Curing Ich, How Much Salt For Freshwater

[jonny5]

i know this isnt exactly a brackish question but i trust the people here.

My freshwater tank has just come down with an ich case (i think) after the introduction of a bolivian ram.

the ram and almost all my celebes rainbow are infected.
i also have a golden gourami, regular pleco, african upside catfish, golden wonder killi, african butterfly fish.

Now raising the temp and adding some salt may due the trick but anyone know if the ram(which likes soft acidic water, will be hurt by adding salt)

and although half the plants are salt resistant ones, others im not sure about. Im afraid i will get a good plant die off and thus a nitrate boom and kinda hurt the problem more than fix it.

impute would be a appreciated, my poor celebes just started to get some color after 3 months.

 

[nmonks]

2-3 level teaspoons of salt per US gallon works well. I've written about this topic for FishChannel so won't go into great detail here, but the key things are to make up the salty solution in a jug of warm water, and then pour that salty solution into the aquarium in stages across an hour or so. Leave the tank running that way for at least two weeks, with the temperature raised to 28-30C/82-86F. After two weeks you can go back to doing your normal water changes to slowly reduce the salinity. You don't need to do any massive water changes or use carbon afterwards.

The use of salt in this way is completely safe, won't stress your fish, and won't harm your plants or biological filter. In fact it is SAFER than using copper or formalin, which is precisely why the salt/heat method is recommended when delicate fish are being maintained, for example clown loaches.

Cheers, Neale

 

[jonny5]

thank you neal. Ya i nuked the water up to 86 degrees (over about a 24 hour period) and added 2 tablespoons of salt for the 20gallon (with plants and substrate id say water is more at like 17 gallons. So i guess i will add another tablespoon of salt. I have ich meds but that is only a last resort. I might lose the same amount of money in plant death though, but fish> plants.

 

[jonny5]

good plus bad news. I had to switch to maracide because salt and temp were killing my plants. Anywho maracide worked well, saved my infected fish.
However i found both my african butterfly fish and golden wonder killifish had jumped out of the smallest possible opening in the hood near the hob filter.
They must have not liked the medicine, and the killi fish was the best looking one i have EVER seen. nice strait long body with no curve in after the stomach. Vibrant gold body with extremely colorful vibrant orange caudel, anal and dorsal fins.

On a plus not, the dragon gobies and fidler crabs i got for the brack tank are quite happy. Poor basterds were just slowly dying at walmart, i got the only 2 in the tank that looked healthy, the others were obviously not doing to well, and my 2 perked up after 2 days in my tank. And those guys are major construction workers. I couldnt find them and then was able to see that they excavated the sand under the lava rocks, so they sleep not in a cave or indentation in the rock, but under it lol cheeky basterds.