what is the best salt to use?

[illusionz_NZ]

My friend has a brackish tank with mono's, and scats in it. she started off using the red sea salt then changed to the rock sea salt....

the tank has been set up for quite a few months now lately fish has been dropping off. all scats are now dead and the mono's are dying off.

help please?

is this because of the type of salt or could it just be bad luck with the fish? :-?

[reef]

Not a good idea to use rock salt.

best to go back and use the red sea salt as it contains buffer/minerals.

[illusionz_NZ]

Oh dear....lol well i guess thats what happens when you listen to the wrong person about what salt you should use.

Thanks. she will be changing to red sea salt and hopefully that will improve the situation.

the sea salt......could that help create diseases? one of the mono's developed a red pimple thing on its nose.

[reef]

If you dont have the correct salt the fish may get stressed which could lead to diseases.

what you need to do it check the salinity also to make sure that it is correct.

do a big 50% water change with the correct salt and see if things get better.

[illusionz_NZ]

Awesome. thank you.

She has also bought a bottle of 'PRIME' to remove chlorine, chlorimine, ammonia and detoxifies nitrate and nitrite.......................

is this advised to add to the tank as well as water change and red sea salt or should she just leave it to do its thing naturally? 8)

[alextret]

Staying with salt, is there a cheaper alternative to red sea salt? I tried asking about atificial sea water mix, but with no success.

[davidb]

red sea is pretty cheap if you buy the big bags. You are only making it half strength remember.

[wasp]

This question has come up a few times lately, the problem with sea salt (dried seawater) is that during the drying process some of the elements precipitate out, for example the calcium and alkalinity react with each other, and do not return when the dried salt is mixed with water.

Any of the salt brands sold for marine aquaria will be fine for your purposes, or you can simply get some seawater and dilute it. As it seems the fish may be suffering bacterial infection, perhaps an artificial salt may be best. Treat the tap water with prime, or aerate it for 24 hours before using. Longer term though, if you keep using tap water, regardless of whether you use prime, you will get an algae problem, RO or deionised water is best, although will not matter for the short term, the main thing is to get the fish into better water as soon as possible.

Secondly, have you tested the tank water for ammonia, and nitrite? You need a filtration system that will effectively deal with these, adding prime is some help, but on its own, not enough.