Salt and Carbon help, Please!

[Djhgksga]

Hi guys well i have only about 7 fish in my tank now and its been ick free for sevral weeks now and it just came back and i do not want my africans do die. so my question is this will my canister filter take out the salt if i keave it running? I dont want to spend any more money on medicine and i just want to use salt. I have put in 1 tbs for 5 gallons, i this fine? And how long do i keep it going for?

Thanks!

 

[KcMopar]

You need to do water changes to remove the salt. I do not use any meds for ich. I jack the temp up to about 84ish and do daily or every other day water changes of about 10-20% while doing an excellent vacuum job to pick up all the parasites that fall off the fish due to the temp increase. This may take a couple couple to a few weeks, keep it up for a week after the ich is not seen. Weekly vacuuming along with the weekly water changes will help stop break outs of ich as well. Keeping your temp about 78-80 after treatment of 84 degrees will help to.

 

[betta lover22]

With the salt I recommend taking up the temperature and doing the water changes just as KcMopar mentioned. Most times people who treat with the salt and don't do that will have the ick return in anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months after treatment is "completed". But in my experience if done together works well. Just make sure when adding new water that enough salt has been dissolved into it before adding it back into the tank. When removing the salt at the end of treatment add freshwater gradually so you do not shock the fish causing stress.

Oh! And if you want to get a catfish or any fish that is sensitive to the salt, don't do it right away... the salt won't be fully gone out of the tank for a little while...at a very low concentration it should be OK though. (don't quote me on that!!!!)

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them!

 

[phin]

Don't worry about the salt. Your Africans will be fine. I add 1Tbsp of salt (in addition to other minerals) for each 5 gallons in my mbuna tank and with each water change. That amount of salt is good for them. What kind of Africans do you have?

 

[KcMopar]

I use 6 teaspoons of baking soda, 6 teaspoons of instant ocean salt, and 6 TABLEspoons of Epsom salt to 45-50 gallons when doing the weekly water change in my 75G African tank. This keeps them perky, happy, and bursting with color.