Looking for info: adding salt to tank

G

goldieloach

AC Members
Sep 5, 2004
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Michigan
Good Day!

I usually lurk around the board but am inclined today to post a question.

The question is about finding a cleanup-crew that can handle living in a tank that has salt added to it. Are there freshwater fish, shrimp, creatures that can handle salt in their environment?

Earlier I posted in the Bottomfeeder forum but thought that including it here might be a good idea also. This is a link to the thread : http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34090

Thank you very much for any info you can share.
Kit
 
Salt levels

Thank you for your question/interest.

They reported adding 2 tsp/gal even at water changes and without monitoring levels. However, I have recommended that they research the decision to add salt and learn how to manage it properly. In my "world" :troll: we do not have any reason to add salt to a tank as we don't keep fish that "require" it and have plecos or other scaleless/sensitive fish (loaches) in every tank.

I am interested in finding info about freshwater "algae eating creatures" that can withstand some level of salt. Are there any for brackish water?

Thank you again,
Kit
 
You can always try using snails. However, 2 tsp per gallon (though a usless thing for freshwater fish) shoudl not hurt freshwater fish. In fact it is a standard ich fighting treatment that worksfine with plecos and cory catfish. Was the salt just dumped into the tank or dissolved fish? And what type of salt is it? I suspect NaCl or maybe salt for freshwater aquariums (which is mostly NaCl and good only for medication).
 
Could you explain further...

TKOS, Thanks for the response.

Could you please explain what salt does as a treatment for ich?

Also, what is the recommended dosage and time span?

I would like to completely understand this thought process.

The person I am talking with uses salt regularly and the 2tsp/gal is used even during water changes. Any thoughts?

Kit
 
do you want a brackish tank? or a freshwater tank? if you want a brackish tank ask about that in that forum. If you want a freshwater tank you don't need to add any salt. For Ick you want to add salt and raise the temp to around 84 do this for at least a week, a few days after there are no signs of ick.
 
mmm, mabey a bit of a waste of time adding that much salt all the time. As far as i understand salt just helps whatever treatment your are using. it can also promote the slime coat and helping in healing wounds(nips ect...)
Im not sure about this but it can help with the osmotic pressure, this is todo with diffrent pressures in the fish. Not really heard much about this. Hope this helps!
 
For clarification I will copy and paste my original post that I had linked

Hi,
I lurk here, but thought I would check in with a question...

DH and I have had tanks for years and are involved with MANY different types of plecos. (DH Recently acquired Zebra's they are in quarantine!!)

I am involved in a discussion about appropriate choices for a tank that has 2 tsp/gal of salt added to it regularly without monitoring of levels. This is NOT one of our tanks. The owner had added a pleco for cleanup and it died within hours, no surprise given the salinity level. I have explained about scaleless fish, their sensitivity to water conditions, and asked them to research the decision they have made to regularly add salt. In addition I would like to be able to intelligently recommend some sort of clean up crew that would be appropriate (live AND thrive) in this tanks water params.

Any suggestions or information would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance, Kit

So the ultimate question is... what type of algae eating crew can handle some salt for the person I am trying to get help for.

Thank you
 
There are shrimp that seem to handle, possibly even like salt. I know of one person who bred amano's and recomended salt as a help to this process. I have no personal experience with this though. Some types of ghost shrimp are brackish and would handle a salted tank well. otherwise I don't know.

As far as you question on salt with ICH, Salt interupts the life cycle of ich, and therefore is a cheap low stress treatment that will totally irradicate a tank of ich. the usual reccomendation is 1-3 tsp per gallon for at least 2 weeks. Long term that would be too much especially for fish like pleco's, but short term it is fine and usually IME far less stressful to sensative fish than Meds. Raising the temp in conjunction with any ich treatment speeds up the life cycle and helps get the job done faster. ICH also cannot survive temps above 86*F so the salt and heat combined are a sure fire way to kill it off.
one article for additional questions on ich, one to share with you friends on salt use. it may help them.
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml
http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/salt.shtml
HTH
Dave
 
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