How much salt?

[Seven]

My betta is just getting over a bout of Ick, and I decided I should start adding aquarium salt to his tank as per recommendations, to prevent it from happening again. I just added about 1/4 teaspoon, but I don't know if thats too little. How much should I add and how often?

 

[BrianNY]

How large is the tank? Truth is Seven, you really don't need to be adding any salt at this point.

 

[Christmasfish]

I use salt as an old preventive measure, but I was taught by a crusty old guy in the 70's (my gramp).... but his recipe was much more moderate than the current average.
5 grains per qt is nothing near a 1/4 teaspoon. I couldn't add that much to a freshwater fishes' tank comfortably. And he lived in a city with heavily processed water (Near LA..Hawthorne). Very soft and chlorinated. He may have been using it to help buffer.

Salt kills most plants too.
Maybe you shoud keep him on the high end of his species warm as a preventative instead. Our splendens bettas love 80F. And they were the most infested, parasite riddled beasts you ever saw when we first got them. The one in the unheated tank ended up dead of metal poisoning long before his ich cleared.(that one was MY personal fish. He was last because the I treated the kids' fish first *sniff* and I bought the last small heaters in stock for a month!)

 

[Seven]

Tank is about 1.5 gal. Meant to mention that before, sorry.

Quite a few times on these forums, I have seen someone say to put salt in to help get rid of and / or prevent Ick, but you guys say no. So which is it, and would you care to explain why? Thanks.

 

[BrianNY]

Ich is a parasite which requires certain conditions to thrive. Salt in combination with heat makes the parasite absorb water and blow up. IMO it's the safest and surest method to treat for ich.

Some people do advise adding salt as part of a regular water maitainence. Excluding the brackish water fish, I've never found it to be needed and dosing too much too frequently will likely do more harm than good. Once the ich is gone from your tank, it won't come back unless you reintroduce it by adding new fish or plants, or contaminated water.

A note about bettas: They are susceptable to many fungal infections. Are you sure the fish had ich? Bettas stress easily in cooler water.

 

[Christmasfish]

ickky fish

If he is in an unheated mini-tank..get a heater!

Mine was in one of those "aquaview 4qt corner tanks" That they sell in petsmart.
I found the Hagen THERMAL COMPACT 25 watt fits nicely in those behind the airintake tube..without touching it; and allows you to adjust the temp. There is a small plastic cheaper (7 bucks as compared to 16) heater on the market but you cannot adjust the heat and the manufacturer claims it is set to heat a 5 gallon, they cannot guarantee against fluctuation in smaller tanks (read as: "if it cooks your fish, we did say 2 to 5 gallons in our piece of note paper...don coma cryin to us jooooe")

 

[nejsux]

If he's already getting oever the ich, I would stress him further by adding salt, but ich infections, the usual recommended treatment is at LEAST a teaspoon per gallon, often people recommend more. You used non-iodized or aquarium salt, i hope? I do keep salt in my tank regularly, mostly because even in fresh water, there is usually trace amounts of salt. I also think that it discourages infection, snails, etc, from ever showing up. I only use about a teaspoon for every 10 gallons, which really isn't much at all. For people who salt their freshwater tanks, remember not to salt water that you add as evaporation make-up water, bc for the water that evaporates, the salt stays behind

 

[nemokeeper]

The doses here seem a little weak compared to the instructions on the Aquarium Salt box from Hagen. They recommend 1 TABLESPOON per 5 gallon to treat Ich. My LFS said the same thing. Actually disregard... I guess 1 tsp per gallon is the same or close to 1 tbsp/5 gallon. This explains alot when it comes to my disaster baking in the kitchen.

 

[bettacove]

I use 1tbsp per 5gal in all my tanks

ashley

 

[Seven]

Are you sure the fish had ich? Bettas stress easily in cooler water.

Positive. I just got the fish a couple of weeks ago to replace another betta that passed. So I guess he had it at the pet store. I used the many pictures from the gallery for reference. I treated the tank with quick cure and changed the water every day until it went away. Now I'm not changing the water as frequently, but I'm still adding quick cure daily to be safe and make sure its gone.

Anyway, thanks everyone for the advice about salt. Although, it seems to be a matter of preference with everyone that posted. I guess I'll just refrain from using salt again unless its necessary.

 

[Mr Burns]

seven - what is the temperature of your tank?