Treating with Salt!

[Nozebleed]

Hi. I've had a breakout of white spot. I've treated the tank with tonic salt using the appropriate dosage. unfortunately i lost one of my L-134's over night..i think this fish was the cause of the outbreak..looked a bit roughed up when i got him. Im now starting to see more white spots appearing on my fish after 2 days of adding salt. My question is how many times can i add salt? I've added the appropriate dosage for my tank on day 1 & 2. can i repeat this dosage on day 3-4-5? how many days should i add salt i guess is what im asking!

I've already read the sticky! but im a little unsure of maximum dosage!

 

[L021]

#1; Up the temp and do a lot of wcs. Without those 2 things in place nothing will improve. After that, avoid adding salt except at water changes. The level of salt will not go down unless you take water out by bucket.

 

[Dark Jester]

What dosage did you use? Generally to battle Ich you want to have a salt concentration of about 1 Tablespoon per gallon. With Plecos you may want a slightly lower concentration due to their sensitivity, possibly 2 Teaspoons per gallon. It won't be very effective below that concentration, probably just creating a salt resistant strain. Bump the temp up to 85 or 86, and leave it like that for 10 days or more. You will still see new spots forming for the first few days, but they should start vanishing after 4-5 days and be pretty much completely gone after 7 days. Keep the salt in though for a few more days after the spots are gone to take care of any remaining unhatched cysts.

Contintue doing water changes during treatment and redose salt equivalent to the water you take out. i.e. If you take out 10 gallons, add 10 gallons back and 10 tablespoons of salt. Make sure to disolve the salt in water before adding it to the tank as well to prevent possibly burning your fish.

 

[Nozebleed]

thanks for the replies. I have used the correct dosage for my tank size..1 tablespoon per gallon. i did a water change yesterday and added the salt. today i added another dosage as recommended on the packaging. Im just wondering now if its ok to increase salt levels further? or will current dosage be enough to kill off the parasite?? how much is salt considered enough to kill off the parasites? Is it nescessary to do water changes? cant i just add salt..feed lightly for the week and do my normal water change at the end of the week?
this is my first time using the salt method..i normally use chemicals. I just dont want to lose another fish! especially my L-134's as they are very difficult to get over here in these neck of the woods.

 

[Dark Jester]

1 tablespoon per gallon is plenty to kill the parasite. 2 Teaspoons is minimum and I'd say around 4 Teaspoons would be max (a little over a Tablespoon/Gallon) You don't want to go too much higher than that as you start moving toward brakish water conditions and your fish will be overly stressed and suffer.

You don't have to do the water changes as long as your parameters are within range (0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, low Nitrate). Just keep an eye on the nitrates and change if needed.

 

[Nozebleed]

thanks dark jestar...most helpfull post.