Hyposalinity treatment in display tank...

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TMartinez

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 27, 2010
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Mandarin, Fl
So my tank has developed a mild case of marine Ick. I believe a coral beauty i bout a week and a half ago brought it in. I moved the tank this past Thursday and Saturday night I noticed it on my blue tang. Well the coral beauty dies last night and while my other inhabitants seem OK, the blue tang still itches and has small spots.

My coral selection is slim because this was an upgrade from a 30g. I only have a handful of frags and I have a buddy who happened to have a 5g that has been sitting for a while. It was setup and he never broke it down (he got my 30g as a upgrade), so I assume there should be some BB left in there.

Can I pull out my coral from my dt, put them in the 5g and do a hyposalinity treatment in the dt? Will it affect inverts, as I have a coral banded and 3 peppermints. Can i leave them , and my cleaners, in the dt during the treatment? How long would I have to treat the tank?

Its not feasible for me to setup a large hospital tank so this seems like it would work. Thoughts?
 
A hyposalinity treatment will kill: Pods, snails, crabs, invertebrates, corals, live rock, most marine algae, and Marine Ich. This is why it is best performed in a separate, bare bottom, hospital tank. It has been performed successfully in fish only aquariums where there is no live rock and the substrate doesn't have worms and pods in it. But the best treatment tank is a bare bottom hospital tank, set up like a quarantine tank.
Try a freshwater DI dip on your tang. My tang got ich rt after I got it. I did two freshwater, 5 min dips on him and he was fine later.
The thing is to do it a few times, but not enough to stress the fish to much. This will help get the ich off the tang, and also help kill the ich life cycle.
Read up on the ich life cycle and after that, start your freshwater (DI) dips on your tang..
 
I did some reading up and I saw where its needs to be done in an empty tank. I think i'm going to try your advice with the freshwater dip. I've never done them but now's a good time to start!
 
Are you using straight rO/DI water or do you add any chemicals (i.e. medications, ammonia eliminator, etc)
 
straight ro/di water. Just dip them for 4 to 5 min.
You can add in some meds if you want, but I prefer not to so I dont add any more stress to the fish.
If you have to do the dip more than 2 times in a 3 day period, then on the 3rd dip, you can then add in a med to help with the process.
Also add a airstone to the freshwater dip ro/di water. This will help reduce low air in the water and help your fish breath a little better while in the ro/di water.
Make sure when you do the dip, you are using fresh ro/di every time. Do not use the same water over and over. When you add the fish in, they will put off more ammonia in the water than normal, so its a good idea to just always use fresh ro/di water for each dip.

If I have to do a dip, I dip the fish one day, then give it a few days and dip him again.
I dont like to do it over and over since it adds stress to the fish and stress is the one cause of ich.
If you have to do it more than that, make sure its 24 hrs in between dips. Its ok to do it every 24 hrs, but try your best to lower the stress as much as you can, like adding a airstone or having plenty of space for it to move around and enough water to cover it totally. A good size bucket is good for this or even a small fish tank.
Also try and match the temp of the dip water to the tank water the fish was in. One other way to reduce stress.
 
I did a 5min dip tonight. Seems ok just hiding in the tank. How soon should I notice a difference?
 
Woke up this morning and she is acting much better. Still doing a little biot of scratching but she is swimming around the tank like before. Yesterday she just stayed buried in the rock... Should I re-dip tomorrow?
 
yes, re-dip.. I usually dip every other day for at least 2 to 3 dips.
The trick is to not only dip her, but to also kill off the ICH life cycle in the tank while doing these dips.
The Ich needs host to live.. If no host, no life..

Read up on the Ich life cycle. Just so you know about it...
I would dip her again.. give it two more days and do it again..

Keep checking her.
Also, make sure you have good food for her.
I myself always (twice a week) add in sea-weed for my tangs. Hand it on a vegie clip..
When I have to ever do a dip, i bump that up to 3 to 4 times a week.. (Seaweed soaked in vitamins this time)
This helps build up the immune system and helps fight off any problems..
 
I feed Piscene mysis saoked in garlic in the morning, a clip of Ocean Nutrition green seaweed during the day and NLS pellets soaked in garlic in the evening
 
immune system should be good then. So yes, I would go ahead and do another dip, then another one in a few days..
 
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