Epsom salt as digestive system aid in main tank

[Pittbull]

Coolness efors my buddy Latino well as for me i don't add anything unless its a treatment for any illness that may pop up and honestly i don't have issues with disease and parasites i try to keep quality water..

No i am not saying your water is bad either i am just saying i keep my tanks very clean with water changes and maintenance, i never have issues, every now and then i will get ich due to a stressfull event but i havent had the ich in such a long time, actually i cant remember when..

Its all good aye take care amigo..

 

[excuzzzeme]

In regards to the use of Epsom salts as a long term or constant treatment, I haven't seen much if any research on the topic. I would be curious to know if constant exposure would be cause to lose it's effectiveness. Sort of something along the lines of constant use of an antibiotic renders it ineffective on the constant user. Has anyone found anything in that regard?

 

[AfroCichlid]

In regards to the use of Epsom salts as a long term or constant treatment, I haven't seen much if any research on the topic. I would be curious to know if constant exposure would be cause to lose it's effectiveness. Sort of something along the lines of constant use of an antibiotic renders it ineffective on the constant user. Has anyone found anything in that regard?

That's an interesting question. From the information I have gathered on the web, not a whole lot of research has been done on the subject of salt in the freshwater aquarium. That's why we keep coming up with this question.

My guess would be no- it does not lose it's effectiveness. The potential problems I see are the increasing concentrations from adding the same amount at every water change, or the rapid removal of salt from a tank that has been maintained that way. I know my LFS uses salt regularly; the next time I'm in there I will ask him if the salt is still as effective for treating ich. Still, I would guess that the salt dosage needed would be higher than a non- salted tank, and the increase in water temp changes the dynamics of the experiment. The effectiveness would increase as the temp does, speeding the life cycle of the ich. An interesting topic. I have not had ich in my tanks in years ( 7 to be exact ), and it was caused by live feeders. I did not use salt as a treatment, and I do not us it as a regular additive, as my water params are fine without it.
In Efors specific case, again I would use it as a therapeutic aid when needed, and not to buffer my water. My water is 8.4 and steady, telling my my GH is fine and hard enough to be stable. I see then no reason for the use of salt. IF the same can be said of Efors water, although not an ideal pH for Rift Lake species, it is within an acceptable range. If the pH drops rapidly throughout the week, then perhaps there is cause to buffer with salt. If it remains steady, I still see no reason to treat on a constant basis.

 

[KarlTh]

DrVader - baking soda shouldn't raise GH at all as aquarium GH tests measure Ca++ and Mg++, neither of which are present in baking soda.

 

[efors]

Thanks for all your replies, folks!
Reading all your comments, my final decision is this: I will buy a kit to measure the GH; if it is below 200ppm, then I will add Epsom salt with each water change, to keep the GH between 200-400 ppm; but if the GH is in this range, I will not add any Epsom salt with the water changes; I will use it only as a temporary treatment when needed.
Thanks again, my friends!!!

 

[DrNo]

DrVader - baking soda shouldn't raise GH at all as aquarium GH tests measure Ca++ and Mg++, neither of which are present in baking soda.

Awesome clarification (as usual) Karl.

The TDS value will actually be affected to some unknown degree but you (as tester) will be unable to assess the magnitude due to limitations of the GH test.

 

[KarlTh]

You have to do some detective work. If GH is low but KH high (some people will tell you that's impossible because they mistake GH for total hardness and KH for temporary hardness; neither of these are actually the case) then you've probably got a lot of sodium bicarbonate there. In that case, the KH is the best approximation to the TDS.

If GH and KH are the same, or near enough, then the minerals are mostly in the form of calcium and magnesium bicarbonate (i.e. nearly all temporary hardness; limescale Hell) and using either value on its own would give you an approximation to TDS.

If GH is much higher than KH, then you've got mostly sulphates, chlorides and oxides of calcium and magnesium (permanent hardness; doesn't cause limescale but does stop the soap from lathering) and GH is your best approximation to TDS.

Put simply, measure both, and go with the highest one. The worst case scenario would be water high in chlorides, oxides or sulphates of sodium (as in water from a sodium chloride recharged ion exchange resin water softener); in this case GH and KH would both test low whilst the TDS was actually quite high.

Ever wish we'd never discovered how important osmosis and TDS were (which are hard to directly measure) and still got all excited about pH (which is easy)

 

[efors]

^Awesome, Karl! Now I can see it much more clearly.