I didn't say it was unhelpful I said unnessisary, as it is not NESSISARY, ever. Nessisary meaning MUST have.
It is only ever benificial if it is organic matter specifically pigment molecules that brown the water, which we have no idea if it is, it could be sand particulate, or it could be percipitated calcum, or it could be bacteria/protazoan/etc in which case they will die... then rot... then produce more ammonia and other organic wastes... then cycle gets worse... but thats just my opinion. I would say skimmer is the way to go in this instance not another expencive device when he hasn't even tryed his skimmer yet.
Yes, a bucket dip doesnt work for ich, I was being somewhat general, but it was more about Medications then hypodips, I should have explained myself better
It how ever does not take 4 weeks at hypo to kill ich, it takes a little over 1 week for ich to be completely removed from the fish in Hypo and for them to be dead, on the other hand it takes 4-5 weeks of fallow tank for the rest of the ich to die off the display tank never needs to be hypo.
Eggs are not released into the water column, they are on the sandbed, the Theronts are the water column stage, and are free swimming, therefore nearly impossible to remove via any form of filtration. Though skimmer would help reduce their numbers, no idea if the micron socks would make a difference or not to be honnest.