Hi everyone!

Its nice to be back on kokos. I havent been around for awhile since all of my fish are doing great!

I did have one question after reading the "pinned salt" section. When you add seasalt, I know it doesn't evaporate and the only way to remove it is through a water change. My mom has been dilligently caring for my fish whole I'm at college. However my concern is that every time she does a partial water change e.i: 25%, she adds a full amount of salt as directed on the box as if there was no salt to begin with in the tank. I have a 30 gallon tank that she changes about 7.5 gallons every Friday. However, until last week she used to put a matching amount of seasalt for a 30 gallon tank in, following the directions as if there was no salt present.

Over time, wouldn't this increase the salt level slowly over time to dangerous levels? I told her to stop for the time until i consulted everyone at kokos.
What is a good amount of salt to add after every change?
btw: my fish are not sick, i add the salt for their general overall health. The salt is API seasalt.

thanks!

If you take out 10 gallons of water for example you should only put in enough salt for 10gallons that you removed

That is exactly what is called "salt creep". You are absolutely correct - each time she takes out a portion of the water, yet adds back in a full tank's worth of salt, the salinity of the tank's water will rise. Finally, when it gets high enough, it will kill the fish.

If you are going to run a tank with a certain percentage of salt (0.1ppm being the average for everyday salinity) you need to be careful of salt creep. Have your mom measure the amount of water she is taking OUT of the tank at each change and only treat that amount with salt. For example, in a 40 gallon tank you are using 1T per 5 gallons and she takes out 10 gallons, she would only put in 2 Ts of salt into the returning 10 gallons - NOT 4T for the whole tank.

May I susggest a different solution, however? Salt, used as a daily thing in a tank, is really not needed. In fact - there are specific reasons why you probably do NOT want to always use salt. Salt is one of the most ancient and effective treatments against a whole host of parasites that commonly bother goldfish. Salt, properly used, will kill the parasites nicely. These parasites, though, are a lot like the cockroaches of the non-goldfish world - they can become immune to the salt as they live and breed through generations in the salt solution.

There are already some kinds of parasites that have strains that are almost 100% resistant to lower salt levels.

TO prevent the nasties from becoming resistant to salt, it is better to simply not use it UNLESS there is a specific reason to do so. Save the salt for nitritepoisoning/gill protection/parasite control/qt and do not use it for everyday and you will have a better weapon in the future if you need it. This will save the money of using the salt daily - as well as make it so your mom does not have to measure salt!

Since you probably have a fairly high level of salt in that tank now, from salt creep, it would be wise to slowly lower the levels of salt - rather than go cold turkey. If your mom is used to doing small water changes on a more frequent basis, then just simply stop adding in salt. Each change will lower the salt level gently until it is diluted out to nothing. If she does HUGE water changes - 75% or more - at a change, you may wish to have her add in 1/2 the amount of salt she normally does for one change, before she goes "cold turkey".

thanks a lot Daryl and Blue ! I forwarded your suggestion back home. I never thought of the immunity that parasites could build up to salt. I'll definetly go easier on the salt once i get home for christmas.


once again thanks so much!