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Overview
Salt has important benefits if used
correctly, but should be looked on as a medicine. Unfortunately, as in many things
with this hobby , the information presented to
the starting hobbyist is confusing, too
technical, flawed or just plain incorrect. It
has gotten so bad that some customers we get
in our store ask how much salt to add,
before they even build their pond.
All living things use salt as part of their
chemical composition and fish are no
exception. Fortunately most well and city water
contains enough salt to enable the fish life
cycle to take place and to protect against nitrite spikes, without any help from us.
The closer you live toward the ocean the more
salt concentration will be in your drinking
water, i.e. here in west central Florida, the measured salt
level is 0.074% in our area.
If
you must use Salt
Treating
your pond's water: A starting treatment would be an .03% dosage, 25lb per
1000gallons. Rock, ice cream or water softener salt is preferred, although
Iodized salt can be used.
Salt
Additives
Iodized salt---
Iodized salt, will not, contrary to popular myth, affect your fish health. Iodized table salt in the USA contains 77 milligrams of potassium iodide per kilogram of table salt. That means the potassium iodide content of table salt is only 0.0077%, or 77 parts per million in the salt. Then when, lets say, 0.3 weight % table salt is added to a pond, the potassium iodide content of the pond will be 0.003 times 0.0077%, or 0.000023%, or only 0.23 ppm. In the MSDS for aquatic toxicity of potassium iodide, the EC50 for shellfish is given as 2.7 mg or 2.7 ppm, the EC50 for protozoa is given as above 40 mg/l or over 40 ppm. There is no apparent reason to give an aquatic toxicity for potassium iodide for fish, since it apparently does not hurt them. The aquarium hobby, where this myth probably came from, frowns on the use of salt due to Iodine additive clouding the water, something you will never notice in a pond.
This percentage (0.3%)is not harmful to most, except floating, plants, but will retard their growth . You can safely double the dosage.06% 50 lbs to 1000 gallons, but any plant should be removed for the duration of the treatment. Bear in mind that the only way to remove salt is by water changes, it will never evaporate or otherwise
disappear.
Other
Additives---
Stay away from any other additives, i.e. yellow prussiate of
soda, they will harm your fish.
Impurities
such as salt will decrease oxygen saturation levels. 4 pounds of salt
per 100 gallons of water will decrease oxygen saturation levels by about 1 mg/l.
Using Salt for prophylactic reasons accomplishes nothing and is in fact, an
irritant to your fish, making them build up a thick mucus coating. Salt inhibits
the growth of plants even at low levels, and should only be used if disease or
parasites are present.
A salt dip at 3.0% can also be utilized, but only for very short
periods.
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