Hyposalinity on display tank

Colten · Nov 24, 2016

So I'm about to start hyposalinity on my 225 gallon display tank to treat ich. I would do a hospital tank but I got about 15 fish which include emperor, yellow tang, porcupine puffer, foxface, dwarf angels, gobies and damsels. So I'm wondering what I should be expecting, is the ammonia or nitrate gonna rise over the course of the whole treatment? Do I turn the protein skimmer off?

Brew12 · Nov 24, 2016

Hyposalinity can cause a die off of algae and your CuC. If you have a lot of algae in your tank, it dying can potentially cause an ammonia spike. It doesn't harm your nitrifying bacteria so that is a good thing. And you should keep your skimmer running.

Colten · Nov 24, 2016

It doesn't have much algae so that's good. So, it shouldn't be to hard to do right? Do I need to worry about ph? Thanks again for the info

Brew12 · Nov 24, 2016

Colten said:
It doesn't have much algae so that's good. So, it shouldn't be to hard to do right? Do I need to worry about ph? Thanks again for the info

Your pH will drop so you need to watch it but it "shouldn't" cause a problem. As your salinity drops, your alkalinity will also drop. As it drops your pH will drop.
The biggest concern with your pH dropping, imo, is that ammonia becomes more toxic at lower pH's. If you can keep a handle on your ammonia you should be fine. Expect to see a pH in the mid 7's.

melypr1985 · Nov 25, 2016

Brew12 said:
is that ammonia becomes more toxic at lower pH's

Everything @Brew12 said is great advice. But the PH being lower makes the ammonia less toxic. When the PH is high, the ammonia is more toxic. That's why fish can be shipped in a closed back for 24 hours, because the PH lowers in the bag keeping the ammonia from being toxic. Once you open the bag, the PH rises quickly and makes the ammonia dangerous. Same applies with tanks. No matter what though, you want to keep your ammonia at 0 and your PH correct in the display while running Hypo. Keep things as stable as you can since stability is a big key to this hobby.

Brew12 · Nov 25, 2016

melypr1985 said:
Everything @Brew12 said is great advice. But the PH being lower makes the ammonia less toxic. When the PH is high, the ammonia is more toxic. That's why fish can be shipped in a closed back for 24 hours, because the PH lowers in the bag keeping the ammonia from being toxic. Once you open the bag, the PH rises quickly and makes the ammonia dangerous. Same applies with tanks. No matter what though, you want to keep your ammonia at 0 and your PH correct in the display while running Hypo. Keep things as stable as you can since stability is a big key to this hobby.

Thanks for the correction Mel. I must have been suffering from post turkey dementia.