Salt Treatment

[grannylvsfish]

to make it easy on yourself - measure out enough salt for the whole tank dosage all at once. dissolve about 1/4 of it in a bucket of tank water, and add it to the tank. a few hours later, add another quarter. when i had ich trouble, i took 2 days to add the full dose, adding salt in the morning and in the evening. i only used 1 tsp/g though. with the temp you could go up to maybe 84, but watch your fish for problems. if they start to gasp either lower the temp again or reduce the water level so there is more surface agitation. sea salt contains a lot of other minerals in it, and is not just pure plain salt. i wouldn't use it.

this is awsome advice. please explain further ok......
so if I have ick I add 1 tsp per gallon to the bucket of water....over the next several days add the water to the tank. not all at once but over a period of several days....... am I right?
so would it be easier to take them out of the tank, ( those that have ick) and put them in a small quarunteen tank an d dose or do the main tank ?
55 gallon means 55 tsps in a bucket of water,.. poured in the tank over several days. until the ick is gone, then do water changes?

 

[jones57742]

I started reading because I didn't want to take anything at face value when the suggestions ranged from 1 tsp/5 gal to 3 tsp/gal.

Good thinking!

The following is "as rough as it gets" due to the volume to mass conversion

1 teaspoon = 5 grams = 5000 milligrams
1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons = 15000 milligrams

1 gallon (US) = 3.79 liters use 4 liters
10 gallons = 40 liters = 400000 milliliters

1 tablespoon / 10 gallons = 15000 milligrams / 400 liters = 150 milligrams / 4 liters =(+/-) 40 milligrams / liter

1 tablespoon / 5 gallons = 80 milligrams / liter

From your recital:
"Salt at low concentrations (0.01 to 0.05% solution) is an excellent means of controlling "Ich" in recirculating systems without harming the biofilter."

0.01% = 100 milligrams / liter
0.05% = 500 milligrams / liter

The moral of the story here is that the 1 tablespoon / 5 gallons with which I am familiar is slightly less than the minimum concentration set forth in the recital but is 7 times less than the maximum concentration set forth in the recital.

TR

 

[wataugachicken]

this is awsome advice. please explain further ok......
so if I have ick I add 1 tsp per gallon to the bucket of water....over the next several days add the water to the tank. not all at once but over a period of several days....... am I right?
so would it be easier to take them out of the tank, ( those that have ick) and put them in a small quarunteen tank an d dose or do the main tank ?
55 gallon means 55 tsps in a bucket of water,.. poured in the tank over several days. until the ick is gone, then do water changes?

what i did for my 55g tank was measure out 48 teaspoons of salt into a little bucket. (i used 48 because i accounted for the volume of sand and driftwood in the tank, you don't have to.)then i filled up a clean water bottle with tank water, added about 1/4 of the salt, shook it until the salt dissolved, and poured it into the tank. i did this in the morning of day 1, evening of day 1, morning of day 2, and evening of day 2.

taking the affected fish out of the tank and treating them separately will do nothing because ich does not only live on the fish, in one stage of its life cycle it will fall down into the bottom of the tank or stick to plants/decorations and basically 'hibernate' as it reproduces. if you medicate the fish in a separate tank, any parasites still alive in the main tank will just reinfect the fish. also, if you move the fish you risk losing your cycle in the main tank and having ammonia/nitrite spikes in the hospital tank. as far as the plants - you could put them into a separate tank without fish for 3 weeks or so - that will save them from the salt and is long enough for any ich on them to die.

 

[grannylvsfish]

what i did for my 55g tank was measure out 48 teaspoons of salt into a little bucket. (i used 48 because i accounted for the volume of sand and driftwood in the tank, you don't have to.)then i filled up a clean water bottle with tank water, added about 1/4 of the salt, shook it until the salt dissolved, and poured it into the tank. i did this in the morning of day 1, evening of day 1, morning of day 2, and evening of day 2.

So you did not have to do this any more then the 2 days? and did you just wait then until your fish was healed of the ick and then did water changes when the fish were better?, how many days does it usually take?

taking the affected fish out of the tank and treating them separately will do nothing because ich does not only live on the fish, in one stage of its life cycle it will fall down into the bottom of the tank or stick to plants/decorations and basically 'hibernate' as it reproduces. if you medicate the fish in a separate tank, any parasites still alive in the main tank will just reinfect the fish. also, if you move the fish you risk losing your cycle in the main tank and having ammonia/nitrite spikes in the hospital tank. as far as the plants - you could put them into a separate tank without fish for 3 weeks or so - that will save them from the salt and is long enough for any ich on them to die.

ok, so the whole tank needs to be salted, thanks, and I would remove my plants good, I would hate to loose them! is ick easy to get?

 

[wataugachicken]

ok, so the whole tank needs to be salted, thanks, and I would remove my plants good, I would hate to loose them! is ick easy to get?

i did a water change beforehand (my normal wc is 50%) and then i took 2 days to add all the salt. once the salt was all in the tank, i left it in there for two weeks. since i know my tank is stable and could handle 2 weeks without a water change i did not worry about it.

 

[grannylvsfish]

i did a water change beforehand (my normal wc is 50%) and then i took 2 days to add all the salt. once the salt was all in the tank, i left it in there for two weeks.

awsome ok, this is very good info!! and you raised the temp right? I am going to save this and print it out in case I need this info.
thank you so much!!!

 

[wataugachicken]

i raised temp up to 83-ish.

 

[grannylvsfish]

thank you ! I have copied this info down, I appreciate you answering all my questions.

 

[maxthedog123]

Good thinking!

The following is "as rough as it gets" due to the volume to mass conversion

1 teaspoon = 5 grams = 5000 milligrams
1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons = 15000 milligrams

1 gallon (US) = 3.79 liters use 4 liters
10 gallons = 40 liters = 400000 milliliters

1 tablespoon / 10 gallons = 15000 milligrams / 400 liters = 150 milligrams / 4 liters =(+/-) 40 milligrams / liter

1 tablespoon / 5 gallons = 80 milligrams / liter

From your recital:
"Salt at low concentrations (0.01 to 0.05% solution) is an excellent means of controlling "Ich" in recirculating systems without harming the biofilter."

0.01% = 100 milligrams / liter
0.05% = 500 milligrams / liter

The moral of the story here is that the 1 tablespoon / 5 gallons with which I am familiar is slightly less than the minimum concentration set forth in the recital but is 7 times less than the maximum concentration set forth in the recital.

TR

Jones - I like the fudge factors. You must be an engineer by degree like me. FYI, the best fudge factor for weigth to volume for salt is about 6 g/tsp based on an average density of salt of 1250 g/l.

My first observation is that you are correct about the salinity recommended in that article. I misread the concentration. .01% is indeed 100mg/l or .06 tsp/gal. .05% is .3 tsp/gal.

However, you slipped a digit in your calculation. 10 gallons is ~40 liters (not 400 liters), so 1 tbsp per 10 gallons is really ~400 mg/liter. 1 tbsp per 5 gallons is ~800 mg/liter. Those concentration are way above what is listed in that university article, so I'm off to do more research on salinity concentrations to treat ich.

As I said before, I've seen recommendations from 1tsp/5gal up to 3tsp/gal. UK websites tend to discuss this in ppt. 1ppt=.6tsp/gal. They advise 2-3ppt as the correct dose or 1.2-1.8tsp/gal. I'll get the link I sent out again - were they discussing a dose to prevent ich?

In fact, here is an article (http://www.cichlidmadness.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12781) that advocates something closer to the dose that you suggest at the end.

Interesting....

 

[jones57742]

Max and Folks:

The site on which my protocol for fighting ich is posted has come back up.

Many comments or questions concerning temperature and salt concentrations as well as ramping up and down are addressed in this thread.

The following URL may provide some input:
http://www.fishforums.com/forum/fyi-your-info/17445-ich-fighting-west-texas-style.html


Max:

You must be an engineer by degree like me.

Physics but Engineer by profession and hence being off a decimal place is very, very irritating.

TR