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SALT AS TREATMENT
Submitted by: Lynda Von G
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As it is not wise to keep new or sick fish with healthy fish in the general population, when treating new or sick fish with salt, you should have a 10 gallon quarantine/hospital tank set up that you can use for this purpose. Of course, it's best if the tank is cycled, however, if it isn't, you will need to take the standard precautions for an uncycled tank, i.e., daily testing and daily large water changes, to ensure that the water remains as pristine as possible.
Although "iodized" should only refer to potassium iodide, sodium iodide or iodate, which is not necessarily harmful to fish, iodized salt also contains anti-caking agents which are dangerous to fish. Anti-caking agents are designed to draw large amounts of moisture, and sometimes oil, out of the object it was added to, which, in the case of fish, is not what we want to happen! Some also contain cyanide, which we all know can be dangerous. This is why you are warned against using table salt. Basically, you should see no other ingredient listed except for 100% salt or sodium chloride.
The following anti-caking agents that are added to salt and which you should be aware of and look for when buying salt are: polydimethylsiloxane sodium hexacyanoferrate (II) decahydrate (also known as sodium ferrocyanide or yellow prussiate of soda or YPS), potassium hexacyanoferrate (II) trihydrate (also known as potassium ferrocyanide or YPP), calcium ferrocyanide, sodium bicarbonate, bone phosphate, sodium silicate, silicon dioxide, calcium silicate, magnesium trisilicate, talcum powder, sodium aluminosilicate, potassium aluminium silicate, calcium aluminosilicate, bentonite, aluminium silicate and stearic acid. As some brands of kosher salt contain yellow prussiate of soda, it is always important to read the ingredients.
Also, do not use marine salt as it contains buffers that are very harmful to many freshwater fish.
Because salt can be difficult to measure, depending on the size of the rocks of salt, measuring salt for treatment is usually referenced by volume, i.e., 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3%; however, the measurements for an average-sized rock type salt have been standardized as follows:
0.1%=1 tsp salt per 1 gallon of water.
0.2%=2 tsp salt per 1 gallon of water.
0.3%=3 tsp salt per 1 gallon of water.
Additional measurements that will make measuring easier are:
3 tsp = 1 TBLSP
16 TBLSP = 1 Cup
There are aquarium salts in fish stores that are pre-ground, which is great for ease of dissolution in water, but, as the above-suggested measurements are based on rock-type salts, you will be adding too much salt if you use these measurements with pre-ground aquarium salts. Ground salt contains half again to twice the volume of rock salt, so, you will need to recalculate these measurements if you choose to use the pre-ground aquarium salts.
You will want to first determine the level of salt you want to add based on the level of illness of the fish. You may also choose to start with a lower level and then increase it based on the response, or lack of response, of your fish to the treatment.
For a 10 Gallon Tank
Start with 0.1% salt, or 10 tsp salt.
If you choose to increase the level of salt to higher levels:
For 0.2%: Wait 12 hours, then bring the salt up to 0.2% by adding an additional 10 tsp salt.
For 0.3%: Wait another 12 hours, then bring the salt up to 0.3% by adding another 10 tsp salt.
Another thing to remember is that salt doesn't evaporate with water. It remains in your tank, so if you need to top off a tank because of evaporation, don't add more salt; however, if you remove water, such as with water changes, you are then removing salt and you will need to add more salt back in the tank after the water change. But, you don't add the full amount of salt that you originally added unless you did a 100% water change.
For example, if you only did a 50% water change, you only removed 50% of the salt, so you would only need to replace 50% of the salt. So, if you had a 10 gallon tank that you had added salt to 0.3% volume, you would have 30 tsps of salt in the tank. If you removed 50% of the water, you removed 50% of the salt or 15 tsps of salt, so you would need to add in 15 tsps of salt after the water change. If you do larger water changes, you will need to do the math to determine how much salt needs to be replaced.
Before choosing to add salt to your aquarium, you need to take into consideration the other living things in your tank which may not be able to tolerate salt such as many plants, smooth-skinned catfish, corydoras, loaches and invertibrates such as snails. This is another reason you should have a quarantine/hospital tank available for treatment of new or sick fish.
Writen by Lynda Von G
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