I basically wanted to post this and get some info before I did something really stupid.
I've personally never used salt before in any tank for any reason. I've actually never used any measure/medication to correct any illness or the like at all. Call me lucky, but I've just never had a problem with it.
First let me set the stage:
56 Gallon tank;fluval 204(crap);penguin 350(also crap);whisper whatever size is the second to biggest at wally world and strangely seems to work better than the other two (looking into changing them all out for a rena xp2). Plus one of those eco-aqualizer things(i dont know if this stupid thing does anything or not). I know that seems like alot of filtration, but I'm finding these big square tanks difficult to filter, no matter what I put in them.
In the tank:
fancy guppies;4 males;2 females;as of today about 10 fry
1 sterabi cory
5 or 6 least killifish fry and couple juvies
20 or so small fancy MTS
1 alligator (or rhino) pleco 4"
1 king tiger pleco 2.5" not sure of sex
5 juvie/fry imperial tiger plecos < 1"
2 ghost shrimp
5 RCS
mystery snails;2 female adult;1 male adult; 9 or 10 babies ( I mean BA-BY, these guys are eenie weenie teenie, so there may actually be a few more than what I've seen yet.)
40 lbs of "Eco Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate" (2 20lb bags)
15 lbs of Estes Black Sand
about a pound or so of various small to medium sized lava rocks placed about
various live plants, no plastic ones
a big ol' chunk of white marble (which btw looks really cool when all the RCS hang out on it.)
ok, now to the problem (or the one most prevalent in my mind. I'm sure a few of you guys can find a few within the previous info lol).
Two of the male guppies have begun "flashing" against one of my plants. And it's only on this one plant, so I ignored it and just told myself, "well... maybe they jsut really dig that plant...". But I am now seeing on the top right in front of the dorsal fin on one of them a small roundish spot developing. It's white but doesn't seem to have any substance to it like a fungus, and almost seems more like the area has just lost the color (best way I can explain it & my digital camera is poo). What I was wanting to do was to add a tad of salt just as a precautionary measure in the case of ich, even though I'm not positive that's what it is (doesn't really look like it, but I'm not sure what it is anyway). I was going to add 1/8th of a teaspoon of regular ol' table salt per this post http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=648953&postcount=7&highlight=table salt
So, I counted it up and in a 56 gallon tank (if i did the math right) that comes to 8 teaspoons, which seems a little bit excessive. So I figured I'd post about it and get some input/feedback before I did anything. I'm also concerned about the salt and the baby mystery snails and MTS snails. Thanks in advance for any info and insight you guys have.
btw, all levels are fine. no spikes on anything. water is a tiny tiny bit hard.
I've personally never used salt before in any tank for any reason. I've actually never used any measure/medication to correct any illness or the like at all. Call me lucky, but I've just never had a problem with it.
First let me set the stage:
56 Gallon tank;fluval 204(crap);penguin 350(also crap);whisper whatever size is the second to biggest at wally world and strangely seems to work better than the other two (looking into changing them all out for a rena xp2). Plus one of those eco-aqualizer things(i dont know if this stupid thing does anything or not). I know that seems like alot of filtration, but I'm finding these big square tanks difficult to filter, no matter what I put in them.
In the tank:
fancy guppies;4 males;2 females;as of today about 10 fry
1 sterabi cory
5 or 6 least killifish fry and couple juvies
20 or so small fancy MTS
1 alligator (or rhino) pleco 4"
1 king tiger pleco 2.5" not sure of sex
5 juvie/fry imperial tiger plecos < 1"
2 ghost shrimp
5 RCS
mystery snails;2 female adult;1 male adult; 9 or 10 babies ( I mean BA-BY, these guys are eenie weenie teenie, so there may actually be a few more than what I've seen yet.)
40 lbs of "Eco Complete Planted Aquarium Substrate" (2 20lb bags)
15 lbs of Estes Black Sand
about a pound or so of various small to medium sized lava rocks placed about
various live plants, no plastic ones
a big ol' chunk of white marble (which btw looks really cool when all the RCS hang out on it.)
ok, now to the problem (or the one most prevalent in my mind. I'm sure a few of you guys can find a few within the previous info lol).
Two of the male guppies have begun "flashing" against one of my plants. And it's only on this one plant, so I ignored it and just told myself, "well... maybe they jsut really dig that plant...". But I am now seeing on the top right in front of the dorsal fin on one of them a small roundish spot developing. It's white but doesn't seem to have any substance to it like a fungus, and almost seems more like the area has just lost the color (best way I can explain it & my digital camera is poo). What I was wanting to do was to add a tad of salt just as a precautionary measure in the case of ich, even though I'm not positive that's what it is (doesn't really look like it, but I'm not sure what it is anyway). I was going to add 1/8th of a teaspoon of regular ol' table salt per this post http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=648953&postcount=7&highlight=table salt
So, I counted it up and in a 56 gallon tank (if i did the math right) that comes to 8 teaspoons, which seems a little bit excessive. So I figured I'd post about it and get some input/feedback before I did anything. I'm also concerned about the salt and the baby mystery snails and MTS snails. Thanks in advance for any info and insight you guys have.
btw, all levels are fine. no spikes on anything. water is a tiny tiny bit hard.
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