Finally happy with tank layout - Update 22/04/2011

[BikBok]

This whole salt discussion has got me intrigued.

My quarantine tank is lightly salted. I keep it cycled with guppy fry and then any new fish goes in it for a few days to a month (month for livebearers). If I have a sick fish he gets more salt added. I haven't got a salt measure thingy but I take careful note of quantities put in and work out how much comes out with a water change and replace it.

I haven't salted my main tanks, though I was tempted when my fighter got sick . However there is a whiptail in that tank and I thought catfish etc don't tolerate salt well with the exception for a bristlenose which can tolerate a low dose.

Phoenix it seems you have a few fish that technically shouldn't cope with salt but clearly they are thriving, as are your beautiful plants!

From what I understand about plants and salt, they should be able to tolerate up to 1000mg/L before they are adversely affected. I do have a small amount of floating Indian fern in my quarantine tank, it's not thriving but it's not dieing either. Even got a few ramshorns in there.

I have a question about throwing the salt in.. I thought salt had to be dissolved first? what if a fish ate a piece?

Natural freshwater...is not pure water! it will have dissolved minerals, organics AND some salt! - just not the salt conentration of marine regions. From memory natural freshwater has a low concentration of up to about 1% salt.

[Deepsound]

I have a question about throwing the salt in.. I thought salt had to be dissolved first? what if a fish ate a piece?

+1

Same question.

Because even in marine tanks, we dissolve salt in another container and let it melt in the water during about 24 h.

I'm very intrigued too

[phoenix44]

Fish like clown loaches and catfish always have and always will cope with salt in their tanks. some genius out there decided to spread the news that CL's didn't have scales. just because they are small scales, doesn't mean they dont have them :lol:

african tanks have clown loaches in them quite often, and african keepers usually are quite liberal in the addition of salt to the tanks cause the malawis at least need salt for the slime coat production. my loaches are the oldest fish in my tank so they are great with salt. they used to come out and play in it when i added it to the african tank.

the sight of a dozen cories shovelling their faces in salt is a sight to behold lol. other fish even eat the salt and spit it out. great for internal parasite control i reckon :lol:

I have never dissolved salt before putting it in the tank, and am likely never to do that.

SW aquariums are different though, and it is best to dissolve the salt when you do a water change.

[Caryl]

All those years I had a Malawi tank and didn't know they were supposed to have salt :roll:

Wonder if they get thirsty after eating it? :-?

[Jennifer]

Ingesting salt will do nothing for internal parasite control. The high concentration of salt never reaches the large intestines where most of the worms reside. Salt is absorbed into the blood stream and the kidneys go into quick action in an attempt to excrete it before arterial pressure rises. Any alteration of kidney function can affect the excretion of salt and thus cause an increase in blood pressure and bloating (extracellular fluid and hypertension).

Salt is not bad in appropriate concentrations but most animals actually require very little salt in their daily diet. I think for most people adding salt to a tank is best to put it in a net and dangle the net in the tank to allow the salt to dissolve.

[phoenix44]

That was a joke jehH :lol:

yea, ryanjury sent me a really cool article about salt in rift lake tanks when i was setting up my tank.

[phoenix44]

wasn't going to post this but meh.. had a very very close call with the tank early this morning. what a night!

I stayed up to wish a friend happy birthday. Then fell asleep at about 1am or so. Few hours later I hear splashing sounds like fish jumping so (and this is 4am) i wake up and put a small light on and all my fish are at the top of the tank gasping for air!

I jump out of bed, evict the apple snails from their tank. discus are literally and i mean really popping out of the water head first. put my hand in the tank, pick out the discus one by one as they just sat there, and put them in the snail tank. same with my L168.

Then i noticed that i had over filled my tank when i did the wc as there was no movement on the RHS of the tank at the top - its how i aerate the tank. i quickly lower the water a bit and go to put the air pump on. - its a brand new eheim 400LPH pump that i really like.

and! it does not work. so i take out the pipe from the nozzle out let and it spits out water! lots and lots of water..

so i disconnect it, and keep it aside, and just remove and put 30L of new water into the tank. All this at 4am! Gah..

cardinals and the other fish picked up immediately and stopped gasping for air. I removed one of the CO2 diffusers from the tank as well. Discus looked happy in the apple snail tank, and thankfully the L168 did too. I didn't need nets to catch any of them.

All transferred to the main tank now, and are happy. The air pump still works! and is in front of the dehumidifier as we speak. it will stay there for the next few days.

All in all I think ive lost 1 cardinal and nothing else.

phew.

Then i woke up again at 5 am cause i dreamed that the carpet flooded. so i got out of bed again and took out all the potential shyponable air tubes out the tank.

also woke up at 6am to make sure everything was ok.

Then woke up at 10 am.

what a night.

next time i do a water change ill make sure i leave the aeration space I have created.

[Aquila]

Epic save

[Adrienne]

Good on you for posting this.

Why did the lack of an airline make the fish come up for air - excuse the ignorance - but was it because you run CO2?

[phoenix44]

no, it was because without water movement there was no oxygen diffusing into the water. I have a dead end of the tank which is the LHS and a high water movement end which is the RHS. Ill post a pic to show you what I mean.

[phoenix44]

this is an older pic but shows what i mean. you can see the constant flow on the RHS, about 2800LPH and its dead on the LHS although there is another filter outlet and inlet there doing another 1400LPH. (click the img). No air stone in this tank.

[Deepsound]

Older pic but so nice.

Real beautiful tank Phoenix !

Fortunatly, splashing sounds have waked up you...

Please could you tell me what does RHS mean ?

I read the topic about abreviations but didn't find it...

[phoenix44]

Thanks.

LHS - left hand side.

RHS - right hand side.

I hope nothing bad happens tonight.

[Deepsound]

Thanks

You got your own style and I do like it.

all my fish are at the top of the tank gasping for air!

Well... You got your freshwater fishes used to salt.

I think they just tried to get used to breath air now.

Next step : take a walk in the garden may be...

Please, Phoenix, take my advice : keep them on a lead.

Your mutant fishes could bite someone one day or another...

(i'm just kidding you :lol: )

[phoenix44]

meh.. it works for me.

[livingart]

would the amount of salt in the water have an effect on the amount of dissolved oxygen it will hold?

[alanmin4304]

Yes

[Deepsound]

The more of dissolved salt, the less of dissolved oxygen.

Is it correct Alan ?

[alanmin4304]

Yes

[phoenix44]

Salt, or any other ion the water holds, forms bonds with H2O and thus leaves less room for other ions to bond with water.

That's why i have to have the high water movement on the surface at one end of the tank. If that fails, the effects are clear and could lead to the fish dying.

[phoenix44]

Update.

[Scottie841]

Look at all that algae

[phoenix44]

on a few leaves! i killed them today! :lol:

[Scottie841]

Good boy

[Deepsound]

Beautiful is just an euphemism about your tank, Phoenix...