i was wondering if i could use some aquarium salt for my fish and albino corys?i heard that salt is not good for corys though.any suggestions?i have done alot of water changes because my tank is cycling so my fish are stressed.oh and my nitrites are really high too about 2.0 ppm.can i do water changes back to back lets say a 35% water change then a 25% water change?i know alot of questions but i really want my fish to live.Thanks
can i use aquarium salt
- Thread starter Fishy_Fun
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Lupin
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- Sep 21, 2006
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No need to use salt. What test kit are you using? Do plenty of water changes until the nitrites are zero.
the only thing salt will do is make your fish slimey, which might help their scales but not their gills....don't over do the water changes though or you'll just be prolonging the cycle.
Fishy_Fun
You have asked several questions.
Something is wrong out there in your fish keeping world.
2.0 is toxic to fish and will be lethal if the fish are exposed to it for a week or two.
IMHO (and I assume that you know the basics)
1) Immediately perform a 50% WC;
2) Rinse your mechanical media in the water from your tank;
3) Check you filtration equipment in order to ensure that it is working;
4) Remove any deleterious material from the bottom of your tank;
5) Do not feed for two days and then feed 1/4 the quantity which you have been feeding for seven days;
6) Check the concentration of your nitrites tomorrow: if the concentration is 0.4% to 0.8% perform a 25% WC: if the concentration is above 0.8% perform a 50% WC.
7) Continue 2), 3), 4) and 6) until your nitrite concentration is zero.
8) Subsequently a weekly 25% WC may be appropriate.
(BTW: I do not understand how you can have had this magnitude of nitrite spike without an associated ammonia spike.)
Take my following words with a "grain of salt" (no pun intended) as the induction of salt into a fresh water aquarium is a "currently hotly debated topic".
IMHO do not add aquarium salt to your tank now!!!
Once your tank and filtration media is functioning in uniform, steady state mode adding 1.5 teaspoons of aquarium salt to your tank every couple of months I believe to be appropriate.
TR
You have asked several questions.
Something is wrong out there in your fish keeping world.
2.0 is toxic to fish and will be lethal if the fish are exposed to it for a week or two.
IMHO (and I assume that you know the basics)
1) Immediately perform a 50% WC;
2) Rinse your mechanical media in the water from your tank;
3) Check you filtration equipment in order to ensure that it is working;
4) Remove any deleterious material from the bottom of your tank;
5) Do not feed for two days and then feed 1/4 the quantity which you have been feeding for seven days;
6) Check the concentration of your nitrites tomorrow: if the concentration is 0.4% to 0.8% perform a 25% WC: if the concentration is above 0.8% perform a 50% WC.
7) Continue 2), 3), 4) and 6) until your nitrite concentration is zero.
8) Subsequently a weekly 25% WC may be appropriate.
(BTW: I do not understand how you can have had this magnitude of nitrite spike without an associated ammonia spike.)
Take my following words with a "grain of salt" (no pun intended) as the induction of salt into a fresh water aquarium is a "currently hotly debated topic".
IMHO do not add aquarium salt to your tank now!!!
Once your tank and filtration media is functioning in uniform, steady state mode adding 1.5 teaspoons of aquarium salt to your tank every couple of months I believe to be appropriate.
TR
I would suggest you not add salt to the aquarium while doing a fishy cycle because of all the water changes you'll be doing. You'll go through tons of aquarium salt keeping the salinity up, and the possible changes in salinity at every PWC will add stress to an already stressful time for the fish.
As far as how big to make your PWC's, it depends how high your levels are to begin with. I ended up having to fishy cycle when I first started out, too. I did 75-80% PWC daily on my 29g. My fish were producing 1ppm of ammonia daily. At the time, I thought the goal was to bring ammonia down to 0.25, but it's really to keep it below 0.25. But anyway, as long as you aren't starting with ridiculously high levels (like 5+ I'd say), then big PWC's should be fine. If you're concerned about pH fluctuations, split PWC's up into twice daily. Depends how much your fish are producing.
Priority #1 is safety of the fish, which will require as many water changes as it takes to keep ammonia and nitrites below 0.25ppm. Water changes will not hender the cycle from happening. If you have 2 tanks... one with 0.25 ammonia/nitrites and one with 5.0 ammonia/nitrites, they'll cycle in the same time. The second tank will just support a larger bio-load once it has cycled. Since bacteria colonizes on surfaces (mostly in the filter), you won't loose bacteria by doing water changes. If anything, the tank with lower nitrites would reach 0 nitrites quickest because the bacteria doesn't have to multiply as much before supporting the bio-load present. High spikes resulting in support for large bio-loads... that is for fishless cycling, not cycling with fish in tank.
echoofformless
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