Maybe Ich? Maybe Stress from Other....

[The Bruce]

i've never thought of using table salt, i've always had marine salt around so i never tried any other salt, cool

[MatthewLaw]

hmmm ok so can we conclude:

Table Salt: Good
Marine Salt: Good (better?)
Conditioning Salt: Bad/good?

[Nick]

conditioning salt/aquarium salt is equivalent to table salt, but more expensive.

[Pufferpunk]

Barbs & balas are schooling fish (5-6 minimum for a school), unlike the "sharks".

Marine salt is not for treating ich.

[MatthewLaw]

Thanks for the help..

Any idea/recommendation if I should install the supplemental sponge filter NOW or wait for the treatment to complete?

I am doing the marine salt method mentioned in puffer library. Thank you all for the help!!

[Pufferpunk]

Marine salt is not mentioned in that article.

[Nick]

Yea, I don't know if it would be particularly superior for treating ich. Maybe the parasite dislikes harder water as well? Regular salt seems to work just fine IME.

[MatthewLaw]

In the article, no particular type of salt is actually recommended.

The Bruce has stated that he had positive effects with instant ocean (aka marine salt).

I started using marine salt last night and the fish seem to be happy, at least NOT unhappy.

Any votes/opinions AGAINST marine salt?

[The Bruce]

i've never used anything but marine salt, so if other people have tried it and it hasn't worked then speak up and i will never recommend it again, but my experience has been only good, so since your using marine salt let us know if it works or not, i would hate to recommend something in the future that doesn't work for others

[Pufferpunk]

I have also used marine salt, just because I had it around. After reading RTR's article though, I stuck with regular table salt.
http://www.aquariumboard.com/forums/articles/4770.htm

[The Bruce]

"The use of “sea salt” (a table grade of culinary salt from evaporation ponds of seawater) is not an adequate replacement. Brine in these evaporation ponds undergoes a large number of interesting reactions during the concentration process, so the final product does not match the composition or functional ability to support life that was present in the original seawater or in water made up from marine mix. It is fine for table use, inappropriate for the tank due to the significant differences from seawater"

here he is saying that sea salt from the supermarket is not an acceptable substitution for sea water or marine mix, so are you saying that you don't use marine mix because table salt is just as good and cheaper? or did i miss something in that article that says marine mix should not be used? sorry when smart people like RTR write articles i sometimes find it difficult for my small brain to decipher their meaning

[Agnate]

I am not quite convinced of the efficacy of the prescribed dosage (I use at least 1 teaspoon per gallon actual water volume)

1 tablespoon ~= 3 teaspoons

We seem to recommend 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons, which probably works out well, as people often have lots of decoration/substrate, but use their tank's quoted volume (which can also be higher - ie. a standard 55 gallon only holds 44 gallons of water). So our article should still be accurate enough to produce the desired results.

However, Pufferpunk, I don't quite understand how this article caused you to switch from marine salt to table salt? His article discusses the myths of consistently maintaining a level/amount of salt (such as 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons) in a freshwater tank, but says nothing about the difference in effects between table salt and marine salt when treating freshwater Ich. By the sounds of the article and what I've read elsewhere (no references though, sorry), freshwater Ich is somehow negatively affected by the presence of salt in its free-swimming stage (maybe due to the ions introduced, or the increase in TDS?). In either case, there seems to be no mention in his article about various types of salt having a greater/lesser effect on Ich; he only mentions that maintaining this salt level does not benefit most fish (and, in fact, could be more detrimental).

If I am incorrect, though, please point it out, as it's quite possible that I missed something while reading.

[Pufferpunk]

I just wanted to link you guys to that interesting salt article & worded it incorrectly. I meant to say, I have used both--whatever's readily on hand, I guess will do.

[MatthewLaw]

Greetings All- The obvious 'salt' signs of ich have disappeared on the SAPs but I am continuing to treat as instructed (every other day water changed, replace marine salt from changed water 1 tablespoon/5g) for about a month.

All other fish in the tank are happy.

[The Bruce]

sounds good, your on the right track