# How much salt?



## Ape-Fish (Jul 1, 2006)

According to a tropical fish medical web site a solution of aquarium salt at 0.01 to 0.2 percent can be tolerated by most fish and will eliminate single celled protozoans in the water column. :thumb:

So to calculate how many teaspoons of salt to add - there are 768 tea spoons in one US gallon, so one teaspoon of salt per gallon gives you a concentration of 1/768 per gallon, or 0.0013 of salt per gallon, or 0.13 percent per gallon.
Before i go and put too much salt in my tank, does everyone concur with this calculation?

If correct, then i would need to put 100 teaspoons of salt into a 100 US gallon tank to reach a concentration of 0.13 percent in the tank. Again, does everyone concur with this calculation?

Here's a quote from the article i got this from:
_"Finally, a light solution of 0.01 to 0.2 percent salt *may be used as a permanent treatment in recirculating systems*. Such levels are quite effective in eliminating single-cell protozoans. Most fish can tolerate prolonged exposure to salt at these concentrations; however, tetras and fish that navigate by electrical field (e.g., elephant nose) should not be maintained in salt."
_
Here's the link to the page:
http://www.simplydiscus.com/library/dis ... alt2.shtml

Finally, does this sound reasonable in your experience?

Cheers,


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## Rare7 (Dec 31, 2014)

I just helped a friend who is a little hard headed with his 150g aquarium with Ich/Ick. We did the heat treatment at 89-90 with his powerheads aiming at the surface. We added 3 tablespoon not teaspoons per 5gallon. I think it was close to 6cups of salt. No, this wasnt dont all at once. The salt was added slowly in a 2 day span. In less then 3/4 days no more white spots. We left this solution for 2 weeks (removing 30% PWC every week) & heat on for 2 weeks. The solution slowly was removed by doing 30% PWC for 5 weeks.

We monitor his african cichlids & fish IMHO show no sign of stress. They acted pretty normal with the exception of being more active and hungry which was expected. They weren't rubbing on the rocks on the 3/4 day of treatment and the rapid gill breathing was reduced & by the 5 normal gill breathing. After 2 weeks, the heaters were turned off. ! weeks i fine he just wanted to make sure..lol

My point is why do the salt treatment if it's not needed and fish are doing well. If you do your PWC, feed them, the fish take care of themselves. We are their keepers of water- so as long as they are active, swimming , your PWC is enough.

Now, my story was more than i anticipate, but my friend as i stated was hardheaded. He got his german red peacock from a fish farm here & didnt quarantine him for 4weeks. He has done this for years but felt like biting the bullet and well, look at his outcome. African cichlid can tolerate salty water so of speak very well, so you are okay, buy why if you fish are fine.

So, in conclusion- no salt IMHO. Use the K.I.S.S rule....enjoy


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

If you are looking at % by volume, using teaspoons might work, I would think you would do it by weight. If you were doing this using the much simpler metric system, 10 grams of salt per litre would give you .01% solution. This would be 10ppm. Of course the problem becomes weighing the salt. When I was calculating dosage of copper sulphate for my swimming pool, I had the pharmacist weigh out 92 grams for my 92,000 litre pool. I then determined that this amount was 4 tablespoons, and dosed accordingly.
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Having said that, I agree with the above post that constant salt use is neither necessary or even advisable.


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## Ape-Fish (Jul 1, 2006)

Thanks for the replies, guys. To clarify, i have a sick tank, that has killed off three of my prize Severums, but i have one Severum left that is struggling with whatever it is that killed to other three, and all my 30 cories, numerous congo tetras, over the last year. they have dies off slowly as many of the treatments i have tried over the year slowed or halted the advance of disease but has never eradicated it. i suspect columnaris.

I have put 5 tablespoons into my 130G tank, knowing that this is far lower than a 'salt cure' treatment, and yet the mucus spots on my severum are halted and receding somewhat, and flashing, twitching, and rapid gilling has stopped, within four days of treatment with this tiny amount of salt.

I have an automatic water changer, that adds water at th same time as it takes it out - approximately 60 gallons of fresh is pumped through per 24 hour day.

The irony is, that my sick tank problems started when i began running this water exchange system. I believe this is because the pH rises to about 6.8pH when the system is running, while it plummets to around 5pH if i shut it off.

Some protozoa do poorly at a lower pH and i think this is also partly responsible for this. When i added the salt (4 TBs per 130G), i also turned off the water exchange, and the pH has subsequently dropped to just above 5.22pH.

I will be turning the water changer on again for a while to day, and will monitor the Severum, but i expect it may begin to develop these symptoms again as the pH rises and salt diminishes over the coarse of the next few days. I will keep y'all posted. Does this all make sense?

Happy New Year to you, and to all the folks at cichlid forum.
Cheers,


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## Rare7 (Dec 31, 2014)

The pH fluctuation is not a good thing as you know. There is a lot going on in your aquarium that is hard to even start without knowing all the information. IMHO it will still be a puzzle to even figure out even with all the information. I like the 60g 24hrs exchange- here we will use ground water/aquifers for something like that. With your system there is just too many variables & you should look for someone in your community that does this for a living or a club in your area so they can start helping you out. Good luck!


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## Ape-Fish (Jul 1, 2006)

Thanks, Rare7. Will do. 
A couple of things i forgot to mention. 
In my region, the tap water has almost zero mineral content, and as a result pH naturally swings as there is no hardness to stabilize pH. It is pH6.8 from the tap. 
I also have something called "Interpet Anti-Parasite" in the tank at this time, and this may help explain the low pH, and why it rises rapidly when the exchanger is turned on.
Finally, in the past, when i have the water exchanger running for few weeks the tank pH reaches very close to the pH6.8 as from the tap.
I have also just thoroughly cleaned the sump which was full of sludge - maybe that will help clear this up.
Thanks again for your help.
Best,


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