Reef Discussion

[Dr. Schell]

Yes I agree with your conclusion

 

[Brekel]

I was thinking of going the immunity route, but the other fish that subsequently came down with it didn't seem to be coping so well.
Hyposalinity treatment is underway.

 

[Dr. Schell]

even if hyposalinity is used, it is speculated that exposure will give aprox 6 months restence to the parasite.
remember, remove the fish, from the DT and keep the inverts at full strength sea water

 

[Brekel]

Yep - all fish in hospital tank with SG now at 1.0085, main tank running as per usual.
Now we wait...

 

[Ian G]

1.0085 is a touch too low and it must be exact. Did you drop it gradually over a week?

My experience with hypo is that it disrupts the parasite reproduction cycle and eliminates the parasite for good. But only if:

• A hypo period of 60 (min) days is maintained at accurate levels.
• The DT is also left totally fish free for at least 60 days.

My experiments have satisfied me that this will work 95%+ of the time and rid you of crypto permanently however with the introduction of every new fish, you risk reinfection unless they too are quarantined for at least 60 days, crypto free. In truth I don't know anybody prepared to QT a new fish for 60 days, we all want it in our DT :)

 

[Dr. Schell]

it must also be remembered that with the intorduction of Natural sea-water, there si also the risk of introducing parasites. This is often overlooked!

 

[Brekel]

I thought the target value was between 1.008 and 1.009, so I settled on the midpoint.
Testing with a seawater refractometer calibrated against both a 35ppt standard and RO/DI.
Brought the saslinity down over 3.5 days using an intermittent slow trickle of RO/DI buffered with some Na2CO3.
All fish feeding and swimming around. They were a bit shy in new tank at first without their rocks. After 1.5 days they all picked the PVC fitting they wanted to take up residence in.

 

[Buddy]

I have read that hypo needs to be below 1.009 to work properly. I haven't tried it though! Ill be following this thread. How do you go with ammonia? Daily water changes?

1.0085 is a touch too low and it must be exact. Did you drop it gradually over a week?

My experience with hypo is that it disrupts the parasite reproduction cycle and eliminates the parasite for good. But only if:

• A hypo period of 60 (min) days is maintained at accurate levels.
• The DT is also left totally fish free for at least 60 days.

My experiments have satisfied me that this will work 95%+ of the time and rid you of crypto permanently however with the introduction of every new fish, you risk reinfection unless they too are quarantined for at least 60 days, crypto free. In truth I don't know anybody prepared to QT a new fish for 60 days, we all want it in our DT :)

I think there are a lot that will qt for 2 months, me included. Better to be safe than sorry!

 

[Brekel]

... Ill be following this thread. How do you go with ammonia? Daily water changes?...

As the salinity was dropping I was regularly taking out water to keep the volume reasonable, and this helped keep the ammonia in check.
I checked this morning and I was reading just a small amount, so I may need to do a decent water change when I get home.
I'm running a sponge filter in the tank that I "pre prepared" by having in the DT first to build up some bacteria. Problem is, different bacteria like different salinity ranges, but I'm led to believe that if you keep conditions stable then the filter should work.

I'll be keeping some premixed water at the matching salinity on hand and monitoring closely...

 

[Buddy]

Yeah I wasn't sure about the pre seeded filter. I thought the bacteria died off at hypo salinity.

 

[Ian G]

it must also be remembered that with the intorduction of Natural sea-water, there si also the risk of introducing parasites. This is often overlooked!

Ahh very good point that I too had not considered.

Thanks :)

 

[Brekel]

That's the one thing us Tassie guys have going for us: the further south you get, the less likely it is to be in the water.

 

[Brekel]

Yeah I wasn't sure about the pre seeded filter. I thought the bacteria died off at hypo salinity.

I figured I'd try as it can't hurt. A sample size of one isn't really significant, but from my experience the pre seeding has no benefit. Over two days the ammonia levels rose alarmingly but two large water changes in that time brought it down. Blue tang was looking a bit iffy yesterday, but improved now. All others good.
It looks like levels have dropped since last change, so filter is kicking in now.

Maybe if you lowered the salinity really slow the bacterial species would change slowly and keep pace, but you'd have to weigh up the time taken and the urgency of treatment. My yellow tang was covered in hundreds of trophonts and showing an increased rate of respiration,so I didn't want to delay more than necessary. We've had him for a while, and the kids would be devastated if we lost him.

 

[Brekel]

Well, as I hit around 6 weeks w/out spots, my thoughts are turning towards raising the salinity and getting the fish back in in a few weeks. But then a thought hit be today.
In a well cycled tank without any fish, you wouldn't normally think of introducing 5 fish in one hit (two ocellaris, coral beauty, blue tang, yellow tang).
Should I stagger the reintroductions?

 

[MagicJ]

Yes Brett - it is very likely that the bacteria levels have reduced substantially since the fish were removed. I would go the clowns, coral beauty and then the tangs together - seperated by a few weeks each time.

 

[Brekel]

That's the order I'd picked if I staggered it too - start with the smallest, also the least aggressive/territorial. Draws out the whole process a bit, but no point going through all this time just to stress them out needlessly and risk something else going wrong.

 

[Mantis Dundee]

looks like ich. I find that my Blue tank has occasional bouts of ich (dispite no new livestock entering the tank). My fish seems to cope very well to the point of ambivelance, even when completley covered. Important thing is to give the fish a healthy diet and keep the water qualty high. Dispit the bouts ot ich, my tang has remained healthy and growth relatively large whist I have had it.

Agreed, my mimic and scopas tangs going through it right now. Still feisty eaters on all the good pellets and frozen stuff. Fat, healthy and fine. No need to panic. Just keep on top of water parameters quality and quality foods so they have the health and strength to get through it.