Looking for experience in using hyposalinity to treat ich

[TedsReef]

My clown goby has been having several bouts of ich while in QT. This second time around I'm treating with hyposalinity. I've been maintaining salinity at 1.010-1.012 and a temp of 78F. This treatment has been ongoing for about 2 weeks yet I'm still seeing some new bumps and the fish is flashing. I've done research on this method as well as ich lifecycle but I still have a few questions:

1) Am I doing something incorrectly?
2) Could this be latent ich that had infected the fish prior to the salinity being lowered or should I assume they are newly attached parasites?
3) How long does this treatment take to eradicate ich? Based on what I read of the lifecycle, I didn't think I'd be seeing new lesions after 2 weeks.

 

[theMeat]

Think you have to keep it lower. 1.008-1.010
8 weeks to be sure. Followed by observation period
Tank transfer method better

The bumps is when the ich leaves fish. Hypo only kills babies looking for host/fish/blood supply

 

[Captain Quint]

My clown goby has been having several bouts of ich while in QT. This second time around I'm treating with hyposalinity. I've been maintaining salinity at 1.010-1.012 and a temp of 78F. This treatment has been ongoing for about 2 weeks yet I'm still seeing some new bumps and the fish is flashing. I've done research on this method as well as ich lifecycle but I still have a few questions:

1) Am I doing something incorrectly?
2) Could this be latent ich that had infected the fish prior to the salinity being lowered or should I assume they are newly attached parasites?
3) How long does this treatment take to eradicate ich? Based on what I read of the lifecycle, I didn't think I'd be seeing new lesions after 2 weeks.

I have used the method several times and can tell you that you've done nothing wrong. IME doing so I hate to admit that hyposalinity is not 100% effective against Crypto.

Some claim positive results doing hypo 100% of the time but it is often a debatable topic.

 

[TedsReef]

Thanks. I'm going to try dropping salinity a little more and see if that makes a difference.

 

[PookieGV]

I don’t have tank currently, but i did use hypo successfully for around five years. This was 2009-2013. At that time it seemed like hypo was all the rage.

I maintained 1.009 for four weeks and then slowly brought the salinity back up.

 

[TedsReef]

I don’t have tank currently, but i did use hypo successfully for around five years. This was 2009-2013. At that time it seemed like hypo was all the rage.

I maintained 1.009 for four weeks and then slowly brought the salinity back up.

When a fish is rubbing on things is that usually when the ich is attaching to the fish or when it's exiting? I just dropped the salinity from 1.012 to 1.010 and it seems like the fish is flashing more. Could be coincidental. When you brought the salinity back up (to around 1.024 I'm assuming), how long did that process take? Which method did you replace hypo with?

 

[PookieGV]

Sorry, I don’t really know how behavior relates to lifecycle.

I usually took 1-2 weeks. It was successful, never had ich in the display. A neighbor kid killed my tank when i was on vacation, so I never really migrated to a new method.

I am cycling a qt for my new build now. My plan is to follow some of the prophylactic copper and prazipro protocols that are currently popular on this forum. I tried copper in the past and killed several fish. I didn’t really know how to use it and did not have proper test kits. I switched to hypo because it was just easier to understand and implement.

 

[HotRocks]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hyposalinity.247596/

Hypo is working less and less these days. Do you calibrate your refractometer regularly? Its also recommend to use an ATO. Any rise in Salinity can allow the cycle to continue.

 

[TedsReef]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hyposalinity.247596/

Hypo is working less and less these days. Do you calibrate your refractometer regularly? Its also recommend to use an ATO. Any rise in Salinity can allow the cycle to continue.

Thanks for the link. I read all the stickies but should have done a search for that one. Yes to regular calibration. I only have a 5g QT so I monitor salinity and other levels daily. I do a wc every 2-3 days as well.