About Aquarium salt

[Franco7]

I was wondering if anyone heard this about Aquarium salt, a lfs told my buddy that had some kind of worm growing on his fish to buy coppersafe and out that in, and then buy Aquarium salt because it rebuilds some kind of slime coat fish have to protect them from disease's. How true is this and should i be adding it to my tank as well?

Thanks in advanced
Frank

 

[TCTFish]

Salts for the most part keep the gills clean and also protects against nitrite poisoning. It's not so much the slime coat it builds but rather helps keep electrolytes from being lost.

You have to be careful with salt when you deal with FW fish. Most can handle it...some cannot like cory cats. Snails and amphibians like dwarf african frogs can actually be harmed by salts. If you don't have any snails, a good tonic without hurting anything would be to add about a tablespoon per 10 gallons of water which is half the recommended dose. Regular dosing is a tablespoon per 5 gallons.

Keep in mind that salt does not evaporate with water. It stays in the system, so if you want to maintain a healthy level of salts in the system, you will need to measure the salinity (speccific gravity) of the water as well as keep an eye on pH values. Salts can make pH go up.

Replensih the salt once you've exchanged close to 100% of the older water or half dose it when you've taken out 50% of the water. So if you change out 10% to 15% once every two weeks, you can half dose the salt after two months of water changes (one tablespoon per 20 gallons) or full dose it after four months (one tablespoon per 10 gallons).

 

[Franco7]

So should i just leave my tank alone, or better yet what can i do to prevent my fish from getting diseases? I mean like i said he had some worm disease and the fish store told him what to do. Is there anything i can do to prevent my fish from diseases, like they said it builds some kind of slime coat or protection against them?

 

[TCTFish]

The best disease prevention is to QT all new fish for about two weeks before introducing them into the main tank; keeping up on routine maintenence; keep water quality good; do not over crowd and do not over feed. Make sure nitrates are below 40 ppm...the lower the better and never install an undergravel filter (they are disease traps).

A healthy fish will produce it's own slime. When under stress such as right after a water change; when a new fish is introduced; bad water quality; wounds or illness you can add some Stress Coat to the tank.