Is there a post somewhere that can tell me how much salt to add to my water to bring it to a certain level?
For example:
1 tbls added to 5 gallons = _____salinity level
2 tbls added to 5 gallons = _____salinity level
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I think it would be helpful for others and me.

Here you go:

http://www.goldfishinfo.com/salt.htm

This is a great site for disease diagnosis as well.

The standard most people quote is one (1) TEApoon of aquarium salt per gallon of water or one (1) TABLEspoon of aquarium salt per five (5) gallons of water equals a .1% salt solution. So two (2) tablespoon in five (5) gallons equals .2% and so on.

This is good enough for most applications, but it really makes a difference what kind of salt you're using. A tablespoon of normal aquarium salt contains less salt by weight than a tablespoon of Morton's Pickling and Canning salt.

If you really want to be accurate with salt measurements you need to weight the salt.

A .1% salt solution is equal to 1 gram per liter of water. There are 3.785 liters per gallon. So to raise the salinity of one gallon of water to .1% you need 3.785 grams of salt. To raise five (5) gallons of water to .1% you would need 18.925 grams of salt.

I use Morton's Pickling and Canning salt in my aquarium. It's exactly the same as aquarium salt but costs about 1/3 as much as aquarium salt. One teaspoon of Morton's Pickling and Canning salt averages between 6.1-6.3 grams (I checked the weight using Morton's pickling and canning salt and four different teaspoons) so one teaspoon in a gallon of water will raise the salinity to 1.63%.

Everything works out at one tablespoon per five gallons to get .1% salinity. One tablespoon of pickling and canning salt weighs 18.1 grams (Same Morton's salt and the tablespoons from the same four measuring spoon sets as the teaspoons) .1% salt in five gallons takes 18.925 grams so at 18.1 grams one tablespoon per five gallons is pretty accurate.

Just be careful if you're using one teaspoon per gallon measurement and a fine ground salt like Morton's.

Rick

Thanks for all the great info! I'll have to look for the pickling salt next time I'm at the grocery store. Do you know what percentage should be added to treat ich?

In the uk its 1 level tablespoon to 3 gallons or 1 level teaspoon to 1 gallon.

Sandy, is that for treating ich?

To kill Ich with salt, you want a .3% salt solution. That would be 3 TABLEspoons of salt per 5 gallons of tank water. The salt needs to be dissolved in tank water and added in 3 doses at least 12 hours apart.

Ok. Thanks Bak2it. I'm going to write that down just in case.

Thanks for the info bak2it