The method described here involves lowering the salinity of the wholeactual aquarium. I agree that freshwater dipping, outside the aquarium or dipping in general, is stressful on the fish, not to mention impractical when trying to net fish in reef aquaria full of rock and delicate corals. Dipping outside the aquaria is also selfdefeating in my opinion, in the fact that it does not kill the free swimming and dormant eggsspores within the aquaria. You are correct, most parasites are only erradicated within the tank during the free swimming stage. On the salinity level, I have found an effective treatment level to be 1.017 in reef aquaria. Most corals are safe even lower than this in my experience, but 1.017 usually does the trick. If I had to recommend a floor for the salinity, I have been as low as 1.015 in reef aquaria. Corals closed slightly directly after lowering salinity, but were open fully the next day, and I noticed no long term detrimental affects in growth rate as a result. I failed to mention before, that if the replacement water is RODI or other softened source, then a buffering agent should be employed to prevent pH and alkalinity drops.

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