Using salt with Shell Dwellers

[Angelfish1]

About 1 week ago one of my multis died of unknown causes. The other fish look fine but I was wondering if I should add some salt to the aquarium for the overall improvement of their health. I've read online that salt is good for hard water fish but I've also read that it isn't good to overuse it. So my question is, should I add salt to improve the overall health of my hard water fish? If so, what concentration should I dose it at?

Parameters
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10-20
pH: 7.8 - 8.2

Stock (36 gallon):
- 2 neolamprogus multifasciatus (1 female, 1 male)
- 5-10 multi fry

 

[OutsideFoodBlob]

Are you using any cichlid specific supplements or salts? It looks like there some African Cichlid specific supplements by Seachem which could be better or I guess better suited to them. Maybe just check it out online to see what dosage is suggested and a similar dry weight aquarium salt dosage could be substituted.

 

[Bwood22]

Make sure that when you research any African Cichlid specific salts that you understand that Magnesium Sulfate (epsom salt) is completely different than Sodium Chloride (aquarium salt).

You can use both at the same time.

I think that the salt that the OP is referring to is regular aquarium salt.

Dosing Epsom salt is going to depend on your dGH.

With your tanganyikans, you can dose 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons up to 1 tablespoon per 3 gallons of aquarium salt and they will be just fine.

Having said all of that...i usually only dose aquarium salt to clear up minor issues due to aggression...(occasional mouth fungus from lip locking etc) but still, using it wont hurt your fish.

The thought behind over using aquarium salt is that bacteria and fungal infections in your tank can become tolerant to high salinity making the salt less effective, therefore you should use it sparingly.

With Epsom salt....the more you add the higher your general hardness will be. So if you shoot for a dGH of 10-18ish using a hardness test kit....that will tell you how much Epsom salt to dose.

I redose Epsom salt with every water change keeping my dGH around 15ish.

Oh....I keep Malawi cichlids btw.

About 1 week ago one of my multis died of unknown causes. The other fish look fine but I was wondering if I should add some salt to the aquarium for the overall improvement of their health. I've read online that salt is good for hard water fish but I've also read that it isn't good to overuse it. So my question is, should I add salt to improve the overall health of my hard water fish? If so, what concentration should I dose it at?

Parameters
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10-20
pH: 7.8 - 8.2

Stock (36 gallon):
- 2 neolamprogus multifasciatus (1 female, 1 male)
- 5-10 multi fry

Also.....man, sometimes fish just die and its not your fault. Alot of aquarium fish in the hobby just have bad genes.
If you think that there might be a problem in your tank, using aquarium salt as a preventative treatment is totally acceptable. And much preferred over preventative medications.

If you want to dose aquarium salt i would add it at a water change and run it for about a week.
Then don't redose it....just dilute it over time with water changes.

 

[Angelfish1]

Make sure that when you research any African Cichlid specific salts that you understand that Magnesium Sulfate (epsom salt) is completely different than Sodium Chloride (aquarium salt).

You can use both at the same time.

I think that the salt that the OP is referring to is regular aquarium salt.

Dosing Epsom salt is going to depend on your dGH.

With your tanganyikans, you can dose 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons up to 1 tablespoon per 3 gallons of aquarium salt and they will be just fine.

Having said all of that...i usually only dose aquarium salt to clear up minor issues due to aggression...(occasional mouth fungus from lip locking etc) but still, using it wont hurt your fish.

The thought behind over using aquarium salt is that bacteria and fungal infections in your tank can become tolerant to high salinity making the salt less effective, therefore you should use it sparingly.

With Epsom salt....the more you add the higher your general hardness will be. So if you shoot for a dGH of 10-18ish using a hardness test kit....that will tell you how much Epsom salt to dose.

I redose Epsom salt with every water change keeping my dGH around 15ish.

Oh....I keep Malawi cichlids btw.

Also.....man, sometimes fish just die and its not your fault. Alot of aquarium fish in the hobby just have bad genes.
If you think that there might be a problem in your tank, using aquarium salt as a preventative treatment is totally acceptable. And much preferred over preventative medications.

If you want to dose aquarium salt i would add it at a water change and run it for about a week.
Then don't redose it....just dilute it over time with water changes.

Thank you so much for this reply, it was super helpful! My multis have been acting strange lately, it might just be me being paranoid after the other one died but I’ll go ahead with dosing aquarium salt for a week just to be on the safe side. I’ll order a hardness kit and see if I need to raise my dGH. It was low before (around 4-5 dGH) but I’ve added some dead coral since then so I’ll retest to see if it’s still low. How do I know how much epsom salt I should add in the beginning?

 

[Bwood22]

Great question.
Here's what I would do:

1. Check your dGH and if it's too low then...
2. Add 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt (dissolve it in a container of tank water then dump it back in the tank)
3. Wait 15 mins
4. Repeat as necessary

My tap gh is around 4....I use 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons, just to give you a reference.

 

[Flyfisha]

Hey Angelfish1 ,
Your profile does not say where you are in the world. Not that I care but if you are working with the same strain of multies as I was they were born and raised Australia in ACT water ( soft water). I got them locally and had them for 3 years without issues. Nobody in my local club adds minerals for multies.

I suggest if or when you change the GH of the water you raise it slowly over many weeks add a little more minerals to each lot of change water. The same when you stop adding minerals. That is assuming you change a lot of water each week?

The salt mix / mineral mix I use for live bearers contains 5 dry ingredients only one of which is epsom salts .Seachem sell a powder to raise GH .
To answer your question.
To work out what your final dose of minerals is add a measured amount of mix to a 5 gallon / 20 litre bucket, then test and add more or less. Once you know what your dose will be eventually you can start adding some mix/ powder to EVERY water change bucket. Building up over time to what you have worked out to be necessary.


I am just saying be careful, go easy on adding minerals. A little at a time .

An tiny spoon may be all you need?