me. I also did frequent (every 3 days) water changes, siphoning the bottom, helping to reduce the number of free swimming parasites in the water.

I take it you dont have corals or motile inverts in your tank?

[great_joe]

yes purely fishes, i lowered sg to 1.008 at 80 f hope things will improve but m not realy tht sure bout the accuracy of the hydometer though, ts realy hard to get quality equiptment here in the philippines. garlic sounds good ,how exactly did soak em?
any hoot does anyone know the minimum salinity fishes can tolerate?

[great_joe]

yes purely fishes, i lowered sg to 1.008 at 80 f hope things will improve but m not realy tht sure bout the accuracy of the hydometer though, ts realy hard to get quality equiptment here in the philippines. garlic sounds good ,how exactly did soak em?
any hoot does anyone know the minimum salinity fishes can tolerate?

[appellativo]

you can go to the grocery store and get a garlic press and fresh garlic. peel the garlic, squeeze it in the press, and little garlic shreds will come out. put that in some tank water and soak food in it, then feed the food to your fish.

order a refractometer, myreefcreations.com has one for $50 shipped. (is that ok to say?)

[guitarfish]

Try these links:

Marine Ich (http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/marineich.html)

Saltwater Fish Disease and Treatment (http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47922)

You shouldn't need to go lower than 1.009, in fact, I've read that 1.010 will work, but they recommend 1.009 to allow for water evaporation. Do you have a refractometer calibrated with RO or distilled water? You should calibrate it close to the temp of the tank water, even if the refractometer is an ATC (auto temp) unit.

White spots occur several days after the parasite has attached, as they feed on fluids and grow. It doesn't necessarily mean you're SG isn't low enough. They should start dissipating though.

[bachtor]

yes, agree with guitarfish. Hypo works by preventing the cysts on the substrate from 'hatching'. It won't do anything to the ich already attached to the fish. This is normal.

Give it a week and it should clear up by then. I had a flame in QT that developed ich, and it took about 6 days for the last signs of ich to fall off after I reached 1.010. 3-4 weeks of hyop after this point, you should be OK.

HTH.

[great_joe]

1 week on hyposlinity there still no improvement, it seems to be geting worst. m gonna install uv sterilizer tom..... anyway i tried using garlic, it seems that all my fishes exept for the puffer and lion likes to eat freshly minced garlic.., Is it ok to feed them galic directly, or is it better to soak food in it?

[guitarfish]

Are you SURE you are measuring your SG accurately? Are you using a calibrated refractometer? A UV sterilizer may kill some of the parasites, but it can't kill them all. Garlic is like taking vitamins - it can improve the immune system, but it too won't kill ich.

Some people who make their own fish foods put garlic in it, I don't see why it would hurt. It just may be easier to get them to eat it in liquid form.

[appellativo]

you can feed garlic directly or indirectly. just be sure they are getting plenty of nutritious foods too. dont be discouraged, keep up the treatment and it will get better if youre doing it right. check and double check (get others to help you test, like your lfs or another local reefer) your salinity, keeping it 1.009. keep us updated.

[great_joe]

Finaly results results , i got a labgrade floating hydrometer.. turns out i was still running sg at 1.012 reduced it to 1.009 two days ago and the ick is finally retreating. im feeding garlic soaked foods, running the uv full time and currently a week and a half in hyposalinity. thanx for the advice , keep u posted.

BTW ive noticed some changes in the behavior of some of my fishes. ill post it on onother thread.

[guitarfish]

AWESOME !!! Feel a lot better now don't you? :)
I just started raising my fish out of hypo today, plan to do it over 5 days. Holding my breath!

[appellativo]

glad you have things under control. i was using a glass floating hydrometer and it consistently read SG at 1.023. six months after starting into the hobby i dug my swing arm hydrometer out of storage (I had one for a brackish tank before) and used it to double check my salinity. it read above 1.030!! I checked and double checked, trouble shooted, etc. and the #@$% glass hydrometer still read a steady 1.023. so no more glass ones for me. I bought a refractometer. I hope you have better luck with the glass than me!! >:(