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Ich & Salting

Hi All,

My tank is about 1100 litres, and I have about 50 Talapia fingerlings and 10 odd Goldfish in the tank. The fish are all still small, about 5 or 6cm's. I lost 4 fish last weekend, they had what appeared to be a white film on their bodies.

I identified this as Ich and added 1kg of salt to the system (new but fully cycled with not salt previously added. All chemical readings are good and stable with a ph of about 6.8.

The temperature is cooling with the water about 20 degrees C.

I added the salt on Sunday last week and since then there have been no further deaths. The fish are energetic and eating again (as opposed the lethargic behavior a day before).

Should I add more salt, how much and for how long?

I see lots of info about salt but most of it is imperial (I am not sure what the Americans call it) and I only know metric.

Oh, yes, no strawberries in the growbeds only tomatoes, beans and lettuce at this stage.

Thanks for our help,

Eco

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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on March 23, 2012 at 4:58pm

I would up the salt to 3 ppt total (so that would be a little more than two more KG right?) 3 ppt should be fine for the fish and is normally not a problem for most plants and should give you piece of mind that the ick if that is indeed what you had is gone. Leave the salt for several weeks. (And actually it will eventually get used up by plants long term, just don't add more salt.)

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Permalink Reply by Eco Owl on March 24, 2012 at 1:59pm

Thanks TC, I really appreciate your help.

it is quite lonely here in Gauteng wrt Aquaponics and your support is great.

Kind regards,

Eco