Hyposalinity Treatment?

[trigger:)]

Hello i need some advise!! Been dealing with ich now for a month. I have 180g fish only with 300-400lbs of rock (half live). I dosed the tank about a month ago with copper at about 1.0 ( I know its not a high enough dose LFS says 1.5, i have a yellow belly puffer that seems to be bleached in spots I am guessing from the copper). I read the article on Hyposalinity and am curious has anybody tried this ??? Does it work?? Does it make any diffrence if theres copper in the water? In 4 water changes I need to bring the salinity down to 1.009. I have RO/DI water so I should divide 180/4 = 45g each time in a 12 hour time periods (does the time matter that much, can I take longer to do the changes)? If you are changing one fifth of the water and the current specific gravity is 1.025 the result will be:

((1.025*4)+1.000)/5 = 1.020 approx.
Then, after 12 hours:
((1.020*4)+1.000)/5 = 1.016 approx.
After 24 hours:
((1.016*4)+1.000)/5 = 1.013 approx.
After the 4th change:
((1.013*4)+1.000)/5 = 1.010 approx.
this is the link http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/hyposalinity.html
thanks to all that comment a head of time!

[Aquarist007]

Are you stating that you dosed the display tank including your live rock with copper??
This is a definite no-no in this hobby as it kills all the inverts in the display tank and the live bacteria on the rock
Dosing with copper as with hyposalinity should be done in a separate or quarantine fish with no live rock or inverts
Copper is a very effective treatment against ich if you follow the treatment tests and maintain the correct level of copper in the qt for the correct time. The directions are on the bottle. The advantage of copper is that it can remove the ich from the fish in a matter of 48 hours making the possiblity of the ich suffocating the fish less probable.
Hypo salination is effective also but it is a long process
If the ich is in your display tank then your display tank must remain fishless for 40- 6 weeks to irradicate the ich in there.

[sfboarders]

You can take longer to bring the salinity down. Bring it down to 1.008 salinity and keep it there for at least 4 weeks and leave your tank fishless for at least 8 weeks. Also I recommend that any treatment of ich should be done in a QT. If you are doing this in your DT you will kill all the life in your LR and inverts which can give you ammonia spike. Make sure you have a well cycled filter medium. You cannot do copper and hypo at the same time. The hardest part of hypo is maintaining your pH. You will need to drip cooked baking soda with ro/water and check pH at least twice a day.

[trigger:)]

Will copper burn or bleach soft skinned fish (my Puffer)? I am still dossing the tank with copper now, should I just up the dose to 1.5? I like all my fish (especially my puffers) don't want to kill them with copper. Does copper cause internal problems? This is why i thought about Hyposalinity. I have no QT tank, Even then to get them all out I would have to tear it apart ( so my only choice is to treat the whole tank and learn ( maybe next new fish i will have a qt tank). The bio seems t be ok now amonia test 0 nitrates test 20. I have a 300g wet and dry with 4olbs of live rock, an for back up a FX5 canister, plus a 57 watt vu ( 200gph). So if the copper risks killing my fish I should remover the copper and start a hypo treatment? thanks

[Playa-1]

The copper treatment is very harsh and some fish will not tolerate it. It will also be difficult to keep adjusted properly in a tank full of rock and sand. If you have inverts in the tank and run copper then they will likely die which could end up causing a cycle. In fact if you run copper in the DT then you may never be able to keep a clean up crew or corals in the tank. The liverock may be doomed to a life of fishonly tanks. Hyposalinity will also wipe of inverts in the tank but hypo is much easier on the fish for a short term treatment of say 4 to 6 weeks.

You may be better off just trying to stabalize the tank the best you can and hope the survivors can build an immunity to any disease or parasites that have been introduced to the tank. Otherwise you need to pull all the livestock and put them in a QT and let the DT run fallow for at least 6 weeks.