Hypo-salintiy in a reef tank?

[curtisvill]

I have a purple psuedochromis which as ich. He is in my 180. I can not catch him and tearing down the tank is a very daunting task for this little fish. I was at an lfs today and the owner mentioned hypo-salinity. He said I could lower the salinty to 1.016 and everything would be OK. This was the first time I had heard this so I am a bit skeptical. Has anyone ever heard of or tried this before? I have a lot of very expensive corals in the tank and I do not want to do anything which would jepordize them. Any help would be greatly appreciated (like how to capture this little guy). Thanks for your help.

John

[cristhiam]

don't do it. you will kill all your corals. You need some how catch the fish and treat them on a separate tank. I can't belive the recomended that at LFS. They should know better.
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

[Gary Majchrzak]

IME Dottybacks are very hardy fish. There is a good chance your fish will kick the ick on it's own if your reef aquarium has good environmental conditions.
These fishes are prone to hide in a rock cave. If you see which rock it darts into to hide, you can remove the entire rock with the fish inside it.

Here is a link to more info on Cryptocaryon including the hypo salinity treatment:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=282934

[Brenden]

1.016 is not low enought to stop the ich but it will kill the corals. Hypo will only be effect if maintained low at 1.009

[Shark Bait100]

Do a search for diy fish traps. Believe me, once you build one, you will use it alot. I trapped 6 fish with my trap. Then leave your tank fallow for 4-5 weeks and treat your fish in a quaretine tank.

[Aescleah]

omg i can not believe a Lfs actully said that that is one of the most dumbest things a lfs could say

Ashley

[curtisvill]

Thanks for all of the advice guys.

[NexDog]

If you're going to catch one fish then you need to catch all the fish and move them to a separate tank. Lower that tank to 1.009 and maintain for at least 4 weeks. Keeping on top of water quality is the biggest challenge in quality due to the small (if any) biological filter. People who are used to QT will always keep a few sponges in the sump so when you set up a QT tank (quarantine) you move the sponges in there to maintain the filter. I also use a few pieces of live rock too.

Other things you'll need are a few pieces of PVC pipe so fish can hide, some powerheads for movement and some kind of mechanical filter. I use a Remora Pro. Another nice piece of equiptment is a UV steriliser. I have an 8 watt on my 50g QT setup and it helps with water quality and also kills Ich dead if it happens to pass through. I mainly got it for killing bacterial blooms due to declining water quality.

Lastly you'll need to do water changes twice a week and check salinity every few days to make sure evaporation is not causing salinity to rise. And also you need to maintain PH. Salt at 1.026 will typically raise PH to at least 7.8 and hyposalinity drops PH to 7.4 at least. Prolonged exposure to low PH will severely damage or kill fish. Typical signs of low PH I have seen are a whitening face or white lips.

Maintain PH, maintain water quality and maintain salinity and you'll succeed. Quarantine and hypo treatment is somewhat of an art and may take a few cycles until you are comfortable with your own process. FWIW this should be done with all new arrivals. I'm currently stocking my tank and do about 6 fish at a time in my 50g QT.

[Mimbler1]

Nexdog, how do you maintain PH at the low salinity?
thanks, Mike

[RBU1]

In my quarentine etank I have always maintained PH with a raise PH product by Seachem.

[curtisvill]

Good advice, thank you.

[NexDog]

I use a standard PH buffer that you can find in any LFS. Works out that I need 1cc per gallon of water I change. I change 10 gallons twice a week so add 10cc of PH buffer when I mix up the salt. Easy. :)

[Mimbler1]

Thanks for the replies - in all my years of reefing, I've never had to buffer for ph, and had forgotten that such buffers existed! Sounds pretty easy, and something I might have not thought of checking for when using hyposalinity,
Mike

[cristhiam]

can PH be buffered by adding limewater at low salinity?

[finsurgeon]

My LFS rents or lends an acrylic fish trap to customers. It has worked for me on 4 occasions without fail. It is a clear acrylic tube with clear acrylic ends and sliding door, held up by fishing line until the desired trapee enters. Mysis seems to bring them in the quickest, and on one occasion I got a mean little 4-line wrasse I'd been chasing for weeks in about 60 seconds

[jimbo045]

I heard you can use tap-water for an hour to kill pests! JD