Salt Doses

(medicinal purposes)

Before going straight into salt doses I will outline the essential information you need to know before using salt, also please bear in mind no responsibilitly is liable by the owners of World cichlids

1. Use only pure salt without any other ingrediants, most normal table salt contains anti-caking agents that can harm fish. It is very important to read the labels for these ingrediants, basicly all the label should say is "SALT" and nothing else.You can use aquarium salt from a pet shop but it is normally high in cost compared to salt purchased from a grocery store. This form of salt is labeled in various ways around the world, some forms of labled "cooking salt" is pure salt, along with rock salt,kosher salt,sea salt,pure salt etc etc.

2.Salt wont evaporate and does "not" lose concentration over time if water is "not" changed. If the tank loses water due to evaporation the "amount" of salt in the tank is the same, just in less water making the concentration level itself higher(if this happens in big amounts then its best to top up the water level inbetween water changes without adding anymore salt). Basicly to lessen the concentration of salt you have to actually physically do water changes.

EG. Say your 210 litre/55gallon tank is dosed at 1 table spoon of salt per 20litres/5gallons and you do a "physical" water change of 40litres/10gallons then you only need to add two table spoons of salt to top the concentration levels up.

3. Salt should never be added directly to the tank, you should disolve it in a bucket of water(prefferably water taken from the tank). Salt that is added directly can burn and cause irritation to the fish.

4. Whilst salt is tollerated well compared to other medicines use with caution on scaless fish like plecos. However IMO salt at "medicinal" levels and dosed "correctly" is relativitly safe to use with plecos after talking to many people over the years but I guess its purely personal choice. So the warning is there ;)

5. Salt in general has benifits allround from cureing ich,healing wounds,clearing cloudy eye to lessing the stress levels on a tank going through a cycle.

6. Ok finally the doses.
preventative dose I reccomend 1 tablespoon per 40litres/10gallons and topping up each water change(keeping a diary helps to keep track) Preventaive doses are purely personal choice that I practice to keep illness at bay. Not everyone agrees with this and that is their choice but I having been doing this for years now and very little trouble with my fish.

For curing illnesses like ich and most other stuff "in" the tank the dose is 1 table spoon per 20litres/5gallons.

If you choose to do salt baths "out" of the tank in a bucket then the dose is usually 10 grams per litre, gradually added and time is normally 30 minutes.(unless the fish starts showing severe forms of stress)

Epsom salts

The use of epsom salts rules are basicly the same as normal salt as far as safty is concerned.

Epsom salts are really good as a laxative and can be of benifit to illnesses like dropsy,bloat,compaction,constipation and other insteninal probs.

The usual dose "in" the tank is 1 table spoon per 40litres/10gallons. Epsom salt baths can be of a benifit too but be carefull as the dose is high but the time spent in the bath is short. usually 70grams per litre(2 pints) for 5 minutes max, if your uncomfortable with these levels then follow the normal salt dose(10 grams per litre for 30 minutes)