1. Objective: To completely cure fish of marine ich by treating with hypo-salinity range 1.008 to 1.009
2. Treatment Process: Following Lee Birch's hypo-salinity (google Lee Birch hypo-salinity) treatment process (with the exception of using an ATS rather than sponge filtration)
3. Reason for using ATS: Maintaining a bacterial based biological filter in hypo-salinity is difficult and in my experience requires frequent and large water changes. Conservatively speaking, the complete process of treating marine ich from acclimating fish to hypo-salinity, treating them in hypo-salinity, acclimating them (while still in the Hospital Tank) back to normal SG and observing them for several weeks prior to returning fish to the display aquarium takes 9 or more weeks. This requires a lot of work, water changes and expense.
4. Plan of action (thus far 9 days):
A. 4 Fish have been placed in a 40 Gallon bare bottom aquarium with an established ATS at 1.025 SG
B. The SG has been lowered over the course of 1 week fro 1.025 to 1.008 - 1.009
C. The fish have shown no signs of stress
D. The starting Green Hair Algae seems ok and not affected by the drop in salinity
E. The screen was cleaned at 7 days
F. Green Hair Algae is beginning to grow back
G. On day 2 Ammonia peaked at 0.25. Feeding was suspended for one day. 2 days later Ammonia returned to 0.00
H. Ammonia has fluctuated between 0.00 to 0.10, Nitrite has remained steady at 0.25, but appears to be on the decline.
I. PH has been holding steady at approx. 8.0 without need for buffering
J. Other than removing water to allow for the addition of fresh water to lower SG there have been no water changes.
It is still early in the process, however I am optimistic that this will work and be a great way to accomplish hypo-salinity treatment.
More to come..
Equipment:
1. 40 Gallon Aquarium (Bare Bottom)
2. Heater and Thermometer
3. ATS (Sole source of filtration) sitting over the top of tank
10 wide x 4.5 high screen
Approx. 300 GPH flow
Lighting on both sides of screen with 2-13 watt CFL Spirals on each side totalling 52 watts
6-12 drops of Kent's Chelated Iron is added each day
4. Livestock: 4 Fish, a 4 inch Naso Tang, 2.5 inch Keyhole Angelfish, 4 inch Marine Betta, 3 inch Powder Blue Tang. All fish are strong, fat and healthy, although they do contract ich from time to time. I have let my display go fallow (fishless) for 8 weeks and counting and plan to return these fish after this treatment process.
Any suggestions, comments or questions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
James