Hyposalinity in a 72 Gallon

[tman23]

Not too long ago I converted my 72 gallon into a saltwater tank. Currently, it houses 2 ocellaris clownfish, a chromis (blue/green i think), a tang (supposed to be powder brown, but I have doubts), and a cleaner shrimp. There may possibly be an emerald crab hiding, and I think an additional oscellaris clown has died in the tank. I put the tang in Tuesday, and BAM! about 2 days later I saw it covered in what i think to be ich (I'm pretty sure).

I need to take out the cleaner shrimp... but there are some brown polyp things that came on LR, tiny mushrooms, and feather duster/tube worm things which I can stand to lose doing hypo (but I hate to lose the feather duster/ tube worm things).
There are also some other hitch-hikers I don't mind losing.
Since the invert loss won't be too bad, I am considering doing hypo salinity to try and take care of the ich.



I'm hoping since the tank is fairly large, that the specific gravity won't be impossible to keep close to 1.011.

How gradually should I bring the salinity/specific gravity down, and how long should i keep it there?
Any reason why I should not do this?
Is there a chance the tube worms will make it?


Another thing... I've been treating 2 tangs (a small hippo, and a not so big sailfin) with coppersafe for roughly 2 weeks (they came from a different tank). I'm considering putting them in the 72 for the hyopsalinity treatment so I can watch them in the tank, and so I don't have to keep doing water changes on the quarantine.
Any reason why I shouldn't put the tangs in?

[Mr.Peanut]

You will have alot of die off. Maybe more than you want to deal with. Doing the hypo in a smaller tank is easier in every way. For one, you are going to go thru a ton of salt when its time to bring it back up. second, if you have a sudden ammonia spike in a 72 gallon tank, it will take a large w/c to get things in line. A 10g tank or a 20 would be more manageable.

Here is a link to a "how to hypo" thread I posted a few months ago.
ich-126949.html" target="_blank">http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f1...a>-126949.html

Good Luck.

[tman23]

Would this kill the beneficial bacteria?

[tman23]

if hypo is not the best way... then what would be? ...other than removing every fish.
Not cool to have ich in a fairly new tank

[jenglish]

Hypo will damage beneficial bacteria.... quite a bit if not totally reset bacteria. Copper will do the same and ruin the rock as well. THere is no ich treatment proven to be effective that can be done in the display which is what makes quarantine so important.

[Mr.Peanut]

Originally Posted by tman23

if hypo is not the best way... then what would be? ...other than removing every fish.
Not cool to have ich in a fairly new tank

Hypo is probably the best way. Personally, I would just consider a smaller tank to do it in.

[tman23]

You mean catching all the fish and moving them into a separate tank to do hypo?

I don't like the idea of catching each fish... I don't even like the idea of trying to catch the tang.
But, is there a good chance of messing up my live rock and/or beneficial bacteria doing hypo in the 72?
There is probably over 100 pounds of rock, 50+ pounds live and about 50 pounds of dry rock that I have been trying to "seed," that may also be alive now (i don't know how long "seeding" takes)

I plan on hooking up a 25 Watt gamma uv sterilizer fairly soon. Should I just set it up and run water through it slow enough to kill ich, and hope for the best?

BTW I have 2 tangs in a hospital tank currently... I am treating with coppersafe.

[tman23]

Is the die off going to be a huge problem?
How will hypo effect the LR and beneficial bacteria?

[tman23]

It seems that I have heard conflicting things about the bacteria...
What makes you think it may completely reset bacteria? Have you seen this happen?

[jenglish]

Originally Posted by tman23

It seems that I have heard conflicting things about the bacteria...
What makes you think it may completely reset bacteria? Have you seen this happen?

Bacteria can't take the osmotic shock... the pressure difference of changing salinity levels. THink about pouring salt on a slug or snail. It breaks things down at the cellular level. Fish can osmoregulate and handle hypo to 1.009, close to their own salt levels for some time. If a fish was in this situation for too long their kidneys would give out. It's not that you can't do hypo in the DT.... you just may end up starting the nitrogen cycle all over only with a lot of fish in the system requiring big waterchanges to avoid ammonia burn. Once you put the tangs into the tank with ich... they will have it again and the copper treatment will have done nothing unless the ich is killed off in the main tank. The UV may lessen the numbers surviving the free swimmin stage to infect but will never kill off the ich completely.

[Mr.Peanut]

Did you read check out the link I posted earlier? There is another link to a thread in there where I did my best to document a complete hypo-salinity treatment. Here is the link to that thread.

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=124438

Take a few minutes to read it over, you will see exactly what I went thru for the entire 8 weeks.

[Mr.Peanut]

I forgot to mention, I am going on 10 weeks with no signs of Ich.

[tman23]

I'm treating a hippo and a sailfin with coppersafe currently in a HT. I have 3 finals on Monday, and don't like having to mess with the hospital tank. The hypo you were doing was in the hospital tank, correct? (I'm glad it seemed to work, BTW!)
The experience would seem to have different variables being in a DT with live rock.

Speaking of the tangs I am treating, the hippo is still rubbing, and I would not be surprised if the sailfin is still infested.

[jenglish]

Have you thought about removing the live rock and putting in a bucket just with a little circulation to keep some of it fully live while you do hypo? I wonder if the sand would slowly release salt and effect the salinity. Not like the sand is absorbing slat itself but if the sand is soaked with 1.025 water and you drop the water to 1.020 in a day.... will the saltwater from the sand instantly be dilluted or will it equalize slowly?

[Loverotties]

72 is to small for one ,let alone 3 Tangs!