The Puffer Forum

I have looked over the site and others to obtain the correct info for turning from F/W to B/W, ok so i want to build it up no more than .002/weekly water changes but what is this in english lol, I have a hydrometer but confused how much salt to add.

My tank is 15 us gallons, if im doing a 20% change each week now should i add 5 tbs to my first change then gage it each change from then on?

You need to read this. It's too long to type out and explains everything you need to know, there is a chart in there on adding what SG to what SG will result in what SG. viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19348

Highlights are basically there isn't one set amount of salt to add to a set amount of water to get the .002 raise. Every batch of salt is different and can change over time due to moisture exposure. You will need to experiment to find what works.

ok the above seems easy to work out, the huge prob is i dont own anything which is 50% of my tank to do this, would it make any issue if u used the same but with a bucket which is 25% of the tanks volume? ok it will take longer but saves spending more money,

Sure you can. you can have 2 X 25% containers

buckets at the ready tomorrow then,

question, went to get the salt today and guy in shop said i wanted red sea salt? he also said i can use sea salt from the supermarket as long as it is 100% sea salt

WRITTEN BY RTR IN THE BRACKISH WATER FORUM
Sorry to copy and past, but I did not want you to run out and by sea salt at the grocery store

"Aquarium Salt" is a product with no definition. The tem is completely and totally meaningless. There is no specific labeling requirement with regulatory control in this country. It can be anything the company wishes to sell the unsuspecting.

Quite a long time ago, in web terms, several of us lab types bought multiple varieties of Aquarium Salt. The analyses were a hoot - they ranged from unpurified mined salt (essentially and likely exactly "road salt" for snow and ice use) through several just plain salt (relatively purified but not food grade salt) to at least one product which was definitely Morton's table salt. A couple were "sea salt" from evaporation of marine water in ponds. We did not have any that were marine mix, but I have seen reports of such (from lobster salt for grocery and fish-market use - really basic marine mix unsuited to long-term use - to other basic and undesirable simple marine mixes). In other words, it is a toss-up. None had any sort of decent label analyses. Avoid such meaningless products - you cannot know what they are without an expensive analysis.

Marine mix is a variety of highly complex formulations which when reconstituted by label directions will produce a reasonable liquid which is capable of supporting vertebrate or invertebrate (likely somewhat different formulations - the invert formulas are more complex) marine life long-term.

There are also Rift Lake salts - to emulate the waters of Lake Malawi and or LakeTanganyika - separate formulations would be better there - the two are quite different. I have not analyzed those, but would not buy them if they did not have analysis on the label. They could be similar to "Aquarium Salt" and meaningless.

Table salt is quite safe and proper for disease treatment of FW fish sort-term, such a Ich. Rumors to the contrary - common to near-universal on the web - are mytholgy, to be kind. Or lies, to be blunt.

"Sea salt" for table use is not really suitable for tank use. It is safe (in this country anyway), but it is not purified sodium chloride (as "Table salt" is), but a mixture of the dried chemicals resulting when seawater is dried in ponds. As the brine concentrates, there are many irreversible reactions between the components, which means that if sea salt is dissolved in water, it will not resemble the original seawater. For disease treatment, you generally want the sodium ion (Na+) or the chloride ion (Cl-), or both. You get those in predictable quantity or strength if you use table salt,not sea salt,or marine mix. For the marine mix, you could compute it, but why bother? Marine mix is much more expensive and dissolves less readily.

Brackish water (BW) is any mixture of seawater and fresh water. If you want BW, use marine mix to whatever specific gravity or salinity is desired, there is no need or reason for any special mix.

I cannot see why anyone would need "Aquarium salt" at all. You might need table salt at times, short term. Or you might need marine mix. But what use is an undefined product?

But don't expect the math to be perfect - 2 each 25% patials sequentially are less than one 50% partial - something like about a 44%partial.

What specific gravity are you aiming for? if you go higher than 1.007-1.010, you need to be slow and careful in that range. That is the area where the nitrification bacteria change over. Don't try to push too fast in that neighborhood - you might get metabolite issues.

HTH