How many water changes before salt is removed

[Rob]

I recently had to add some aquarium salt to my tank to weed out bacteria that was making some of my fish sick, I was wondering how many water changes would it take to make the water safe for planting? I just received two Java Ferns I had ordered from the co-op prior to having to use the salt and I heard that salt will kill live plants so I figured it would be best to ask before I go planting them lol. 

[fatblonde]

I'm new here so take my advice like a grain of salt😁. I *think* salt doesn't evaporate so once you've totaled 100% in water changes you'll be fine. For example, today you change 25%, then in 6 hours you do another 25%,  your total would be at 50%. 

How much did you add, and what is your tank size? I've treated one of my tanks with salt but it was minimal at 1tsp for 5 gallons and I had no adverse reactions on the plants. 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

1 hour ago, Rob said:

I recently had to add some aquarium salt to my tank to weed out bacteria that was making some of my fish sick, I was wondering how many water changes would it take to make the water safe for planting? I just received two Java Ferns I had ordered from the co-op prior to having to use the salt and I heard that salt will kill live plants so I figured it would be best to ask before I go planting them lol. 

1 ....... 100% water change

need more info on what size water changes you plan to make

Edited October 6, 2020 by TheDukeAnumber1

[NordernAquariums]

This could be a time where a TDS meter could come in handy assuming the TDS of your tap water or whatever water you are using is fairly consistent. I have seen it take quite awhile to come down to my normal TDS.

Let's say you add 100 "salts" if you do another 50% water change, you are down to 50 "salts" 

If you do another 50% water change you are down to 25 "salts"

If you do a 3rd 50% water change you are down to 12.5 "salts"

Obviously it's not exact and there are other factors, but to @fatblonde's point, it comes down to how much salt you used, certain amounts won't harm most plants.

[Kriskm]

Note that each 25% water change will leave you with ¾ the salt/gallon you had previously. So if you had 1 tbs per gallon, after two 25% water changes, you'd have ¾ (¾(1))=9/16 tbs per gallon. After two 50% water changes you'd have 1/2(1/2(1)) = 1/4 tbs per gallon. Getting it down to 1 tsp per gallon (⅓ tbs) should be pretty safe for plants. That said, java fern is one of the plants that is the most tolerant of salt water.

[Rob]

Ah sorry I should have added more info lol the tank is a 10 gallon and I added one tablespoon of aquarium salt to it,

[Ben Ellison]

So if you drain 50% and refill it u have 50% of the original salt. 50% more water change and you have 25% of the original salt. At this point incant see the salt harming anything. Getting rid of all the salt is kinda a fools errand once ur down to that level.

[Ken Burke]

So 1 tablespoon in a 10 gal tank?  Not sure that’s enough salt to impact the plants.  At least by itself.  On the other hand, not sure it did all that much for the bacteria.  Recommend reading blog below.  

 

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish

[Rob]

Thanks for all the replies everyone, I've been learning a lot about all this stuff lately and this has been a big help.

[Mridul Singh]

That's what the community is here for! With each water change, you are pulling suspended minerals (in this case salt) out of the tank and putting fairly clean water in. So if you have 1 tbsp salt in your 10g tank, and you do a 50% water change, you'll have 1/2 tbsp salt left. Do another 50% water change, and you will have half of that. That will go on until there is nearly no salt left in the tank.