No, this will also increase alkalinity/PH.
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this was very helpful for me check it out:
Taken From: http://www.kwas.ca/forum/showthread....discus&p=43710
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This was posted by bradscichlids during the, now famous, "discus/metro joode and cowchick" thread last year. Others will hopefully chime in with their personal experience.
as im not a discus keeper and i havnt had any since the early 70s i found this article and i learned something that i had thought was completely wrong as i was always under the impression discus were fragile to a high doseage of salt
remember when doing salt baths and dips good aeration is a must
QUOTE FROM ANOTHER SITE:
Discus Salt Dip Methodology
Type of salt to use:
The type of salt used should be non-iodized and contain no ‘free flow’ or other additives (e.g. no iodine or sodium ferrocyanide etc. I have used ‘Freshwater Aquarium Salt’, rock salt and sea salt. If purchasing non-aquarium salt please read the packaging carefully as current trends show an increase in the use of additives even in natural products such as rock salt (UK).
If new to Salt Dipping
If new to dipping fish a good place to start would be with a 1.5-2% salt solution; for more experienced users I would suggest you start with a 3% solution immediately. The solution should be made up in a clean bucket or spare (fishless) tank. Whilst it is preferable to weigh out the correct amount of salt e.g. for a 2% solution one would use 20g of salt per litre of water, the following approximate measure are given for the sake of simplicity.
1 TABLESPOON of salt approximates to 15grams.
Therefore 1 TABLESPOON of salt per litre of water equates to a 1.5% solution
Worked examples (See Table 1 for other strengths):
· If your bucket/tank contains 10 litres of water you would add 13 tablespoons of salt to get an approximate 2% salt solution
· Or - If you place 3 US gallons of water in a 5 gallon bucket you would add 14½ tablespoons of salt - to get an approximate 2% solution.
And so on
· It is important to ensure that the salt is fully dissolved before placing the fish in the bucket/tank and that the water temperature matches the tank from which the fish are taken.
As you will need to multi-dip throughout the day, place a heater in the tank, if you do not want to have to remake new salt solution each time; personally I make a fresh solution for each dip.
Before you place the fish in the solution please remember that:
· The length of time that you can leave discus in the solution varies greatly from a few seconds to 30 minutes
o 5 minutes would be a reasonable average
· The time they tolerate the dip DECREASES with the number of dips performed in a 24 hour period
· The fish MUST NOT be left unattended
· During the treatment your fish may show some interesting discolouration, do not worry this is short term.
Place the fish into the solution as quickly and as carefully as possible - then observe closely.
Initially, the respiration of the fish will increase substantially, 120 gill beats per minute is not uncommon. At some point, the fish will keel over on its side - and it is at this point that the novice should remove the fish and return it to its tank. If you are confident and experienced in dipping you may want to extend the time that the fish is exposed to the saline solution - I have found it effective to leave the fish in the solution until the gill beats have slowed to around 20 bpm - irrespective of whether the fish has keeled over or not.
Once the fish are returned to their tank they should within a few minutes regain their composure. If they appear to be in difficulty, the fish can be supported using your hands and then gently pulled backwards through the water at a slow pace - so that water is forced over the gills.
I have dipped 5 times a day for up to 7 days and there has been no lasting negative effect. It is important that the dips continue until all visible signs of infection are gone.
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i hope this helps
brad
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Hi, I'm new to this forum. I had my discus for a month now, never had a problem until recently. Today I noticed that they developed gill flukes so I did the salt dip as instructed by this thread. After the procedure, they are now breathing normally which is a good sign but I noticed that they developed white spots on their fins almost as if they got fin rot, is this normal?
Jonathan
Hey Jon, and welcome. How do you know your fish are suffering from gill flukes?
Also, whenever doing a salt dip, its important to return the fish to another tank (hospital) for observation. Returning them to the main tank, just lets the bugs attack the fish even more as a salt dip is quite harsh.
Thank you for the reply
I know it has gill flukes because two of them had gill flukes and one of them had a clamped gill and was breathing rapidly. Unfortunately, my QT is in use right now, so I can only put them back into the main tank. What treatments can I use to kill the eggs?
Thanks
will a salt dip with kosher salt be okay? Is salt effective against ich or white fungus? My 6" discus has one white patch and 2 cyst like pimples. He's itching. its not ich. thought about treating him in quarantine with metro but not sure if that works. Maybe salt?
I never add salt to my tank,,, and all the fishes seems to be fine, would u recommend me doing a salt dip,or even add some salt to my 220 litter tank?
Thanks for kindness
i will try this today cause my wild discus breathing fast out of one gill and scratch himself to gravel once in a while .how do we kill the flukes eggs ?please help
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I have one Snow White 5.5 inch Discus that had a pimple looking bump above one eye for several months. This morning I noticed that where she has the bump its now a red sore kind of swollen. She just finished spawning for the past or 2 or 3 days. She is eating and other than the sore above her eye she seems normal. There were two males that fought for her attention during spawning... the looser never really gave up. Can this be an injury of something much worse. Should I now QT and salt bathe? Is there a risk to other fish?
A salt dip is only recommended if you sterilize your tank because it removes the slime coat. If your tank has parasites it can be worse.
A pimple can be a water quality issue. Up water changes and clean filters.
You could dip a q tip in iodine and gently touch the spot not getting in eye. Then plop back in tank.
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What purpose does removing the slime coat serve... is the technique used when there is a problem with slime coat? I have read the applying aquarium salt in the recommended amounts per gallon during water changes in the show tank assists in maintaining a healthy show tank... is this true? Of course this is much more diluted say half cup to a cup for a 150G. I usually just sprinkle it across the tank but I had a local fella tell me that he places the cup in the bottom of the tank in it slowly dissolves in a concentrated area and seeps into the circulation flow over time...
@ Tautog, you may be better starting a thread of your own in the disease section where we can concentrate on any specifics. The pimple you describe could be one of many things, but I doubt a salt dip will help here. Salt dips do tend to remove some slime coat, this can be beneficial to the fish as the fishes first line of defence is it's slime coat. If that slime coat contains pathogens (parasites/protozoa/bacteria) then removing the slime coat removes that load of pathogens. But putting a fish without it's slime coat back into an infected tank will often be counter productive as it has lost it's first line of defence, albeit only temporarily.
A general comment, I haven't read this thread for a while and noticed some poor information being put forward in it regarding salt and which type to use.
Using iodised salt.
The iodine in the salt is in the iodised salt of iodine (this usage of salt is in the chemistry format, i.e chemical symbol for Iodine is "I" and iodine, sodium iodide is the sodium salt of iodine and is written "NaI"). The long and short of it is that any of the iodine salts used in making iodised table salt are inert and cannot react in water. Not using iodised salt is just another fishkeeping myth.
Using salt with anti-caking agents
The most common anti caking agent used in salt is YPS (Yellow Prussiate of Soda or more correctly sodium ferrocyanide). The theory is that this will break down and release cyanide and poison the fish. The conditions required to break down sodium ferrocyanide are extremely unlikely to be found in an aquarium, let alone a discus tank. It requires massive amounts of energy, it is possible for the sun at midday at or near to the equator to maybe break sodium ferrocyanide down, but last time I looked very few of us have the sun as a tank light. If we were to put sodium ferrocyanide into an acid then it would break down and produce cyanide gas (HCN). So, how many discus or fish have we got living in an acid? And finally, given that the maximum permitted amount of sodium ferrocyanide in the EU is 20mg/kg that is 0.00002% you would need an awful lot of salt to have any effect! Yet another fishkeeping myth.
The moral of the story
Use any salt you want to, the cheapest you can find, I have been using whatever salt I can get hold of for all my fishkeeping life and have yet to poison myself or the fish with cyanide!
Regular use of salt
If you want to always add salt to a discus tank, stop, sell the discus and buy some mollies or even go the whole hog and get a reef tank!
That's very interesting. Thank you for taking the time to respond.