Thinking about Hyposalinity in my new 400 Gallon display

[Ashish Patel]

Not sure exact date in but about 21 days.

1. Its been 4 days since I have seen zero spots on all the fish.
2. Last few days only sign of Ich in tank was the orange shoulder tang scratching.
3. Achilles has been spot free and yesterday before lights out it was flashing.

I think if all remains stable I will go until Mid May and bring my salinity up.

 

[Suneru]

How’s it going? I had to give up on hypo after my fish continued to get sicker and die. I coppered the whole tank, and saved the fish. I’ll have to deal with that copper fallout later.

 

[mcgullen]

But how did this happen? Sounds like the fish were effectively QTed twice. Still ICH?

 

[Ashish Patel]

How’s it going? I had to give up on hypo after my fish continued to get sicker and die. I coppered the whole tank, and saved the fish. I’ll have to deal with that copper fallout later.

Its going fine but I did see one spot on achilles 4 days ago and it went away in few days. Besides that no other spot but did see some flashing on one yellow tang. By 30 days I was hoping all signs of ich would be gone but not the case. I am going to bring up salinity June 1st week no matter the outcome. Too early to call

 

[Ashish Patel]

Fish are doing great...I have not seen any signs of spots or other signs of ich for 3 weeks. I am going on vacation and will be back at end of the month. So first week of June I will start bringing the salinity up.

Amazing in-tank treatment - Forever grateful to this forum for its help! Thank you all for your support.

 

[angelsandtangs]

I did hypo on my 400 gallon system at 1.009 for 35 days 80 degrees temp after last spot was seen I did lose a purple tang after the first week .. after raising my salinity back up a week later saw spots on my blue line angel .. I used a Hanna Milwaukee and hydrometer all calculated once a week to make sure I was spot on .. now I’m gonna use copper power on my system I have no inverts or corals .. it’s not bad but I don’t want a ticking time bomb .. good luck to you sir

 

[Ashish Patel]

I did hypo on my 400 gallon system at 1.009 for 35 days 80 degrees temp after last spot was seen I did lose a purple tang after the first week .. after raising my salinity back up a week later saw spots on my blue line angel .. I used a Hanna Milwaukee and hydrometer all calculated once a week to make sure I was spot on .. now I’m gonna use copper power on my system I have no inverts or corals .. it’s not bad but I don’t want a ticking time bomb .. good luck to you sir

That is unfortunate, took me 1 month before I could 100% confirm i had no spots, I have alot of ich prone tangs so took awhile before I was sure. They where scratching or flashing for awhile too but last 2-3 weeks have been no signs. I like that i have barebottom and UV in my display. I stopped feeding nori since i ran out and just let them graze on the ton of algae that grows in the display.

Let us know how the copper experiment goes in the display. I personally dont think leaching will be an issue as copper in low dose would be removed by carbon (assuming you use it). Also maybe a refugium would absorb copper too.

 

[angelsandtangs]

That is unfortunate, took me 1 month before I could 100% confirm i had no spots, I have alot of ich prone tangs so took awhile before I was sure. They where scratching or flashing for awhile too but last 2-3 weeks have been no signs. I like that i have barebottom and UV in my display. I stopped feeding nori since i ran out and just let them graze on the ton of algae that grows in the display.

Let us know how the copper experiment goes in the display. I personally dont think leaching will be an issue as copper in low dose would be removed by carbon (assuming you use it). Also maybe a refugium would absorb copper too.

I also have a bare bottom tank and I run a 114watt aqua uv I was just tired of seeing spots in the same few fish like you I have a 10 or so tangs .. I have done copper before with rock and sand it was a little tricky but was successfully.. I will start pulling copper out after 30 days using cuprisorb and will do a water change at day 40 of 30% .. I will run the cuprisorb until I show zero copper for at least 30 days .. it was my 2nd time doing hypo that failed .. no sir I don’t use carbon due to possible hlle issues that copper could already cause and want my fish to make a good recovery if so

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I also have a bare bottom tank and I run a 114watt aqua uv I was just tired of seeing spots in the same few fish like you I have a 10 or so tangs .. I have done copper before with rock and sand it was a little tricky but was successfully.. I will start pulling copper out after 30 days using cuprisorb and will do a water change at day 40 of 30% .. I will run the cuprisorb until I show zero copper for at least 30 days .. it was my 2nd time doing hypo that failed .. no sir I don’t use carbon due to possible hlle issues that copper could already cause and want my fish to make a good recovery if so

Correct - using carbon to pull copper can increase the chances of HLLE, and carbon is over rated in its ability to remove copper in any event.

One of the issues with copper being bound to rock/sand is that it seems to have a pH component to it - that is, some of the copper stays safely bound up unless there is a large pH drop, then the copper can be released.

Jay

 

[Ashish Patel]

So update time. I got back from 8 day vacation and during my vacation I lost a purple tang, he got popeye and was dead by the time i got back. one of my yellow tangs lost so much weight and I was able to remove it and put him the basement sump and he too got popeye. Seriously never had a fish get popeye in my life.

Ok so I told myself regardless of outcome I would bring up my salinity up when i got back from my vacation - however, i noticed multiple fish flashing and then I see my achilles scratching.

Before I left for vacation 5/21, i did increase my sump water line by 1/2", (just to give me some wiggle room increase the new ATO i installed failed), this would have brought salinity down from 1.008, which I hope did not give ich a chance since keeping it stable is key as per Jay.

Besides this the fish that are in the tank are healthy, no signs of spots. I am thinking i may give it another full 30 days and if it does not work sell the Achilles and powder blue to some lucky reefer who will do it right the 1st time, since I lost my chance

 

[Ashish Patel]

But how did this happen? Sounds like the fish were effectively QTed twice. Still ICH?

Its my first time doing this so there where a few fish I bought that where QT, I shouldnt have been so hell bent on adding 9 tangs, I think 4-5 is max for a tank of my size.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So update time. I got back from 8 day vacation and during my vacation I lost a purple tang, he got popeye and was dead by the time i got back. one of my yellow tangs lost so much weight and I was able to remove it and put him the basement sump and he too got popeye. Seriously never had a fish get popeye in my life.

Ok so I told myself regardless of outcome I would bring up my salinity up when i got back from my vacation - however, i noticed multiple fish flashing and then I see my achilles scratching.

Before I left for vacation 5/21, i did increase my sump water line by 1/2", (just to give me some wiggle room increase the new ATO i installed failed), this would have brought salinity down from 1.008, which I hope did not give ich a chance since keeping it stable is key as per Jay.

Besides this the fish that are in the tank are healthy, no signs of spots. I am thinking i may give it another full 30 days and if it does not work sell the Achilles and powder blue to some lucky reefer who will do it right the 1st time, since I lost my chance

Just checking - was the popeye in both eyes of both fish, were the protruding eyes cloudy or clear? Supersaturation can cause popeye in groups of fish - from entrained gas, like if the pump on the sump catches air.
Jay

 

[Ashish Patel]

Just checking - was the popeye in both eyes of both fish, were the protruding eyes cloudy or clear? Supersaturation can cause popeye in groups of fish - from entrained gas, like if the pump on the sump catches air.
Jay

Just one eye, Yellow tang is kind of cloudy.

Do you think scratching and flashing 60 days in means its probably time to find another method?
NO spots for a good 40 days.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Just one eye, Yellow tang is kind of cloudy.

Do you think scratching and flashing 60 days in means its probably time to find another method?
NO spots for a good 40 days.

The fish loss and the popeye are not likely related to the ich and subsequent hyposalinity treatment.

Could something have happened while you were gone?

Any chance you could run a praziquantel treatment on the tank? At that size, you might need to buy the prazi in bulk to keep the costs down.

Jay

 

[Ashish Patel]

The fish loss and the popeye are not likely related to the ich and subsequent hyposalinity treatment.

Could something have happened while you were gone?

Any chance you could run a praziquantel treatment on the tank? At that size, you might need to buy the prazi in bulk to keep the costs down.

Jay

The Purple tangs where fighting with each other aggressively as where the yellow tangs. I think this resulted in them getting popeye. also, the fact me not being there to feed them frozen food for 8 days could have increased aggression. Since I make sure every 2 days I feed a good amount of mysis

 

[Ashish Patel]

Today I am starting to bring up my Salinity. Initially I was planning on just doing a 70 gallon waterchange with higher salinity. But like a Cluts to kick start I just went way way over the salt level and now the water 12 hours later is foggy.

Is this super saturated saltwater safe to use since it will dilute in the tank or will persipation cause other issues ? Not keeping corals right now so dont have an issue with this but will it hurt my fish in anyway?

 

[Ashish Patel]

Also, i dont think the hypo was successful since my orange shoulder scratches nd yesterday I did notice few faint spots on the hippo tang. suprisingly the achilles and powder have been the most clean and healthy fish. I believe the aggression reduced when I lost 2 fish and they are just less stressed and eating good. Hopefully they build a good immunity to Ich and their is no major outbreak.

However, Its been 7 months since I added water, 4 months of Hypo, and I am desperately getting impatient to start adding some inverts and corals.

 

[Celestion]

9 tangs in a 400 can be fine with your experience , those fish looked very solid on page 1 or 2 , I new you would win. , Water should not be cloudy even after 1 hour , 5 micron sock catches everything , cheers

 

[Ashish Patel]

I tested salinity at its 50PPT and very milky... After the first waterchange i'll just remove 50 gallons at a time and mix and dump for 5+ days.

I even thought about just turning of my return pump and mixing salt in my sump, leave the pump of for 15 minutes or so and then turn on. My sump actual water volume is 170 gallons.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Today I am starting to bring up my Salinity. Initially I was planning on just doing a 70 gallon waterchange with higher salinity. But like a Cluts to kick start I just went way way over the salt level and now the water 12 hours later is foggy.

Is this super saturated saltwater safe to use since it will dilute in the tank or will persipation cause other issues ? Not keeping corals right now so dont have an issue with this but will it hurt my fish in anyway?

Mixing up supersaturated seawater (greater than a specific gravity of about 1.040) can cause precipitation of some elements that then cause cloudiness. This may not harm fish, but can reduce available calcium for corals, etc.

Jay