Salt Dosages

[KathyM]

Lisa's just rung me (LisaLQ), she can't get online yet to ask this, but one of her new rainbows has come down with what looks like columnaris (from same fish shop as our angels, surprise surprise!).

She wants to add salt to the tank, but has plecs. Her tank is 180g. She's asked me to ask you how much salt she should/can add.

Thanks

 

[LisaLQ]

Thanks Kathy.

We've gone from 7 rainbows, to losing one to the festivums a few days ago, found one dead last night during water change (no exterior signs of anything), to finding one today with saddle back and fluffy mouth and fins. That one has since died. So we're down to 4 now, two of which are already getting white mouths.

Going to add salt despite having the plecs - need to know how much to add. Temp has been knocked down, did a big water change (third) last night, going to do another tonight and then dose with the salt.

So how much is safe for the plecs? Is it one teaspoon per gallon and if so is that UK gallons or US gallons?

After all the probs recently, I'm sorely tempted to pack it all in. White spot, losing the nugget, then the festivums picking off fish, now this. Just seems like someone upstairs doesn't want me having fish.

 

[andywg]

Plecs will be fine with a standard dose for treating conditions short term. I would think that one teaspoon per gallon of US or Imp would be fine in the short term.

 

[LisaLQ]

Thanks Andy

Lord this fish keeping is expensive. I've lost my flash plec (£17.50), my gold nugget (£18) and three rainbow fish (£5 each) recently. Definitely not re-stocking now - I may as well throw my money away - god knows what would be next - probably TB or velvet or something else. It's always the expensive fish that get poorly, isn't it?

I just dont get it. It's not as if I never do water changes (they get two a week on average), I'm not overstocked, I've got great filtration, always pick compatable fish, why me?!

I bet if I stuck 3 oscars, a pangasius and 10 pirhanas in a 2ft tank, my fish would all be healthy lol...

 

[andywg]

It ebbs and flows, and those with more interesting fish suffer the most when the bad times strike. Poor old CFC when he had velvet was looking at huge losses in both fish and financial terms.

I have been struck badly recently, though haven't lost anything majorly expensive, though parting with a bala shark, a snakehead, a chalceus and one of the blue cheek gobies I recently purchased is still a nasty hit.

 

[LisaLQ]

Oh yep, totally agree - losing anything is bad - no matter their value. I'm just upset as it's been every fish I've had to beg hubby for that's carked it! My commons, rusty, BNs, all fine. Stick in a £20 plec, and that's it - it all goes t*ts up. Pardon language. I've got no chance of getting those torpedo barbs now!

 

[andywg]

It's the world telling you that you should go salt water

 

[LisaLQ]

Good god no - can you imagine? I obviously cant keep these fish healthy - I've got no chance with something more complicated LOL

 

[LisaLQ]

Right, having thought about it a bit more, am I right in thinking a teaspoon is 5g? 180 x 5g = 900g? So should I weigh out 900g of salt and mix that in with some tank water, then plonk it in?

That's a lot of salt

 

[KathyM]

I did it 1 teaspoon per UK gallon in that tank (taking into account gravel and bogwood etc), not sure I'd go over that. So we used 130 tspns roughly - which by my calculater is 650g.

 

[LisaLQ]

Ta Kathy Good job, as I've only got 750g LOL!

 

[LisaLQ]

Ok, am adding 650g of salt now seeing as I've had no more replies - hope this is right, sounds like an awful lot of salt!

 

[LisaLQ]

Right, tonight we have:

1. Done another 30% ish water change (same as last night)
2. Gravel vac (again)
3. Cleaned FX5 (in tank water obviously)
4. Added 650g of salt (apparently it's 1tsp per UK gallon not US, and then you have to account for gravel/decor)
5. Lowered thermostat, but getting our tanks lower than 80 in this house is virtually impossible for some reason - heaters dont even come on sometimes! I think it's all the filters and lights etc. We'll see how that goes.

That sound ok for now? What do I do from now on? How long do I treat with salt?

I was wondering, compared to hubby's tank which has a UV on it - my tank has had more problems, so would it be a good idea to get another external filter with a built in UV to run alongside of our FX5, instead of the second FX5 we had planned?

 

[andywg]

UVs can be useful in an outbreak. Why not just buy a vecton unit and plug it into the outlet of the existing (or new) FX5?