Salt Treatment for Ich

[JoeynDana]

About four days ago I noticed a couple of my Buenos Airies and Columbian Tetras were showing some ich. Wanted to try the heat and salt method.

Seemed to be a lot of variables on the dosage so I went with the following for my 75 gallon tank,

Day 1 (late night) - 1 teaspoon every 10 gallons
Day 2 (early morning) - repeated dosage
Day 2 (evening) - repeated dosage
Day 3 (morning) - 1 tablespoon every 10
Day 3 (evening) - 1 tablespoon every 10

This seemed to be some what of an average of what I've read. With the temp at 80, the infected fish are clearing up, no new fish are showing any signs.

My confusion is, most say continue treatment for up to 7 days after the fish are clear. Does that mean continue adding doses of salt for that period of time or let the salt stay in the tank for that period of time before diluting with water changes?

Also, will the salt affect the testing levels when I check ammonia and nitrites?

 

[Fishanatic]

I'm not sure about the salt, but keep the temperature up at about 80-84 degrees for a few more days.
The salt will not affect the levels of ammonia nor nitrite at my knowledge.

 

[jlk]

Ok, bare with me for a minute here. I am trying to figure out the total salt in the 75g right now. 1tsp/10g=7.5tsp for day 1 & 2 for total of 22.5tsp. 1tbsp (3 tsp)/10g=22.5tsp for day 3 for total of 45tsp. So, the total salt in the tank right now is 67.5tsp which is slightly less than .1%. I would add 7.5tsp to make the total salinity equal to .1%. This is actually quite a bit lower than recommended for treating ich using only salt (no heat). I would bump the temp up to @86 and maintain the salinity level where it is.

Salt will not effect the results of testing- whatever the tests show is accurate. BUT, it may affect your good bacteria and you may possibly see spikes in ammonia and nitrite. .1% is a lower level of salt than the recommended .3%, so you may be ok.

For wcs, you need to add back ONLY the salt you remove. So, if you do a 50%wc, you need to add back half of the total dose (75tsp) or 37.5tsp. Salt should ALWAYS be predissolved in some conditioned water before adding it to a tank. So, do a wc & add the salt solution back with the new water. Please ask any questions!

 

[JoeynDana]

Thanks for the info, I'll make those adjustments now.

 

[bud29]

Salt should ALWAYS be predissolved in some conditioned water before adding it to a tank.

I have heard this before, and upon doing research I have found that predissolving salt is not necessarily needed. There are a few instances where you do want do predissolve it, for example adding salt to a tank with corys, (you want to predissolve it in water and over the course of several hours add it to the tank) but for other fish who have higher salt tolerance predissolving isn't really necessary. Some say undissolved salt burns the fish, but really it will only burn them if the granule stays on them for a few seconds. And if a fish lets a piece of salt sit stay on them for that long, they should have been gone with Darwin years ago

 

[jlk]

I have heard this before, and upon doing research I have found that predissolving salt is not necessarily needed. There are a few instances where you do want do predissolve it, for example adding salt to a tank with corys, (you want to predissolve it in water and over the course of several hours add it to the tank) but for other fish who have higher salt tolerance predissolving isn't really necessary. Some say undissolved salt burns the fish, but really it will only burn them if the granule stays on them for a few seconds. And if a fish lets a piece of salt sit stay on them for that long, they should have been gone with Darwin years ago

Have to disagree here. The purpose of adding salt to a tank is for it to be solution (ie, tank water) and equally distributed throughout the tank for optimum effectiveness. You can try a simple experiment- get a glass of tank water and add a spoonful of aquarium salt. Leave it alone (same as if you just dumped a spoonful into the tank)- no shaking, stirring, etc. Check on it in hour, 2 hrs, 5hrs and so forth. Is the salt evenly distributed in a solution? No, its still sitting on the bottom of the glass. If you apply this to a tank situation, those granules of salt are sitting on the bottom of a tank. Say a cory is digging in the sand- that cory will get salt burns because the salt will stick to their slime coat. Or a goldfish rooting for food starts eating it because it will eat anything. Or the filter sucks up the granules and it gets stuck on the filter media- guess what, your good bacteria just took a hit.

Just my opinion here but taking the time to predissolve the salt in some treated water seems logical enough for me to prevent any possible risks. And if your using API or rock salt (vs a fine grained/crushed salt), they are quite difficult to dissolve even with repeated shaking and stirring so I can only imagine how long it would take to dissolve if you just dumped some into a tank.

 

[bud29]

Have to disagree here. The purpose of adding salt to a tank is for it to be solution (ie, tank water) and equally distributed throughout the tank for optimum effectiveness. You can try a simple experiment- get a glass of tank water and add a spoonful of aquarium salt. Leave it alone (same as if you just dumped a spoonful into the tank)- no shaking, stirring, etc. Check on it in hour, 2 hrs, 5hrs and so forth. Is the salt evenly distributed in a solution? No, its still sitting on the bottom of the glass. If you apply this to a tank situation, those granules of salt are sitting on the bottom of a tank. Say a cory is digging in the sand- that cory will get salt burns because the salt will stick to their slime coat. Or a goldfish rooting for food starts eating it because it will eat anything. Or the filter sucks up the granules and it gets stuck on the filter media- guess what, your good bacteria just took a hit.

Just my opinion here but taking the time to predissolve the salt in some treated water seems logical enough for me to prevent any possible risks. And if your using API or rock salt (vs a fine grained/crushed salt), they are quite difficult to dissolve even with repeated shaking and stirring so I can only imagine how long it would take to dissolve if you just dumped some into a tank.

Then I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.....I have dumped salt in without being predissoved and it has taken no more than 10 minutes to all be dissolved. Fish have taken pecks at it, yes, but once again that won't really be harmful unless they like it and eat the entire granule. It'll be dissolved in the water and they will inevitably get SOME salt in their mouth even with predissolving. IME the two methods are equally effective.

 

[Oceangirl]

Mumma.of.two way! This is what she told me. Best for Fish!

Ich is a parasite so fish can not become immune.
It is in the tank now so there is no point isolating the infected unless if makes you feel better.
To treat:
Increase temp slowly to 86-88F
Increase aeration
Increase water changes and gravel vacs atleast 3 times a week. more if possible
Leave temp up for at least one week after last spot is seen
Slowly decrease temp to normal
You can add a little salt if you like. It can help avoid infection in the sites where the ich leaves the body of the fish. Plenty of clean water helps a avoid this also.

http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ich2.php



This is the way I did it, and I had MILD Ich. This is the best way, no salt though Valuable Cories. Pleco can sometimes be sensitive too.

 

[JoeynDana]

Thanks for all the info. I got the salt to .1 and have had the temperature up to 82 for about 5 days now. The infected fish have cleared up and look really good now, no new fish appear to have been infected.

I've been hesitant to do any water changes because I started Tetra SafeStart about 3 days prior to noticing the ich. So far it appears to be working real well, ammonia at .25, never have had a Nitrite reading other than zero, and have been getting 10ppm Nitrates for two days. Seems to be getting close to cycled, hopefully soon, would like to start getting the salt out and taking the temp back down.