How Do I Add Aquarium Salt To My Freshwater Tank?

HI guys, i've just discovered my first case of cotton fin in my fish tank! It's affected one of my rummy nose tetras and I've been told numerous times that aquarium salt is a good cure for fungal infections. I've got a carton of API aquarium salt but it says on the packet that I have to add it during a water change? Since i've just cleaned my tank yesterday i'm hesitant to do another water change so soon, so I was wondering if I was able to add it another time? also how do you add the salt to the water during a water change?

also, if anyone has any other suggestions for treating fungal problems that would be really helpful! i'm currently treating with bactonex with claims to help with bacterial, parasitic and fungal problems but i'd love to know if there was something better.

my tank does contain corydoras and amano shrimp though, so i'm thinking a lesser dose of salt would be better for them, but opinions would be great.

 

I recently treated my guppies for shimmer with aquarium salt and it worked. The directions on the glass bottle from petco says one tablespoon for every 5 gallons of water.

 

HI guys, i've just discovered my first case of cotton fin in my fish tank! It's affected one of my rummy nose tetras and I've been told numerous times that aquarium salt is a good cure for fungal infections. I've got a carton of API aquarium salt but it says on the packet that I have to add it during a water change? Since i've just cleaned my tank yesterday i'm hesitant to do another water change so soon, so I was wondering if I was able to add it another time? also how do you add the salt to the water during a water change?

also, if anyone has any other suggestions for treating fungal problems that would be really helpful! i'm currently treating with bactonex with claims to help with bacterial, parasitic and fungal problems but i'd love to know if there was something better.

my tank does contain corydoras and amano shrimp though, so i'm thinking a lesser dose of salt would be better for them, but opinions would be great.

Hello bird...

One teaspoon for every 5 gallons of replacement water will do the trick. Gradually work up to the point you remove and replace half or more of the tank water weekly. You can dose this amount until you see improvement in the fish. I dose this amount weekly, anyway. I've used a little bit of standard aquarium salt in my tanks for many years and my fish have never had any health problems.

Old

 

The instructions for adding should be on the bottle/packaging.

I would cut dosages in half to accommodate for the cories and shrimp. Nearly 2 years ago now I caused a mass extinction of my cory population by not cutting medication dosage in half.

 

I guess what i'm trying to ask here (sorry if I didn't word it properly) is how do I add the aquarium salt? my packet says not to add it unless i'm doing water changes because it won't dissolve, so do I put it in warm water to dissolve it and then add it to the water i'm pouring into the tank? and if so, can I add it at any time during the week if I add it already dissolved in warm water?

 

I guess what i'm trying to ask here (sorry if I didn't word it properly) is how do I add the aquarium salt? my packet says not to add it unless i'm doing water changes because it won't dissolve, so do I put it in warm water to dissolve it and then add it to the water i'm pouring into the tank? and if so, can I add it at any time during the week if I add it already dissolved in warm water?

I would just do a small 10% water change and add the salt that way. I would want to play it safe and not mess it up.

 

I would just do a small 10% water change and add the salt that way. I would want to play it safe and not mess it up.

but do I dissolve the salt in the water i'm about to pour into the tank? or do I pour the salt directly into my tank while i'm doing a water change?

 

but do I dissolve the salt in the water i'm about to pour into the tank? or do I pour the salt directly into my tank while i'm doing a water change?

I'd dissolve it into the water you're about to put in the tank. I'm assuming you do it that way because a small amount of the salt might not fully dissolve and end up getting sucked into the filter and getting stuck in the media.

 

Dissolve the salt before you add it to the tank. You don't have to wait until you do a water change.

I have to think the reason for the instructions saying to do it after a water change is because salt doesn't evaporate so if you already have salt in the tank you wouldn't want to add a full dose of salt. You would just add enough for the amount of water you are replacing.

Since there is no salt in there now just go ahead and dissolve enough for the full volume of the tank. After that you will just dissolve enough for the water you are replacing during a water change.

Don't add any when you need to refill evaporated water.

 

Dissolve the salt before you add it to the tank. You don't have to wait until you do a water change.

I have to think the reason for the instructions saying to do it after a water change is because salt doesn't evaporate so if you already have salt in the tank you wouldn't want to add a full dose of salt. You would just add enough for the amount of water you are replacing.

Since there is no salt in there now just go ahead and dissolve enough for the full volume of the tank. After that you will just dissolve enough for the water you are replacing during a water change.

Don't add any when you need to refill evaporated water.

that makes a lot of sense, thank you!

 

that makes a lot of sense, thank you!

First, before treating anything, make sure your nitrates are as low as possible. I would put the affected fish in a separate heated, filtered tank if I were going to treat it with salt to prevent the stress that would cause to the Corys. Tetras are more tolerant of salt than scaleless Freshwater catfish. Corys, with their tiny body mass are even more susceptable to stress and dehydration in salt water than their bigger catfish cousins.

 

You don't have to use warm water to dissolve, I add the salt to my water change container. It dissolves by the time I'm done siphoning and ready to refill. Just stir it a bit to dissolve.

And another thing, cotton fin is not fungal. It is bacterial. It's the same as finrot. Clean fresh water is the best medicine for finrot, make doubly sure your tank parameters are good. Salt is a good plan imo along with the water changes. I do daily changes when something like that happens. The most I've had to keep salt in tank was 1 week for finrot with daily water changes. Don't know about cories, except that they have very small scales or even scaleless, so no comment there, but the fish I treated with salt for finrot was a blue ram.
Pics to show her recovery I'm so proud of her



For extra info, anacharis and java fern are tolerant of salt

You might want to add it slowly though (like increase 1tsp per 5 gallon per day until you have 1 tbsp per 5 gallons for ex or whatever your dosing instructions are).

 

First, before treating anything, make sure your nitrates are as low as possible. I would put the affected fish in a separate heated, filtered tank if I were going to treat it with salt to prevent the stress that would cause to the Corys. Tetras are more tolerant of salt than scaleless Freshwater catfish. Corys, with their tiny body mass are even more susceptable to stress and dehydration in salt water than their bigger catfish cousins.

They might not have another tank large enough or cycled to do this. This of course is optimal but isn't possible or practical in a lot of cases.

As long as the salt level is monitored and doesn't stray too high, the cories should be fine.

You don't have to use warm water to dissolve, I add the salt to my water change container. It dissolves by the time I'm done siphoning and ready to refill. Just stir it a bit to dissolve.

And another thing, cotton fin is not fungal. It is bacterial. It's the same as finrot. Clean fresh water is the best medicine for finrot, make doubly sure your tank parameters are good. Salt is a good plan imo along with the water changes. I do daily changes when something like that happens. The most I've had to keep salt in tank was 1 week for finrot with daily water changes. Don't know about cories, no comment there, but the fish I treated with salt for finrot was a blue ram.

Fin rot can be fungal as well as bacterial. From all the information I can find, I am pretty sure cotton fin is in fact a fungal disease. I'm not 100% sure but this is from what I've read.

 

Fin rot can be fungal as well as bacterial. From all the information I can find, I am pretty sure cotton fin is in fact a fungal disease. I'm not 100% sure but this is from what I've read.

I always read true fungus only attacks dead or damaged tissue and is an opportunistic infection. Fungus can attack the damaged tissue from finrot, so are right, it could be both, but the first issue is the infection. Regardless, my ram had both finrot and fungus and she pulled through with daily water changes and carefully measured salt dosage for a week.

 

They might not have another tank large enough or cycled to do this. This of course is optimal but isn't possible or practical in a lot of cases.

As long as the salt level is monitored and doesn't stray too high, the cories should be fine.

You don't need to cycle a hospital tank. And for a single tetra, for a week of treatment, a 5 gallon tank would be big enough.

 

I always read true fungus only attacks dead or damaged tissue and is an opportunistic infection. Fungus can attack the damaged tissue from finrot, so are right, it could be both, but the first issue is the infection. Regardless, my ram had both finrot and fungus and she pulled through with daily water changes and carefully measured salt dosage for a week.

That's correct, but fish have comparatively weak immune systems, and sometimes a fungal spore can attach to living fish tissue if the fish is unable to repel it.

Although they are rarely serious, every animal including humans can contract fungal infections. In animals like humans, these are usually mild skin infections, but if your immune system is compromised, you can get internal fungal infections.
These kinds of fungal infections happen in fish when they are immunocompromised, as do most infections. That's why diseases are more common in poor water conditions.

You don't need to cycle a hospital tank. And for a single tetra, for a week of treatment, a 5 gallon tank would be big enough.

Oops, I read your post wrong. I thought you were saying to move the CORIES. My bad. Yes, a tetra probably won't overwhelm a 5 gallon tank.

Either way, the OP might not have a spare 5 gallon tank, as some people do not have the room or MTS. Also, there's the issue of the disease possibly being in the waters of the tetra's original tank, still leaving the need for a whole tank treatment. Having said that, it's a fungal infection so it's probably not very contagious.

 

That's correct, but fish have comparatively weak immune systems, and sometimes a fungal spore can attach to living fish tissue if the fish is unable to repel it.

Although they are rarely serious, every animal including humans can contract fungal infections. In animals like humans, these are usually mild skin infections, but if your immune system is compromised, you can get internal fungal infections.
These kinds of fungal infections happen in fish when they are immunocompromised, as do most infections. That's why diseases are more common in poor water conditions.

I wouldn't say fish have weak immune systems. Healthy fish resist even columnaris bacteria in a healthy tank. If they have a strong immune, and conditions are pristine to allow them, they elude infection. A strong immune and proper water conditions is what allows them to fight infection should they fall victI'm in the 1st place.

It would be a very rare occurrence for a healthy fish in a healthy tank to fall victI'm to true fungus, it would have to be immunocomprimised in some way, like an injury or infection (damaged tissue) or living in poor water conditions.
Disease Mechanisms of FungI - Medical Microbiology - NCBI Bookshelf
and
Bacterial Infections Vs Fungal Tail Rot

However it can spread to viable tissue once it sets hold on dead or damaged tissue.
And yes, a fish falls victI'm to pathogenic bacteria when the immune is already weakened.

Having said that, it's a fungal infection so it's probably not very contagious.

Finrot is a symptom of gram negative bacteria and fungus is a separate secondary infection.
Fish Fin Rot Treatment, Symptoms, and Prevention

The most common fungus is saprolegnia and appears as gray-white threads resembling cotton balls growing on fish or fish eggs. Fungus usually occurs as a secondary infection caused by handling, parasites or bacterial attack. There is no practical way to control fungus in pond situations. Fungus rarely causes a fish to die, but can often be found on weakened or stressed fish before they die.

If one fish's immune is low due to poor water conditions, the chances are high that the other fish's immunes are also low cuz they are swimming in the same subpar water conditions, thus they are at higher risk of infection, so it is contagious. I thought that's why you said a QT tank wasn't practical in a lot of cases for treating finrot.

 

I guess what i'm trying to ask here (sorry if I didn't word it properly) is how do I add the aquarium salt? my packet says not to add it unless i'm doing water changes because it won't dissolve, so do I put it in warm water to dissolve it and then add it to the water i'm pouring into the tank? and if so, can I add it at any time during the week if I add it already dissolved in warm water?

Hello again bird...

When you perform your water change, just dissolve the salt in a separate container and add the appropriate amount to the tank as it fills. I dose the salt when I do my weekly water change.

Old

 

I wouldn't say fish have weak immune systems. Healthy fish resist even columnaris bacteria in a healthy tank. If they have a strong immune, and conditions are pristine to allow them, they elude infection. A strong immune and proper water conditions is what allows them to fight infection should they fall victI'm in the 1st place.

It would be a very rare occurrence for a healthy fish in a healthy tank to fall victI'm to true fungus, it would have to be immunocomprimised in some way, like an injury or infection (damaged tissue) or living in poor water conditions.
Disease Mechanisms of FungI - Medical Microbiology - NCBI Bookshelf
and
Bacterial Infections Vs Fungal Tail Rot

However it can spread to viable tissue once it sets hold on dead or damaged tissue.
And yes, a fish falls victI'm to pathogenic bacteria when the immune is already weakened.


Finrot is a symptom of gram negative bacteria and fungus is a separate secondary infection.




If one fish's immune is low due to poor water conditions, the chances are high that the other fish's immunes are also low cuz they are swimming in the same subpar water conditions, thus they are at higher risk of infection, so it is contagious. I thought that's why you said a QT tank wasn't practical in a lot of cases for treating finrot.

You've basically repeated everything I said, just with sources.

Fish don't have to be suffering from an infection to get a secondary fungal infection. That's a misconception. As long as the fish can't resist the fungus for whatever reason, they can contract it. Fungus is opportunistic but that doesn't mean it's not capable of invading without a serious ailment already existing.

If we're talking about something like fin rot, it can be cause by either or both. I've had both fungal fin rot and bacterial fin rot in the past (not recently). Fungal rot will progress slower and cause a more frayed appearance; bacterial rot will progress faster and cause a 'dying backwards' appearance. In my experience, fungal rot tends to attack only the caudal fin, whereas bacteria are not very discriminatory in terms of what fins they attack. A more severe form of fin rot can be caused by particularly nasty bacteria (possibly strains of columnaris) that progresses to the base very quickly and becomes septic. I had one of these strains a couple years back: A huge slice of the tail would disappear overnight. After that, the fish would become extremely lethargic and stop eating. I took these as symptoms of septicemia and/or sepsis (if you don't know, there is a difference between the two). After another day or two, dark red spots of bleeding and necrotic tissue would appear and begin expanding, and a few hours later, the fish would die. That outbreak ended up killing half of my guppies. I tried treating it with some strong antibiotics I had while it was still in the fin rot phase, but no fish were saved. At that time, I didn't have any problems with filtration so I assume I introduced a very aggressive strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Flavobacterium columnarae, the cause of columnaris (there are many different strains with different levels of virulence) with some new guppies and plants that took advantage of the weak guppies. Anyway, we're getting off topic.

Of course, it's rare for most fish to fall ill in a healthy, established tank without any apparent reason or outbreak. However, I say fish have weak immune systems because they have no resilience to outside factors. When we get stressed, we come down with a few viruses, but our immune systems are still strong enough to fight them off, and we eventually get better with minimal treatment. In fish, this doesn't happen. If a fish becomes stressed, even for a short period, it is very likely to contract a severe disease that it will probably die of if we don't intervene. That's the same if whenever conditions changed for us and we became stressed, we contracted diseases like the plague and anthrax. Even thought at one point in history this was the case, enough people survived that we didn't all die out from hideous diseases. High mortality rates and rates of these severe diseases in general were because most people were extremely unhealthy, with many, MANY immediate health and environmental conditions contributing to this. In fish, all that needs to happen is for a single chemical to go slightly out of balance, and every fish gets some horrible disease and dies. In humans, for these diseases to be as common and fatal as they were, you needed to be chronically malnourished, unhygienic, living amongst other dirty people, have no knowledge of disease prevention, ad infinitum. When humans (and other animals 'similar' to us) become more hygienic and eliminate chronic conditions, these diseases naturally decrease in prevalence over time. Anyway, this comparison is falling apart, so moving on. TL;DR, fish have weak immune systems because they die of diseases so often, most other animals don't.

I say a QT tank isn't practical in some cases because some people don't have MTS and subsequently spare tanks. However, for contagious diseases, that would be another reason. For slow-progressing fin rot, sometimes you don't even need to medically treat, because repairing water conditions can be enough. However, if your water conditions are good and you've introduced fish with the disease, and they aren't naturally getting better, medical intervention is probably necessary. If it comes down to this, I would say medicating the whole tank is a good idea.

Might I add that sometimes, poor water quality doesn't have to be the common factor in the cause of an outbreak. If you add fish with a disease, it is already in prevalent numbers, which means it could be able to attack previously healthy fish already present in your tank, causing an outbreak. In this case, you did nothing of fault apart from introducing unhealthy fish. Back when I used to keep guppies, I would buy batch after batch after batch of them, but they would all end up dying of internal parasites most of the time. If they didn't die of that, they died of something else. All throughout this time, I had other species of fish that thrived and never caught these diseases. This wasn't limited to just one group: I've had tetras, corydoras, a BN Pleco and rasboras throughout this time. As such, my water quality could not have been at fault, otherwise at least some of these groups would have also fallen ill.

Anyway, this has become a very large post, so I'll leave it there as I think I have made my point. Happy fishkeeping

 

You've basically repeated everything I said, just with sources.

Fish don't have to be suffering from an infection to get a secondary fungal infection. That's a misconception. As long as the fish can't resist the fungus for whatever reason, they can contract it. Fungus is opportunistic but that doesn't mean it's not capable of invading without a serious ailment already existing.

If we're talking about something like fin rot, it can be cause by either or both. I've had both fungal fin rot and bacterial fin rot in the past (not recently). Fungal rot will progress slower and cause a more frayed appearance; bacterial rot will progress faster and cause a 'dying backwards' appearance. In my experience, fungal rot tends to attack only the caudal fin, bacteria are not very discriminatory in terms of what fins they attack. A more severe form of fin rot can be caused by particularly nasty bacteria (possibly strains of columnaris) that progresses to the base very quickly and becomes septic. I had one of these strains a couple years back: A huge slice of the tail would disappear overnight. After that, the fish would become extremely lethargic and stop eating. I took these as symptoms of septicemia and/or sepsis (if you don't know, there is a difference between the two). After another day or two, dark red spots of bleeding and necrotic tissue would appear and begin expanding, and a few hours later, the fish would die. That outbreak ended up killing half of my guppies. I tried treating it with some strong antibiotics I had while it was still in the fin rot phase, but no fish were saved. At that time, I didn't have any problems with filtration so I assume I introduced a very aggressive strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Flavobacterium columnarae, the cause of columnaris (there are many different strains with different levels of virulence) with some new guppies and plants that took advantage of the weak guppies. Anyway, we're getting off topic.

Of course, it's rare for most fish to fall ill in a healthy, established tank without any apparent reason or outbreak. However, I say fish have weak immune systems because they have no resilience to outside factors. When we get stressed, we come down with a few viruses, but our immune systems are still strong enough to fight them off, and we eventually get better with minimal treatment. In fish, this doesn't happen. If a fish becomes stressed, even for a short period, it is very likely to contract a severe disease that it will probably die of if we don't intervene. That's the same if whenever conditions changed for us and we became stressed, we contracted diseases like the plague and anthrax. Even thought at one point in history this was the case, enough people survived that we didn't all die out from hideous diseases. High mortality rates and rates of these severe diseases in general were because most people were extremely unhealthy, with many, MANY immediate health and environmental conditions contributing to this. In fish, all that needs to happen is for a single chemical to go slightly out of balance, and every fish gets some horrible disease and dies. In humans, for these diseases to be as common and fatal as they were, you needed to be chronically malnourished, unhygienic, living amongst other dirty people, have no knowledge of disease prevention, ad infinitum. When humans (and other animals 'similar' to us) become more hygienic and eliminate chronic conditions, these diseases naturally decrease in prevalence over time. Anyway, this comparison is falling apart, so moving on. TL;DR, fish have weak immune systems because they die of diseases so often, most other animals don't.

I say a QT tank isn't practical in some cases because some people don't have MTS and subsequently spare tanks. However, for contagious diseases, that would be another reason. For slow-progressing fin rot, sometimes you don't even need to medically treat, because repairing water conditions can be enough. However, if your water conditions are good and you've introduced fish with the disease, and they aren't naturally getting better, medical intervention is probably necessary. If it comes down to this, I would say medicating the whole tank is a good idea.

Might I add that sometimes, poor water quality doesn't have to be the common factor in the cause of an outbreak. If you add fish with a disease, it is already in prevalent numbers, which means it could be able to attack previously healthy fish already present in your tank, causing an outbreak. In this case, you did nothing of fault apart from introducing unhealthy fish. Back when I used to keep guppies, I would buy batch after batch after batch of them, but they would all end up dying of internal parasites most of the time. If they didn't die of that, they died of something else. All throughout this time, I had other species of fish that thrived and never caught these diseases. This wasn't limited to just one group: I've had tetras, corydoras, a BN Pleco and rasboras throughout this time. As such, my water quality could not have been at fault, otherwise at least some of these groups would have also fallen ill.

Anyway, this has become a very large post, so I'll leave it there as I think I have made my point. Happy fishkeeping

Agree to disagree? Sorry I just don't. I did not repeat what you said either. I posted links because I disagree that fish have weak immune systems and that finrot is a fungal infection. Actually you just repeated yourself again with a lot of distractions.

In my experience, fungal rot tends to attack only the caudal fin

Where are you getting all this info anyway?

 

Let’s please remember this is birdyboots thread & not let their questions get overlooked.
If you want to continue your side discussion then please start a new thread.

 

Yes birdyboots aquarium salt will help. As already stated dissolve salt in a cup of water at one tablespoon every 5 gal. Than pour into tank over the outtake part of your filter so it spreads all around the tank. But first I would do daily 50% water changes for about 5 days and see if that cures it. Clean water cures a lot!! If that doesn’t work try the salt. How big is your tank? How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?

 

I did not repeat what you said either.

If you read over your post again, you'll see that you make a lot of points that I already did in my first post.

and that finrot is a fungal infection

This is a strawman, as I never claimed that fin rot is an exclusively fungal infection. Fin rot can be caused by many things.

Where are you getting all this info anyway?

In my experience

I can't speak for everyone else, but that is what I have observed in the past in my own tanks.

Anyway, as has already been mentioned, this is not our thread and I have no intentions of arguing about something largely irrelevant if we are simply going back and forth and not establishing a common understanding.

 

You've basically repeated everything I said, just with sources.

Fish don't have to be suffering from an infection to get a secondary fungal infection. That's a misconception. As long as the fish can't resist the fungus for whatever reason, they can contract it. Fungus is opportunistic but that doesn't mean it's not capable of invading without a serious ailment already existing.

If we're talking about something like fin rot, it can be cause by either or both. I've had both fungal fin rot and bacterial fin rot in the past (not recently). Fungal rot will progress slower and cause a more frayed appearance; bacterial rot will progress faster and cause a 'dying backwards' appearance. In my experience, fungal rot tends to attack only the caudal fin, whereas bacteria are not very discriminatory in terms of what fins they attack. A more severe form of fin rot can be caused by particularly nasty bacteria (possibly strains of columnaris) that progresses to the base very quickly and becomes septic. I had one of these strains a couple years back: A huge slice of the tail would disappear overnight. After that, the fish would become extremely lethargic and stop eating. I took these as symptoms of septicemia and/or sepsis (if you don't know, there is a difference between the two). After another day or two, dark red spots of bleeding and necrotic tissue would appear and begin expanding, and a few hours later, the fish would die. That outbreak ended up killing half of my guppies. I tried treating it with some strong antibiotics I had while it was still in the fin rot phase, but no fish were saved. At that time, I didn't have any problems with filtration so I assume I introduced a very aggressive strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Flavobacterium columnarae, the cause of columnaris (there are many different strains with different levels of virulence) with some new guppies and plants that took advantage of the weak guppies. Anyway, we're getting off topic.

Of course, it's rare for most fish to fall ill in a healthy, established tank without any apparent reason or outbreak. However, I say fish have weak immune systems because they have no resilience to outside factors. When we get stressed, we come down with a few viruses, but our immune systems are still strong enough to fight them off, and we eventually get better with minimal treatment. In fish, this doesn't happen. If a fish becomes stressed, even for a short period, it is very likely to contract a severe disease that it will probably die of if we don't intervene. That's the same if whenever conditions changed for us and we became stressed, we contracted diseases like the plague and anthrax. Even thought at one point in history this was the case, enough people survived that we didn't all die out from hideous diseases. High mortality rates and rates of these severe diseases in general were because most people were extremely unhealthy, with many, MANY immediate health and environmental conditions contributing to this. In fish, all that needs to happen is for a single chemical to go slightly out of balance, and every fish gets some horrible disease and dies. In humans, for these diseases to be as common and fatal as they were, you needed to be chronically malnourished, unhygienic, living amongst other dirty people, have no knowledge of disease prevention, ad infinitum. When humans (and other animals 'similar' to us) become more hygienic and eliminate chronic conditions, these diseases naturally decrease in prevalence over time. Anyway, this comparison is falling apart, so moving on. TL;DR, fish have weak immune systems because they die of diseases so often, most other animals don't.

I say a QT tank isn't practical in some cases because some people don't have MTS and subsequently spare tanks. However, for contagious diseases, that would be another reason. For slow-progressing fin rot, sometimes you don't even need to medically treat, because repairing water conditions can be enough. However, if your water conditions are good and you've introduced fish with the disease, and they aren't naturally getting better, medical intervention is probably necessary. If it comes down to this, I would say medicating the whole tank is a good idea.

Might I add that sometimes, poor water quality doesn't have to be the common factor in the cause of an outbreak. If you add fish with a disease, it is already in prevalent numbers, which means it could be able to attack previously healthy fish already present in your tank, causing an outbreak. In this case, you did nothing of fault apart from introducing unhealthy fish. Back when I used to keep guppies, I would buy batch after batch after batch of them, but they would all end up dying of internal parasites most of the time. If they didn't die of that, they died of something else. All throughout this time, I had other species of fish that thrived and never caught these diseases. This wasn't limited to just one group: I've had tetras, corydoras, a BN Pleco and rasboras throughout this time. As such, my water quality could not have been at fault, otherwise at least some of these groups would have also fallen ill.

Anyway, this has become a very large post, so I'll leave it there as I think I have made my point. Happy fishkeeping

You are going to scare new fish keepers away with your approach to knowledge.... seems you have also have had your share of dead fish!

 

The directions on the glass bottle from petco says one tablespoon for every 5 gallons of water.

One teaspoon for every 5 gallons of replacement water will do the trick.

You might want to add it slowly though (like increase 1tsp per 5 gallon per day until you have 1 tbsp per 5 gallons for ex or whatever your dosing instructions are).

As already stated dissolve salt in a cup of water at one tablespoon every 5 gal.

HI guys/gals, I bought some fish today and added them to a seeded 10 gallon quarantine tank.
- 3 harlequin rasboras, 4 odessa barbs

If some medical issue should arise, I realize more frequent water changes are first on my todo list, but what about this salt concentration? Is there a consensus on amount? 1 teaspoon (tsp), or 1 tablespoon (tbsp) per 5 gallons.
I presume 1 tbsp wouldn't hurt but just checking.

Then...
I came across this article: Aquarium Salt: When and How to Use It Properly
and their recommendation is considerably higher, depending on what they're trying to eradicate.
Especially the sections on Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3 treatments. Rather high salt concentrations, but maybe it's effective.
Should I take that particular article with a 'grain of salt'? (couldn't resist...)

Edit: I just figured out how to quote multiple posts, so excuse my excitement!

 

I think it’s one teaspoon per gallon but to me that’s to much so I go with one tablespoon per 5 gal. Thing with salt it’s not good with plants or snails.

 

HI guys, i've just discovered my first case of cotton fin in my fish tank! It's affected one of my rummy nose tetras and I've been told numerous times that aquarium salt is a good cure for fungal infections. I've got a carton of API aquarium salt but it says on the packet that I have to add it during a water change? Since i've just cleaned my tank yesterday i'm hesitant to do another water change so soon, so I was wondering if I was able to add it another time? also how do you add the salt to the water during a water change?

also, if anyone has any other suggestions for treating fungal problems that would be really helpful! i'm currently treating with bactonex with claims to help with bacterial, parasitic and fungal problems but i'd love to know if there was something better.

my tank does contain corydoras and amano shrimp though, so i'm thinking a lesser dose of salt would be better for them, but opinions would be great.

Hello birdy...

I would keep bottled, chemical medications out of the tank water. You can never tell how individual fish will react to them. As for aquarium salt, the dose should be kept to a minimum if you have aquatic plants. I would dose no more than two teaspoons for every five gallons of new, treated tap water. More than this could damage your plants.

Old