Ich and salt

Ack! my friend said iodized salt = very bad for what it does to the water ions....his dad and grandpa have owned a LFS for decades and he swears by constant but light salt use...I guess it's one of those everyone has an opinion topics
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Unfortunately it's one of those Aquarium myth things. Opinions are choices with similar results, Salt is harmful to freshwater fish, and this can and has been proven over and over and over. Every argument that anyone has for its long term use can easily be refuted with Science and logic. Na and Cl content is low in Freshwater, and even the rift lakes contain the equivalent of less than 1/4 teaspoon od Sodium Chloride per gallon. If you don't have ich you have no need to prevent it, If your fish are healthy and your tank is clean you hav eno worry of fungus, if your bio-filter is in good shape you have no worry of nitrites, and if you have hard water fish (Mollies) and want to help them out Calcium and magnesium are what they would live with in nature. If you have Brackish fish A marine mix is needed not just NaCl. And if you look at what is in a marine slat mix you'll find it is heavy in calcium and magnesium and will also contain some iodide just like you table salt, but in much higher quantities.

The iodide level in table salt is so minute it would have no real effect, Additionally I frequently add marine iodide to my tanks for the shrimp without ill effects on my fish.
Some Kosher and pickling salts contain Prussiate of soda, which is likewise in really small quantities and not a concern.

dave
 
aaron6175 said:
what salt did you use? just the salt they use for marine aquariums?
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I used Doc Fishwells FW Aquarium salt. I had to take back some meds to the LfS so I just replaced it with the salt. I am in day 2 of my salt bath now and everything seems to be ok. I am around 2 - 2 1/4 tsp. per gallon. The only odd behaviour I've seen is from my pearl gouramis, they splash at the top of the water every now and again. THey are still eating and looking healthy so I think they should be ok.
 
Sounds like a good plan to me. Rock salt will do the trick. If you taste a drop of aquarium water, and it tastes salty, you have enough salt in to kill the ich. Just test your water daily for ammonia and nitrites to make sure you did not shock the biofilter.
 
I checked my parameters today and everything was fine.
0 Ammonia
0 Nitrites
20 Nitrates
7.0 pH

:clap:
 
kooter said:
I used Doc Fishwells FW Aquarium salt. I had to take back some meds to the LfS so I just replaced it with the salt. I am in day 2 of my salt bath now and everything seems to be ok. I am around 2 - 2 1/4 tsp. per gallon. The only odd behaviour I've seen is from my pearl gouramis, they splash at the top of the water every now and again. THey are still eating and looking healthy so I think they should be ok.
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I have heard differing opinions about the amount of salt required. I have heard as low as 1 tsp per 5 liters (1 tsp per 1.32G) and as high as 3 tsp per gallon. I am starting at 1tsp per gallon and will increase to 2 tsp per gallon within 48 hours.

I guess the amount of salt depends on the type of fish. Correct?

Also, is common table salt ok?

Thanks!
 
I've just gone through a round of Ick, brought in with a few Rummy-nose Tetras from the LFS. There is (unfortunately) much confusing information on Ick around on the Web. Some is plain wrong, such as "Ick is always present in tanks and only comes out when fish are stressed". Here are two articles I've found to be helpful:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88601

I used 2 thee spoons of salt per gallon for my tank, together with raising the temperature to 28 - 28.5 Centigrade. Make sure you know the actual water volume of your tank. My 38 gallon for example only holds just under 30 gallons of water, a 20% difference! The salt and temperature changes were introduced over a 2-day period.

All was well for about a week into the 10-day treatment, no signs of stress on any of the fish, and all visible signs of Ick had disappeared. Then several died in quick succession, strangely they were hardy species that should be salt tolerant. I guess it was just the overall stress from the rather radical water chemistry and temperature changes that did them in (by the way NH4, NO2, and NO3 tested at zero throughout). I lost a breeding pair of Kribs, a Platy, an Amano Shrimp, and two Pygmy Corys (granted, those are not salt tolerant). Strangely the fish that should have been most sensitive came through with flying colors, there are a number of Neon Tetras, Cardinal Tetras, and Rummy-nose Tetras in there. The plants did not like all that salt either, most of them started wilting away, plus a new type of algae appeared on light-soaked surfaces (brown/black).

After 10 days I did a 30% water change every 3 days to slowly bring down the salt level. That's now 3 weeks ago and everything is back to normal. No more dead fish, no Ick. The plants are growing healthily again too.

-Rob-
 
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umm... this thread is from 5-5-06
 
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