when fresh becomes salt...

[bromie88]

we are all familliar with things like tester kits and fish medication ect. if you go into a LFS, chances are they will have a wide variety of tester kits and medicines incase your fish become ill. great... but there only seem to be 2 types, recomended for either fresh and salt water. but at what salinity does each become unsuitable for use in the brackish aquaria?

my tank is currently at around 1.010. is it best to use saltwater kit, or will the freshwater equivilents suffice?

and when does freshwater kit stop working correctly? my local LFS said that when salinity is below 1.015 use FW kit, and when above use SW. it seems like a good rule of thumb, but id still question the reliabillity of things such as medicines, especially near the (so im told) cut-off point of 1.015

how about everyone else? what do you all think?

 

[pussyfishhunter]

i was under the impression thats its better to forget the freshwater test kits altogether and use the salt variety at a low end brackish. i dont know what point it is unusable. im at 1.012 and use a brand for both it has 2 scales one fresh and one salt. i look for the closest color in each and assume its in the middle of the 2.

 

[bromie88]

i was under the impression thats its better to forget the freshwater test kits altogether and use the salt variety at a low end brackish. i dont know what point it is unusable. im at 1.012 and use a brand for both it has 2 scales one fresh and one salt. i look for the closest color in each and assume its in the middle of the 2.

well then thats the tester kits sorted i supose. but not the medicines... like i said im at around 1.010, and im using a freshwater medicine to treat my archers for fungus.

they've had it for a few weeks. did what the instructions said, and raised the salt level .002 a week (from .006). normally it would clear up in a week or so. im at 3 weeks now and so far have lost one fish. the others are fine now though. only a few small bits left. looks like i'm winning!

it occured to me that if i used a SW medicine, i could still have 4 archers