Safe to add a tbsp aquarium salt per 5 gallons in planted tank?

[randokam]

Hi all and here's a long explanation before my question:

I recently transferred my fish from a 29 gallon tank to a 46 gallon bowfront.
The fish seemed pretty stressed after the move, even though I let them hang out in a plastic bag for 20 min before letting them loose (both tanks were set to 78 degrees). btw - I transferred the filter media from my old filter to the new one after having the new tank run with filter and plants for about a week or so (also did a full water change when I did that). This is the first time I have done this - kinda been freaking me out especially since the last time I did a fishless cycle.

Anyways, I have 4 angelfish, 3 rainbow sharks, 1 eclipse catfish. After a few days, the angels all developed very sleightly cloudy eyes, and one of them started to show what might be ich on its dorsal fin, so I ended up gradually raising the temp to 84 degrees.

I'm interested in using salt in the tank to not only help treat the possible ich, but also help relieve stress on the fish in their new home (although I understand that 84 degrees and higher are not exactly "relaxing" for them).

But, I have a "medium" amount of plants in my tank consisting of:

Wisteria
Amazon Swords
a couple of Cryptocoryns
2 small Anubias nanas

Now my question:
I keep reading and was also advised from a lfs to use 1 tablespoon for every 5 gallons of water. However, I neglected to ask about my plants. Is that amount of salt safe for plants?

Does it sound reasonable to only use 4.5 tablespoons of aquarium salt? (roughly 1/2 the recommended amount) Or will this be ineffective at either helping ease stress or the possible ich?

BTW - this is my first new thread! (and 2nd post)

camera phone pic:

 

[dbosman]

No salt. You have freshwater tropical fish. If you want some salt, feed the fish some Nori.
You can read my tirade on the abuse of salt, elsewhere.
If you'd like a "natural" help, look into the use of leaves for tannin.

You didn't list your water parameters, but I can guess. Ammonia is above .25 ppm and Nitrite is rising.
I'm going to have to suggest 30% - 50% water changes - with no gravel vacuuming - each day for a week, or longer depending on how your water tests.
If you post your test results, you may get other suggestions.

It's too late now, but you should have moved as much water as you could from the 29 into the 46 and topped that off with fresh, treated tap water.

 

[SubluxT7]

I tend to disagree with db. New water shouldn't have made much difference (assuming the water was dechlorinated with prime or something similar). The old tank water harbors little to no bacteria. The filter should have your bacteria source and if you placed the old media filter into the new tank all your bacteria should be there. My question is how often before the tank switch did you do water changes in the old tank? Ive seen people just top off their tank for months and decide its gross one day, change out 50% of their water, and the next day all fish dead. The fish simply acclimated to the dirty tank and the switch was too much for them to handle. Keep an eye on your water paramters closley. I also notice you have driftwood in the 46. If it is new it can cause the ph to drop. Substrates like eco complete (for plants) can cause the ph to rise. What did your old tank have in it?

Oh. Sorry I cant help with the plants. I am a complete novice in that area myself.

 

[homedog98]

+1 sublux. While not recommended for permanent use in an aquarium, aquarium salt is ok if used solely for medicinal purposes. Also, I highly doubt that's ich on the angels. Ich looks like someone sprinkled salt all over your fish, not on just one area. A picture of the angels would help tremendously. A salt bath for the angels might be a better idea considering the plants. Basically, you fill a one gallon (or more) bucket up with fresh, treated, tap water, add 2 tablespoons of aquarium or Epsom salt, dissolve, and acclimate the sick fish to the water. Bath each fish individually for 15-30 minutes, and watch them like hawks to make sure they don't have a bad reaction. Do this 2-3 times a day. Also, you have a stocking problem... Rainbow sharks really shouldn't be with angels, and there shouldn't be more then one rainbow shark per tank. Eclipse catfish also need bigger I think... But don't hold me to that. some water parameters would also be nice if you get the chance.

 

[stephcps]

I also do not think the old water would help...the most bacteria is in the filter and the substrate. I usually also fill a couple of knee high hose with old substrate and put in new tank along with old media from the filter. Just kinda extra insurance. I am not sure about that much salt for plants. I use half that much (1 tablespoon per 10 gallons) in my discus tank n occassion with no harm to my plants. I also keep or have kept those same plants at that temp without any issues as well. I would do search for "treating ich with salt". there are a LOT of threads on this topic and may provide you answers. A salt bath is one way...but having done it with my discus...it is stressful for the fish and you!!

 

[randokam]

Actually, my water has been doing fine, just forgot to include the readings:

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm
Nitrite: 10ppm
Hardness: 120ppm (down from 180-200 ppm 2 days ago)
Alkalinity: 120ppm (up from 60 ppm 2 days ago)
pH: 7.0 (down from 7.4 2 days ago)

I had the tank with just substrate (new - 50 lbs. natural medium gravel and 10 lbs. black beauty, new plants (amazon swords and wisteria) running in it for a week before moving the fish over on 8/6. One reason I did this is because I resealed the tank and wanted to run it for a while to make sure the seals were holding up okay.

Today is day 5. I have had the tank at 84 degrees for 2.5 days now.

A few of the plants and much of the driftwood is from the old tank.

I did 30-50% water changes once every 3 weeks when I was running my 29 gallon. I never left it longer than 5 weeks and it had been running very well for about 10 months.

I've said possibly ich because I'm not sure if it is ich. However, the angels did get stressed out.
At 84 degrees all the fish seem to be doing okay. Their eyes seem to be clearing up as well. Here's a few pics of the angel that had the "gunk" on its dorsal fin. All my angels have some cloudiness in their eye/eyes. It was hard to photograph the white cloudiness in the eye, but I think you can tell by looking at these:



I think I'm going to leave the tank at 84 for a while (7-10 days) just to be sure. Plus, I'll try adding 1 tbsp per 10 gallons (thanks steph) aquarium salt. The salt bath seems too extreme for me (even if it isn't for the fish!), but if their condition gets worse then I may consider it. I'm starting up a 10 gallon tank tomorrow to keep as a quarantine tank. The plants I have are mostly low light requirement and hardy.

I'm thinking that they were just stressed out from the move, and may have lost their slime coat. Could the gunk I saw could have been the slime coat coming off?

And I think I'll only use the aquarium salt until I can get through this rough patch.

Really? Only 1 rainbow shark per tank and they're no good with angels? So far they've been coexisting okay, even with each other. They seem healthy and I haven't seen them fighting (well not yet anyways). I'm more worried about the eclipse cat. I think there's a good chance he'll outgrow this tank (he's about 4" right now and seems to be growing fast).

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

[Khemul]

Nitrite: 10ppm

Err...you may want to recheck that. Or start some major water changes because that is off the scale for a lot of test kits (considering that just about anywhere on the scale is considered potentially deadly, this is very bad).

 

[randokam]

whoops, that was a typo

that's 0 ppm nitrite

10 ppm nitrate

thanks for catching that.

 

[randokam]

Well nuts. Did some reading on the rainbow sharks, I think the reason the rainbows and the angelfish have been okay is because the rainbows are still pretty small and the angelfish are much larger. I may have to separate them from each other when the rainbows get bigger (or before).

 

[homedog98]

You'll also need to separate the rainbows from each other as well.