Hyposalinity vs ick

Forshurley · Apr 21, 2020

Hello,
I wanted to share my experience and get some advise from all you pros regarding my tank status of being ick eradicated vs managed. I have been reefing a while and took dive into a upgrade from a 120g to 180g tank. I am trying to take it slow and do the build the tank right. On February 1st my tank got wet, I did 60 day cycle before adding fish. Once I felt tank was ready I added 5 fish from current set up that I have had 5+ years (they appeared to be healthy) with 5 fish from marine collectors. After two weeks of fish being fine my hippo tang ( note this was from marine collectors) showed signs of ick and started scratching against the rocks. I then noticed 1-2 dots of ick on some other fish and that’s when it started to sink in that my tank isn’t sterile and has ick.

I reached out to Elliot from marine collectors and was advised to do a 76 days of hypo salinity in my tank. He said ick must have been dormant in my old fish showing zero signs of disease and must have been stressed out by tank transfer and infected other fish.

My tank currently just has dry rock and fish in it....My question is if I do hypo salinity in my main tank for 76 days would my tank be considered ick free or am I just trying to manage it?

My main concern is my new Achilles tang and keeping my dream fish alive. I am also not going to add copper to the tank based on the rock absorbing the copper and messing with the levels later on. I have QT set up but not large enough for 10 fish....

my tank is currently in day 2 of hypo salinity and the ick does seem to be less visible to the eye.

For the record I am not blaming marine collectors for my mistake I am trying to not lose $1500 in fish.

thanks in advanced for any feed back and your help.

cheers
forshurley

Forshurley · Apr 22, 2020

Bump... anyone?

Miller535 · Apr 22, 2020

I am not a hypo expert, but I would be worried about doing hypo that long. My understanding was that hypo was ususally done for 2 weeks. And that most fish could tolerate it for the 2 weeks. I think 76 is pushing it.

Halal Hotdog · Apr 22, 2020

I have done hyposalinity successfully in the past with a purple tang that had ich. I have not done hypo since then, due to the fact that you have to monitor the salinity very very carefully, and if it goes above a specific gravity of 1.009 then you may have just wasted your time. Beyond that hyposalinity only treats ich and not other parasites. My preference is cholorquine phosphate (which you will not be able to find right now) or copper. Both are best used in a hospital tank with no sand and rock. I would also do two treatments of API General Cure for internal parasites after you complete the copper treatment. Sadly ich can hide dormant for years, and Elliot maybe correct about the source being the other fish. Also anecdotally I have noticed established live rock, for an unknown reason, helps external parasite management significantly more than dry rock.

Forshurley · Apr 22, 2020

Video for reference, everything looks healthy right now.

Justin_Reef · Apr 22, 2020

I have had success with hypo quite a few times over the years. Although, most of my success was about 7-10 years ago and it seems to me that ich is more resilient now. I currently have my porcupine puffer in hypo and he is in week 4. No problems but I don't think I would go any longer than 4 weeks. I am no expert though.

Forshurley · May 2, 2020

update: no visable signs of ick as of now and the hippo tang stopped scratching. I dropped the main tank to hypo and added a huge UV sterilizer and prying once I raise salinity levels the problem doesn't come back and end up going fallow anyway.

Powderclownanthias · May 30, 2020

F

Forshurley said:
update: no visable signs of ick as of now and the hippo tang stopped scratching. I dropped the main tank to hypo and added a huge UV sterilizer and prying once I raise salinity levels the problem doesn't come back and end up going fallow anyway.

Hey there , how are your fishes doing now ? You already increase salinity?

Forshurley · May 30, 2020

Powderclownanthias said:
F

Hey there , how are your fishes doing now ? You already increase salinity?

Thanks for asking!
Everyone is doing well and playing nice. There is no noticeable signs of ick or any other disease. I am in the middle of a 76 day hypo in main display and I plan on adding salt water to ATO on July first to slowly bring back to proper salinity.

I pray that once I bring back to correct salinity that another out break will not happen.

Forshurley · May 30, 2020

187g Tang Gang
link to youtube on update on tank

CindyKz · May 31, 2020

These references are a little old, but according to WWM hyposalinity for 30-45 days is perfectly acceptable. I kept two tangs at 1.009 for over a month, then raised the salinity VERY slowly, with no ill effects. Both are currently in my DT

Good luck

hypoOSTtherapyart.htm

www.wetwebmedia.com

ellisz · Jun 2, 2020

Good to hear. I am at day 25 of a hypo treatment and was wondering if I should go beyond 30 days. Is it 30 days from the start of hypo or 30 days from the start of no signs of ich in hypo? It took almost 2 weeks for all signs to go away. Rock is getting ugly too.

Forshurley · Jun 3, 2020

ellisz said:
Good to hear. I am at day 25 of a hypo treatment and was wondering if I should go beyond 30 days. Is it 30 days from the start of hypo or 30 days from the start of no signs of ich in hypo? It took almost 2 weeks for all signs to go away. Rock is getting ugly too.

From what i under stand even if you see no signs of ick and still be present. That is why I chose to do 76 day hypo to break the cycle, most use 76 day fallow and then treat fish separate, but the controversy is that fish cant be healthy in hypo that long. But based on advised from marine collectors I am staying hypo for 76 days.

I noticed my rock starting to turn green in hypo and getting some spots of purple but not what I thought I would with 4 month tank.

Forshurley · Jun 16, 2020

quick update, lost my mystery wrasse while in hypo but everyone else is still doing well.

Tang gang in 187 gallon tank

Grangersreef · Jun 24, 2020

Forshurley said:
quick update, lost my mystery wrasse while in hypo but everyone else is still doing well.

Tang gang in 187 gallon tank

Thank you for the updates, I am in the process of dropping my DT to hypo now. I was planning on doing 30 days but now you have me thinking of going longer. Please continue with updates, and sorry about your mystery wrasse I have one as well. Hoping everything pulls through.

Forshurley · Jul 20, 2020

Started raising salinity on the first and now @ 28.5 after 20 days of salt in ATO, so raising super slow.

Here is a quick update video of fish, tank is turning so green!

Forshurley · Aug 22, 2020

Over all after doing 2 months 76 days in hypo in main tank, 3 fish got HLLE and my wrasse died. I hope with proper diet and less stress I hope I can get them well.