Salt???

[IceH2O]

Ok I've been doing WCs daily..started out at 20% and moved it up to 33%,not sure I could do a 50% without removing one of my fish as I have a 20 L and when I take out the equilavent of 6 gallons it looks to be about half empty and the GF has barely any room as he is quite tall.I figure with gravel,caves and plants its closer to 18 gallons so 6 would be 33%..tomorrow I'll try 8 gallons which will be closer to 40%.

My Ph is 7
Am 0
Nitrites are below .25 but they're not 0
Nitrates were thru the roof but I can tell they are dropping with the water changes,not as red.

My question is this...I've heard salt would help with the toxicity of the nitrites.Everything says aquarium salt but would Mortons Salt work? The only thing in it is salt and calcium silicate.If so how much per gallon should I use?

I know I'm overstocked and the GF is the main culprit.But the Am is at 0,why aren't the nitrites following? If anything they seem to be steady.My tap has 0 Trites so i'm not introducing any.

I've also added more airation to help add 02 to the water as not to stress the fish as much.

Any other ideas to help drop the Trites?

 

[indiginess]

water changes are the only real remedy for nitrites at this stage...

if you are going to add salt, i would guess (guess) that 1/2 a teaspoon per gallon would be sufficient to help out your fish.

mortons should be fine.

edit: i'm just guessing on the salt content... even less might be enough. its the chloride ion you are after, as it helps inhibit nitrite uptake.

 

[TKOS]

Salt does help to ward off the effects of nitrite poisoning and you can easily add 1 tsp per gallon of water. Oh and Morton's salt is just fine. NaCl is what is helpful in this case. You idssolve it before adding it to the tank.

Of course that being said less than 0.25ppm isn't too bad and can easily be controlled with just water changes so salt really isn't needed. If it spikes higher and is hard to control then I would definately consider it.

 

[IceH2O]

What I'm more worried about is that the Trites haven't dropped..I have done 20% WCs for 4 days and 33% WCs for 2 days and there has been no change in Trites..The color in the tube is exactly the same..between 0 and .25...I will continue the WCs trying 40% starting tomorrow...I just thought Trites would have dropped to 0 by now.

I'll hold off on the salt for now,I'll only add if it jumps over.25..

At least the Trates seem to be coming down.

I will NEVER skip WCs again!

 

[rrkss]

Morton's salt will help but be prepared to face diatoms since you will be adding silicates to the water.

 

[RTR]

Silicates are practicaly insoluble. Where on earth did you hear that? I do not believe it. References, please